https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.216.40&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T08:16:15ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1955:_Robots&diff=1524591955: Robots2018-02-14T16:47:57Z<p>108.162.216.40: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1955<br />
| date = February 14, 2018<br />
| title = Robots<br />
| image = robots.png<br />
| titletext = Don't be nervous about the robots, be nervous about the people with the resources to build them.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation== <br />
{{incomplete|Opened by a Boston Dynamics BOT... Needs to be expanded. Do NOT delete this tag too soon or the bot will kill you}} <br />
This comic refers to a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUyU3lKzoio YouTube video] posted 1 day earlier by robotics company [https://www.bostondynamics.com/ Boston Dynamics]. The video shows a 4-legged robot with a roughly canine form approach a door, then stop and 'look' to the side where a 2nd robot appears, which has an articulated arm attachment on top. The 2nd robot sizes up the door, then uses its arm to grasp the handle and open the door. It holds the door open for the first robot, then follows it through the doorway.<br />
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The video was extremely popular, receiving over 4 million views in the first day. Many social media comments joked that humanity is doomed, as the robots we are developing will soon become capable enough to rise up and overthrow us. This is a common jest expressed when robots manage to master a task that previously had given them difficulty. It is especially appropriate here, since the ability to open doors is extremely useful when dealing with humans.<br />
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After [[Cueball]] sees this video, he reiterates the same joke by saying that we're definitely going to die. [[Megan]], however, offers an alternative view: that due to human nature, in fact it is the ''robots'' which are going to die (since humans tend to respond aggressively to existential threats). Therefore, it is in fact the robots that are in mortal peril from this technological development, not humans.<br />
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Taking Megan's point, Cueball facetiously suggests that humans don't tend to overreact violently to perceived threats, to which Megan replies (equally facetiously) that she must be thinking of another species.<br />
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The title text refers to the Mad Scientist or Evil Genius trope in science fiction where someone builds an army of robots with the intent on using them to take over the world.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is sitting at his desk in an office chair pointing to his laptop while looking back over his shoulder talking to Megan off-panel.]<br />
:Cueball: Did you see this Boston Dynamics robot video? <br />
:Cueball: We're ''definitely'' all gonna die.<br />
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:[Megan walks in to the panel towards Cueball who still looks at her, but stops pointing.]<br />
:Megan: You know, it's funny. <br />
:Megan: Humans see a robot open a door, and we all instantly assume we're in mortal peril.<br />
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:[Zoom in on the heads of Megan and Cueball, both now looking at the off-panel screen.]<br />
:Megan: So doesn't it make more sense to say the ''robots'' are all gonna die?<br />
:Cueball: Violently overreacting to a perceived threat? That doesn't sound like humans.<br />
:Megan: Yeah, I must be thinking of some other species.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Robots]]<br />
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1952:_Backpack_Decisions&diff=1520021952: Backpack Decisions2018-02-07T15:21:20Z<p>108.162.216.40: /* Transcript */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1952<br />
| date = February 7, 2018<br />
| title = Backpack Decisions<br />
| image = backpack_decisions.png<br />
| titletext = "This one is perfect in every way, except that for some reason it's woven from a tungsten mesh, so it weighs 85 pounds and I'll need to carry it around on a hand cart." "That seems like a bad--" "BUT IT HAS THE PERFECT POCKET ARRANGEMENT!"<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a Tungsten Mesh Backpack - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
[[Cueball]], apparently representing [[Randall]], is having issues choosing a good backpack. He notices their different features and is indecisive. The chart below shows that he spends more time unsure of what backpack to pick than of any other such major choice as a college or a car.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
Que ball stands in front of a display of exclusively backpacks, with two at his feet with a messenger bag (or satchel). They think to themselves "It's down to two: the one with the charger pocket and the one with..." then pause with realization " wait, that other one is waterproof! Ugh. Do I even want a backpack? Maybe I should be looking at messenger bags again. Ok, starting over".<br />
The scene is captioned, "Amount of time I've spent paralyzed by indecision over choosing the right..." the caption is proceeded by a bar graph where backpack drastically overwhelms the other options. Listed in greatest value order the other options are Laptop, College, Apartment, Phone, and Car.<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1952:_Backpack_Decisions&diff=151996Talk:1952: Backpack Decisions2018-02-07T15:00:59Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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Great, now I can't decide how to write the transcript [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:00, 7 February 2018 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1926:_Bad_Code&diff=149069Talk:1926: Bad Code2017-12-11T20:35:20Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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Is it just me or is the fact that this page was created by a bad coder slightly funny? [[User:Halo422|Halo422]] ([[User talk:Halo422|talk]]) 16:56, 8 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Sometimes on this wiki we change the created by text to something relevant to the comic Halo. [[User:DPS2004|DPS2004]] ([[User talk:DPS2004|talk]]) 16:58, 8 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Slightly, yes. :oP[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 14:13, 11 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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"MAY be the same Cueball and Ponytail as the Code Quality series"???!?! As far as I'm concerned, this is the latest entry in the Code Quality series! Oh, and my interpretation of her "Wait, crap." was her saying she realized he's actually done that before, thrown hammers at that wall. I feel like the giving-him-bad-ideas explanation makes more sense, though. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 17:56, 8 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:I don't see this that way. Cueball from Code Quality series was a beginner, self-taught coder. This one seems much more mature with programming skills.<br />
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:: That happens sometimes. I.e. people get better over time. But in this case I'd agree with Ponytail that Cueball is not showing "programming skills and is not showing maturity.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 20:35, 11 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The hammer-throwing may also be a call-back to xkcd 905, "Homeownership", where Cueball accidentally destroys his home by getting carried away drilling holes in the walls?<br />
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Wait, so nobody thinks calling it "Bad Code" instead of the prior "Code Quality" is a veiled reference to Mr Robot? Randall clearly watches the show; I thought he was referring to the show's repeated assertion that careless people are like bad code, their actions dangerously in need of revision. IE that some people have a knack for really messing stuff up which reaches far beyond the minimal effort they put into choosing their actions.<br />
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I'm almost certain that "parsing html" is a reference to this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454<br />
[[User:Waterlubber|Waterlubber]] ([[User talk:Waterlubber|talk]]) 20:16, 8 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Isn't it ponytail who tries to destroy the wall, since by Cueball's logic it doesn't matter if she does it?<br />
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Without the title text, I'd believe the wall is actually (already) bearing some kind of dependency into Cueball's spreadsheet, hence the reaction from Ponytail. Rather than giving him ideas to destroy it. It still makes sense because he's the kind of person to do messy things like that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.46|162.158.92.46]] 00:29, 10 December 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1922:_Interferometry&diff=148546Talk:1922: Interferometry2017-12-01T08:25:57Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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Newbie here just added the explanition and transcript, so will need editing.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.106|172.68.34.106]] 16:25, 29 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I think we both added it at the same time; when I submitted mine it showed normally in the edit box with the captcha, but when I pressed save it spliced your explanation and mine together. Think yours is probably better researched (I was typing off the top of my head), so I reverted it again. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.25|162.158.89.25]] 16:43, 29 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:Seriously! A comic explanation about interferometry was created by two people at the same time, some large distance apart, resulting in interference![[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.4|162.158.178.4]] 04:57, 1 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Why is there a period after Interferometry in the first panel?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.106|172.68.34.106]] 19:04, 29 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:It has to be a mistake. Otherwise, Beret Guy sounds like he has a weird speech cadence. [[User:Dogman15|Dogman15]] ([[User talk:Dogman15|talk]]) 10:17, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
::Could it have something to do with the fact that it's a "period"?--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.226|162.158.63.226]] 02:41, 1 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I really like the [citation needed] on whether dogs can interfere with each other. I want it to stay! --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 20:05, 29 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Dogs certainly can interfere with each other - in fact, they often have to be restrained from doing so...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 09:37, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I agree, but feel like it would be better if the statement had more certainty. "it PROBABLY won't work on dogs". Probably? Someone is uncertain on this point??!?!? LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
::If you poll a large number of theoretical physicists I'm pretty sure you'll find some who are certain it WOULD work on dogs -- It's just an engineering problem. Afterall interference has been demonstrated with molecules of over 800 atoms, which is just a few Daltons short of a yorkie.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 08:25, 1 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Beret guy is back ! I like it... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.51|172.69.23.51]] 00:05, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I feel it should be noted that these are good dogs, Brent. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.17|108.162.246.17]] 04:49, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I think the good dog part in the title text is related to the [https://topatoco.com/collections/jeph-jacques/products/dogs-are-good-shirt new t-shirt from Questionable Content]. I think there has been guest comics one way or the other before. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.220|162.158.134.220]] 06:25, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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It's different and probably unrelated, but the comic made me think of the science fiction classic _A Fire Upon The Deep_ in which there are intelligent hive mind dog packs. One dog isn't intelligent, but put 4-6 together and the pack forms a single person with human-level intelligence. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 07:52, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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: The latest research shows you'd need about 30 dogs to equate to one human in terms of neuron quantity (https://newatlas.com/dogs-smarter-cats-neuron-density-study/52416/), but I wouldn't expect human-level intelligence with just 30 dogs because that ignores the amount of overhead needed to control the 30 dog bodies. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.40|198.41.238.40]] 11:20, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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::Note that while Tines are similar to dogs, they are not actual earth dogs and are likely more intelligent or at least having more mental capacity even separately. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:42, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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A large bark does not prove a large dog - dog size and bark size are not proportionately related. The fact that the bark is apparently emanating from mid-air would be more of an indication (though this could be an auditory illusion caused by the combination of barks from the two dogs).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 09:37, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:Well, barks can make interference much easier than dogs themselves ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:42, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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While I get the gist of the comic, my borderline completionism won't let me completely enjoy it unless I can understand the logical connection between astronomy and dogs. How are dogs and telescopes isomorphic in the realm of interferometry? Just another random brilliant leap that only makes sense to Beret Guy (i.e., not logical to any other being on Earth)? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.136|108.162.221.136]] 14:53, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I get the sense that this is it, there's no connection between dogs and astronomy except the one Beret Guy just created. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Does anyone else notice how in the third panel, HYAH seems to be coming from BG's beret button? What if the beret is controlling him?[[User:MrBookBoy|MrBookBoy]] ([[User talk:MrBookBoy|talk]]) 15:03, 30 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I love the observational skills of the XKCD fandom, makes me feel right at home. LOL! You're right, I don't see how there can be any question that it seems like the button is doing the talking. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1909:_Digital_Resource_Lifespan&diff=147315Talk:1909: Digital Resource Lifespan2017-11-02T15:34:44Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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Even PDFs can be broken, which is why we have PDF/A (archive) - a subset of PDF that has no external dependencies and thus should last forever.<br />
[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]]<br />
:To clarify: .PDF files are *frequently* created with content such as fonts (or really anything other than the actual text) referenced within the document but not *embedded* within the document. This is usually done to reduce file size, but it's usually not advisable. Whether it's a .pdf or a .ppt or a .exe it is best to keep your dependencies embedded whenever possible!<br />
:.PDF files (or any files) can of course also suffer from hash failure (CRC errors, etc) and PDF/A does not provide redundancy tables; Always make an extra copy on another drive (ideally both off-site & locally).<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.77|162.158.69.77]] 06:07, 1 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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'''CD scratched, new computer has no CD drive anyway.''' - First, you can still buy external CD-ROM drive, for example connected via USB cable. Second, you can try recover data from scratched CD with tools such as ddrescue (free and OSS) or IsoBuster (shareware). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 17:51, 30 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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: Scratches on the DATA layer of any optical disk destroys that DATA. There is also the consideration that the plastics of the majority of optical disks degrade with time and heat. There are some optical media that are designed to prevent such scratching or corruption like the commercially available M-Disk or laser etching into a micro format into a crystal like a 5D disk. Even then the DATA stored must be in an ISO format to read as well as the equipment to read the media needs to be maintained. I have often told people that their data is never safe unless there is a constant effort to copy, check for quality, and make multiple backups using multiple modern mediums as often as humanly possible. All form of digital media can fail, even the extended warranty on a high end HDD will not cover the data lost and most EULAs for cloud storage will say the same.<br />
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::Pressed commercial CD-ROMs carry their information between two 0.6 mm thick plastic discs which are glued together, which makes them pretty resilient against scratches on either side – just remove some material with abrasive methods like toothpaste. Often the glue is the bigger issue with low-quality pressings in the long run. This is in contrast to recordable CDs, which are coated with the reflective layer on top of a single disc. –[[User:TisTheAlmondTavern|TisTheAlmondTavern]] ([[User talk:TisTheAlmondTavern|talk]]) 12:24, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:Or cheaper than an external drive, borrow a friend's computer and copy the CD onto the cloud somewhere. --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 18:39, 30 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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::What if you don't have any friends? (or what if none of your friends has a CD drive) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]]<br />
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: Yet something affected by that would just as likely be affected by "Broken on new OS, not updated". For example, I've got a multimedia encyclopedia which runs on Win 3.11, and thus can't run on 64-bit windows. <br />
:: Ehrm... You do realise the limitation is the other way around right? You can't run 64-bit application on 32-bit Windows, but 64-bit windows can perfectly well run 32-bit apps. Though Win 3.11 is far enough back it might actually be a fun challenge to see if it runs :D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.202|162.158.202.202]] 10:57, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
:::You can not – Win 3.1(.1) was a 16bit operation system – and Microsoft dropped the 16-bit-layer in win7. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 19:18, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Interestingly, static .PDF files are intended to be electronic equivalents of printed books - an electronic microfiche if you will [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:57, 30 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I'm wondering if data on an older, static, website would still be readable. Would likely still be there (or on archive.org), but might be suffering progressive link rot. Also a little surprised that the start of microfilm is so recent; I remember the library having microfilm readers (that nobody ever used) when I was young enough to spend ages staring at a machine, trying to determine its purpose. Guess it depends on the subject, when it was put into that format. --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 18:39, 30 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Angel, note both the My in the title and the left arrow implying that the resource (like books) were about before Randal had access. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:57, 30 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
: Should those white left arrows be noted in the transcript? The gray right arrows are implied by "past", perhaps something like "Before 1980-past 2020"[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.16|162.158.63.16]] 17:39, 1 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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"Only to realize'''d'''? -[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.22|172.68.110.22]] 23:08, 30 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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[Subject] wiki, anyone? Wikis have rather detailed analyses of even obscure topics in my line of work/study. <sub>--[[User:Nialpxe|<span style="color: #000; text-decoration: none;">Nialpxe</span>]], 2017. [[User_talk:Nialpxe|<span style="color: #000; text-decoration: none;">(Arguments welcome)</span>]]</sub> (P.S. just to be clear I mean wikis maintained by researchers and professionals in [Subject] field, not Wikipedia)<br />
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There's a wealth of thought about exactly this problem by librarians; [https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/TOC.html the Library of Congress has some recommendations] along with [https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/index.html a database evaluating over a hundred formats] along a variety of axes: is the format documented openly? Is it widely used? Is it inherently transparent to inspection even if the specification is lost? Can it contain its own metadata? What sort of external dependencies does it have? Is it patent-encumbered, and are there technical access restrictions like DRM? (tl;dr, images as TIFF, text as EPUB or PDF/A, sound as WAV. They're very conservative.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.106|108.162.249.106]] 05:07, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Note that digital data have big advantage over books when dealing with bigger quantity. The amount of work you need to make to preserve printed book is same no matter how many books you have - so it's thousand times more when you have thousand books. Meanwhile, the amount of work needed to preserve for example collection of digital images doesn't really depend on collection size. Let's say that the used format is going out of use: you can automatically convert all images fairy quickly. Of course, harder with applications ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:23, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The software not running after OS update is such a Mac problem. Linux updates would break if closed software was commonly available, but open source can be recompiled, and Windows maintain a scarry amount of backwards compatibility, and only system-admin or DRM-crippled software ever stops working.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.202|162.158.202.202]] 10:54, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
:I must strongly disagree there; Networking features have been known to break following Windows updates, & Android is *terribly* prone to breaking apps or even removing what may be considered core system features with an OS update. Search "kitkat sd", for just one good example. Even Linux can turn into dependency hell when repositories change their branch structure. Then there's the incredible variety of different hardware which only a specific version of Windows with specific hardware once supported: I still can't get an affordable analog serial port adapter that will work with my favorite flight controller.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.10|162.158.75.10]] 06:37, 1 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Here in the UK, the library access would also have ended some time in the last few years...[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 11:33, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Nothing lasts forever (or at least that's what seems to be true for anything observed by humanity). Data becomes corrupted and lost over time and usage, and books become damaged and lost over time and usage. Not to mention, thousands of books were burned during the Nazi regime. Human minds are inevitably subject to corrupted memories as well. We lose information all the time, and we try to recover what remains. However, it is also worth mentioning that our digital technology is still pretty young compared to books and other sources of information. Information used to be recorded on papyrus, tablets (I understand that this contradicts my point as some tablets have stood the test of time), etc. Some of the earliest Chinese inks were created with soot and animal glue. The first (attempts of) photographs required hours of light exposure and would fade away quickly. Over time, we discovered ways to improve upon these sources of information. The same could apply to our digital information today. We are essentially in the "papyrus" phase of electronic technology (one could argue with other descriptions, but this isn't significant to my statements). In time, we may achieve more successful long-term solutions to maintaining original data. There are so many avenues for the advancement of technology, and those avenues continue to multiply with each step. At this time, we just need to continue to work on our projects and experiments for the progress of humanity. [[User:NAE|NAE]] ([[User talk:NAE|talk]]) 14:29, 31 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Randall did a good job frightening me this Halloween... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.88|172.68.34.88]] 02:10, 1 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I wonder if Randall is aware of digital archiving solutions such as those provided by Preservica (https://preservica.com/), formerly part of Tessella plc. Their solutions are aimed at precisely this problem. Their library/museum clients include "the MoMA, the Frick Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Yale Library, The National Library of Australia, The Royal Danish Library, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, McNay Art Museum, DC Public Library and the University of Manchester" and their archive clients include "15 leading pan-national and national archives, 18 US state archives, major corporate archives at BT, HSBC, Unilever and the Associated Press". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.88|108.162.249.88]] 03:32, 1 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Randall forgot my personal favorite: UTF-8 formatted .txt files. Since 1993 & counting, never had an issue opening one. I still have my first copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook, copied from a Kaypro II running CP/M on a 5-1/4" floppy to an 8088XT running MS-DOS on a 30mb hard drive to an IBM PS/2 286 on 20mb hard drive to an Asus 486 on a 3.5" floppy to a 1.2gHz Pentium on a 100mb Zip drive to a Core 2 Duo on a CD-R to an i7 system on a 128gb solid state drive, which was finally backed up to a 1tb hard drive & archived, as there's a newer copy to carry around. That original file still opens just fine on any PC I've ever used (including mobile).<br />
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Also, I believe Linus Torvalds once said (talking about code, but it applies to anything sufficiently desirable) "Only wimps use tape backup, real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it ;)" I can certainly attest to that. I once made a torrent of all the Star Trek I'd accumulated (IE, all the Star Trek ever) & uploaded that. Two years later an old hard drive died & I was able to recover all 200+ gb in a little over 6 hours, simply by downloading my own torrent from other seeds. Thanks Trekkies![[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.10|162.158.75.10]] 07:22, 1 November 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1910:_Sky_Spotters&diff=147314Talk:1910: Sky Spotters2017-11-02T15:29:22Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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Stargazers are not dangerous - they ignore anything closer than moon. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:54, 2 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
:To many current administrations, pointing out provable facts can be *very* dangerous.<br />
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.190|162.158.75.190]] 04:16, 2 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The solution for the committee in the third panel might be to disguise their drones as birds which are very common for the time and place in which the drones are operating. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.112|162.158.75.112]] 15:14, 2 November 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:The real solution is to attach surveillance cameras to birds. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:29, 2 November 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1902:_State_Borders&diff=146575Talk:1902: State Borders2017-10-13T14:13:49Z<p>108.162.216.40: Explaining MN Northwest Angle</p>
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Let's be honest- it should ''all'' be Canada. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.123|162.158.74.123]] 12:24, 13 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Could Arizona, New Mexico be a reference to Trump? Like, make the border straighter so it's easier to build a wall? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 12:35, 13 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
:More likely the joke is that conceding territory to Mexico is about the last thing Trump would do [[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 13:04, 13 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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My first thought is to wonder if it would be possible to arrange the map such that all internal borders are "straight lines" that span the entire country, to satisfy as many criteria as possible:<br />
* The number of states remains unchanged<br />
** …and they all get to keep their capitals (probably quite difficult)<br />
*** …or (and?) each state manages to keep either its current population, land area, or coastline length<br />
* Or all internal borders are parallels or meridians<br />
* Or all states have the same land area<br />
** …or population; or population density<br />
* Or if you're allowing more (or fewer) states than the present layout, what's the greatest number of states possible such that they all contain at least one complete city?<br />
<br />
Which of those criteria would be the most interesting challenge? And which could you construct an algorithm to solve?<br />
I really should refrain from trying to build those algorithms, because I'm supposed to be working --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 13:28, 13 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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There are some great videos on YouTube about weird State boundaries. There are some REALLY weird oddities out there. Take for instance the "Give to Canada" piece - that's the Northwest Angle in Minnesota. It's really an accident that it ever ended up in the USA at all, and doesn't make any sense! [[User:Martini|Martini]] ([[User talk:Martini|talk]]) 13:40, 13 October 2017 (UTC)Martini<br />
:I wouldn't call the NW Angle an accident as much as a slightly illogical solution in order to maintain the terms of the original border agreement in the face of the Mississippi River's inconveniently located headwaters. My recollection is that it said roughly: the border goes west of <this> point until reaching the Mississippi river [which all parties assumed continued that far north]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 14:13, 13 October 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1849:_Decades&diff=141241Talk:1849: Decades2017-06-12T23:49:06Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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There seems to be a slightly tongue-in-cheek move to call the 2000's "the noughties" with the obvious implication of 'naughty'. Personally though I'm still waiting for everyone to stop saying "2000 and something, it very annoying! [[User:RoyT|RoyT]] ([[User talk:RoyT|talk]]) 14:38, 12 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Where would the descriptor "millennial" (adj) fit on this? I suggest that 00's fads be designated "millennial" and 10's fads be... forgotten.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.171|173.245.48.171]] 14:57, 12 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Just a quick note to highlight the double "and" in the text: "(...) is ambiguous and and "aughts" (...)"<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.6.52|162.158.6.52]] 14:43, 12 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Good eyes on the double 'and'. Perhaps the explanation needs a sections about other terms not mentioned here "teensies" "noughties" "tenies" etc. (and perhaps the Aughts aren't used due to cultural differences between Brits and Americans, the former more likely to call them the "Noughts"). Also I assume the title text refers to Randal's local variety radio. [[User:WamSam|WamSam]] ([[User talk:WamSam|talk]]) 15:07, 12 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I listen to a radio station that says "90s, 2K, and today." It's not the only time I've seen "2K" used for the first decade of the 2000s {{unsigned ip|162.158.62.75}}<br />
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2K might end up being the accepted form. It might morph into "the 2-10s," "the 2-20s," "the 2-30s," and so on. It differentiates the seperate centuries and is short enough to survive the endless grinding of popular culture. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 23:49, 12 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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My local variety station has been says "80s, 90s and today" since the mid-90s, which was really odd for the 5 years or so that it was redundant. {{unsigned ip|172.68.78.28}}<br />
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Around here "the zeroes" is commonly used. {{unsigned ip|141.101.76.46}}<br />
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;Next Comic<br />
<pre><br />
COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:<br />
|< <PREV RANDOM NEXT> >|<br />
|---------------------------| |----------------------------| |----------------------------| |----------------------------|<br />
| Normal Company | | Stingy Company | | Bored Economist | | *crash* |<br />
| | | | | | | |<br />
| Is it worth it Let's | | Is cost- Let's do | | I built a Did you | | |<br />
| to spend that do cost- | | Benefit Cost-Benefit | | machine to do do cost- | | No, why? YOU FOOL! |<br />
| much on benefit | | analysis analysis to | | cost-benefit benefit | | YOU'VE |<br />
| development? analysis | | worth it? see | | analysis analysis? | | DOOMED US ALL!!|<br />
| / / | | / / | | / / | | / / |<br />
| O 0 | | O 0 | | O 0 | | O 0 |<br />
| /|\ /|\ | | /|\ /|\ | | /|\ /|\ | | /|\ /|\ |<br />
| / \ / \ | | / \ / \ | | / \ / \ | | / \ / \ |<br />
| | | | | | | *rumble* |<br />
|---------------------------| |----------------------------| |----------------------------| |----------------------------|<br />
</pre><br />
{{unsigned ip|173.245.50.102}}<br />
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What does Randall usually do when there is typo/grammatical error in a comic? Will he correct it and re-upload it, or just leave it?<br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.149|172.68.58.149]] 23:02, 12 June 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1848:_Glacial_Erratic&diff=141109Talk:1848: Glacial Erratic2017-06-10T14:58:05Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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Can 'Fuck glaciers' be a comment on the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement?<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.106|162.158.222.106]] 06:57, 9 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
Agreed!<br />
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Nooooooo, just some of US. The rest of us are trying to figure out how to withdraw from the US...Maybe a peaceful annexation by Canada for northern tier states<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 14:58, 10 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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I think Megan just hates the glacier for littering, not for abandoning a child. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 08:42, 9 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Agree and removed the abandoning explanation. It makes no sense, as it is not a child of the glacier. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:25, 9 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lane Louis Lane] was still alive and conducting when Superman: The Movie came out in 1978. That should probably be fixed.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 12:29, 9 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The fault-sealing scene is before Louis "dies" and thus before Superman turns back time. In the scene, he flies in the fault, pushing up the land to fill the crevice created by the splitting of the land.[[User:Hax|Hax]] ([[User talk:Hax|talk]]) 00:27, 10 June 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Assuming rock is 2000 kg per cubic meter and the one drawn is one meter high, then that boulder weighs 1000 kg, and we can see it moves, which goes to show that stick people are VERY strong! [[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 09:35, 10 June 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1758:_Astrophysics&diff=140222Talk:1758: Astrophysics2017-05-24T17:48:39Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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"''Two days before the release of this comic the YouTube channel Space Time from PBS Digital Studios released a new video with the title [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UNLgPIiWAg Did Dark Energy Just Disappear?]. This was based on the press coverage the paper [http://www.nature.com/articles/srep35596 Marginal evidence for cosmic acceleration from Type Ia supernovae] got, which relates to the one referenced in this comic for dark matter.''" This doesn't seem relevant. Dark energy is totally unrelated to dark matter. [[User:Schroduck|Schroduck]] ([[User talk:Schroduck|talk]]) 14:33, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
:I agree. I don't see any connection here either.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.37|108.162.237.37]] 16:02, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
::It is the idea that a paper seems to prove a theory wrong and then the press goes out presenting it like a proof instead of asking someone to explain to them why it doesn't fit the data. That is what this comic is about - not dark matter. See the title text. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:06, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
:::In my field (medicine) recent studies have shown that there is a 1-in-3 chance of news coverage being correct (or " mostly correct"). Given the atrocious state of medical research due to drug manufacturers financial influence and author bias, it may be difficult to differentiate news reports from random chance...<br />
<br />
"What is the flip the table over reference in title text. To make other do the same through mirror neruons? Still new explanation. Add more if you can" "The title text also uses Mirror neurons as a reference to a joke: it suggests to "flip this table", just as a mirror flips the image in front of it." I too want to think there is a joke here about mirror behavior or something but I just don't get it. Somebody's got to come up with a clearer, and funnier, example![[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 16:31, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Yup, I too had the same thought as your first statement. If someone flips the table, but mirror neurons exist, then they too will flip the tables. So a flip and a flip would result (assuming nothing was on the table, or stuff was bolted into place) in the same orientation as before. Which would be fine, because in that case - mirror neurons would presumably "really" exist, and there wouldn't be any reason to get angry over postulates which state that they do. However, where do you stop the infinite reflections? On an even number, or an odd number? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.119|162.158.178.119]]<br />
<br />
Seems like awkward timing since https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.02269 was posted 3 days ago, a non-MOND non-dark matter theory coming from Prof. Erik Verlinde, and this particular theory starts from first principles yet matches behavior of galaxies. [[Anon]] 16:49, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
:The comic doesn't mention MOND that is only in the explanation here. It just say that all data fits with dark matter. The idea is that the department is tired of all the "proofs" that dark matter doesn't exist. Maybe Randall thinks that this new paper is just the next in line and note as explained above this paper has not been peer reviewed. So unless you're and expert and could peer review it then his theory may not fit the data and that is Randall's point. But I'm sure Randall [[955: Neutrinos|would get your]] dark matter is still on the table after this paper... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:13, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
MOND is but one theory among [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Theories_of_gravitation many classical and quantum gravitational theories] with differing predictions for galactic rotation and lensing anomalies. There are [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter#Alternative_theories non-gravitation theories] as well. It might behoove some intrepid sole to make a table of theories and dark matter alternatives. [[User:Run, you clever boy|Run, you clever boy]] ([[User talk:Run, you clever boy|talk]])<br />
<br />
Perhaps [[Randall]] is echoing his fellow cartoonist, {{w|Scott Adams}}, when he points out the [http://blog.dilbert.com/post/136818042136/trump-and-climate-science-master-persuader hypocrisy in science reporting]. Recently, [http://www.tau.ac.il/~kochin/ Michael S. Kochin] exposed government [http://amgreatness.com/2016/09/26/she-blinded-me-with-science/ meddling in science reportage] among other inconvenient truths. Anyone with an NSF, DoE or EPA grant knows the pressures, as [http://www.henrypayne.com/ Henry Payne], another cartoonist, [http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414359/global-warming-follow-money-henry-payne points out]. FWIW, I side with {{w|Bjorn Lomborg}}, who famously champions a [http://www.lomborg.com/ middle way] in climate science for the sake of [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/09/19/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-lets-get-our-priorities-straight/ downtrodden peoples around the world]. Additionally, [https://www.cato.org/ Cato] provides an [http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/wigley/magicc/ IPCC MAGICC] [http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/wigley/magicc/UserMan5.3.v2.pdf climate model] simulator for [https://www.cato.org/blog/current-wisdom-we-calculate-you-decide-handy-dandy-carbon-tax-temperature-savings-calculator anyone to examine]. Should we reconsider this explanation and the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1732:_Earth_Temperature_Timeline#Explanation explanation] for Randall’s [https://www.xkcd.com/1732/ Earth Temperature Timeline] in this light? [[User:Run, you clever boy|Run, you clever boy]] ([[User talk:Run, you clever boy|talk]])<br />
<br />
The current explanation doesn't cover the failure of previous experiments to detect dark matter, despite the investment of time, money and effort.&nbsp; Absence of evidence may not be evidence of absence, but it's fair to say that dark matter as an explanation for observations does technically lack direct evidence/detection.&nbsp; &ndash; [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.215|141.101.98.215]] 20:44, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
:That's the rub, isn't it? Even [http://pos.sissa.it/archive/conferences/050/067/ACAT_067.pdf LHC] and [https://losc.ligo.org/tutorials/ LIGO] detections rely on theoretical templates to enhance event rates. [[User:Run, you clever boy|Run, you clever boy]] ([[User talk:Run, you clever boy|talk]])<br />
<br />
"Of course phlogiston exists. We haven't any observational evidence for it but any idea that combustion works different doesn't fit the data."<br />
"Of course Vulcan exists. We haven't any observational evidence for it but any idea that gravity works different doesn't fit the data."<br />
And here we go again. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 23:46, 11 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
:But this was the same way that led us to discover Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, and the Kuiper belt. [[User:Theme|Theme]] ([[User talk:Theme|talk]]) 06:49, 12 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
::Uranus had been observed on many occasions before eventually being recognised first as a comet then as a planet; no calculation. A calculation did help find Neptune but had also been seen by multiple observers prior to that; there was already real evidence that it existed. Pluto was discovered by accident based on a faulty calculation so you could add it to Vulcan. Nothing in the Kuiper Belt is big enough to cause the perturbations that would allow for their position to be calculated in advance. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 06:50, 14 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Since the Bullet Cluster has been brought up again, it should be pointed out that it doesn't provide the iron-clad evidence for dark matter that some appear to think it does. Ask a MOND (or MOG)-sympathetic physicist about it and they'll direct you to [https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0702146 Brownstein & Moffat, 2007], which claims to provide a modified-gravity model that fits the data just as well (or perhaps even better) than λCDM (dark matter). I'm not going to pretend to be able to assess the model they present (or even really understand it), and I'm shamelessly parroting a recent blog-post and commentary by [https://backreaction.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/modified-gravity-vs-particle-dark.html Sabine Hossenfelder] of the Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Study . But I think the idea that the controversy between λCDM and MOG has been settled is perhaps a distortion of the facts, and those who aren't intimately familiar with the field might be wise to avoid treating it as such. [[User:Charleski|Charleski]] ([[User talk:Charleski|talk]]) 10:19, 12 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
Reminds me of https://xkcd.com/675/. {{unsigned|Benjaminikuta}}<br />
<br />
Just noticed that this may be the first xkcd comic with a "2x" version for retina displays. [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/astrophysics_2x.png astrophysics_2x.png] <span style="font-size:13px;"><span style="font-weight:light;">~</span>[[User:Luc|Luc]]</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:10px;"><span>[</span>[[User talk:Luc|talk]]<span>]</span></span> 19:06, 13 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
:What about http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/old_days_2x.png ? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.196|108.162.210.196]] 13:26, 14 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
Pet peeve: using brand names to describe generic principles, like "Retina display" instead of "high dpi display". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.219|141.101.104.219]] 09:47, 15 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Perhaps this is a comment on the reluctance of established academic departments to support research that challenges the mainstream, accepted theories. Kind of like how quantized light was dismissed for some twenty years after Einstein proposed it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.134|172.68.54.134]] 18:59, 16 November 2016 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1782:_Team_Chat&diff=140219Talk:1782: Team Chat2017-05-24T17:06:40Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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This is an xkcd about why the majority is wrong. ;) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.238|108.162.229.238]] 16:32, 6 January 2017 (UTC) seirl<br />
<br />
F1rst. Jokes aside, wrote you guys something to work with. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.198|141.101.107.198]] 16:34, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
Sixi<br />
:See [[1258: First]] and [[269: TCMP]]. Well funny enough you were neither the first to edit the page nor the talk page :-) Thanks for the start, but try to not delete the incomplete tag, but just write first draft or add what you can see is missing. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:40, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::Good points for future edits! Appreciated. ♪ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.198|141.101.107.198]] 16:45, 6 January 2017 (UTC) -Sixi<br />
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I find it funny how I'm editing the article, fixing the incomplete parts, then all of a sudden (as soon as I click "enter", I must add), someone's already fixed the incomplete parts, and there was a "conflict with the edit". :P --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]]<sup>[[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]]</sup> 18:47, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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My first addition here, tried to explain skype vs slack and the title text. Feel free to roast me constructively :D Hope I didn't go too deep in Slack, thought most people don't know it and my little experience may help :) Also hope my unix tools explanation won't offend too many people; I'm a happy screen user myself, but it does have quite a bit of a learning curve. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.88|141.101.96.88]] 19:20, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::I gave up with Screen. I would try tmux, but their documentation doesn't include verbs. Plus, my iPad keeps changing 'tmux' to 'thus' and doesn't support sending six-key combinations over ssh when I am using handwriting recognition. I need to amortize the cost of the Apple Pencil over something useful to make it a logical decision.<br />
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Well, at least not [http://tools.suckless.org/ii/ ii] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.47|172.68.11.47]] 02:13, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Well, I think Randal is slightly off, it more goes like this:<br />
<br />
2006: The company officially use Messenger - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2009: The company officially use Skype - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2012: The company officially use Lync - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2014: The company officially use Slack - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2016: The company officially use Teams - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.200|162.158.88.200]] 10:45, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
:You forgot to add the part where it says that in 2018 they finally migrate... but to {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}}. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]]<sup>[[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]]</sup> 12:54, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: randall didnt mention discord? smh [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.159|162.158.58.159]] 21:18, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::XMPP?<br />
<br />
I find it strange no-one has mentioned that IRC let's you run your own servers, with no 3rd party involved; whereas Skype & Slack both depend upon centralized corporate-owned servers, which are forced to silently comply with surveillance requests without so much as a warrant. That's just unacceptable for many dev groups. (Hence the popularity of apps like Discord.)<br />
<br />
I had a lot of trouble viewing this page in Lynx through the Worldgroup gateway on a local dial-up Bulletin Board System. I think it's a problem with my QModem configuration. If anyone can help, please contact me on IRC. I'm usually available in the #Kaypro users room. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.46|108.162.221.46]] 21:59, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:Surveillance requests are not be only reason Skype is monitoring your communication. Try to enter url into Skype: it will be visited by msnbot. I don't care why: that's something tool for devs shouldn't be doing. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:34, 9 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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:I've seen this before, I'd guess the problem is with your 56K modem, during its handshake protocol I'm sure it's going *squeak!* when it's supposed to be going *squawk!*. Just disconnect and reconnect the phone line and make sure no phones are off the hook, then disconnect / reconnect again. That should fix you right up! And remove the AOL disc from the drive, those things are always causing problems. Oh, and sometimes being connected to IRQ or MSN Messenger can interfere, connect with them afterwards. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 05:16, 11 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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So this past fall I remember seeing a bunch of web (and TV?) ads for Slack. You think Munroe got any kickback from Slack for this comic? It's worth noting that:<br />
:- Microsoft launched Skype for Business in April 2015 (as a replacement to Lync). I would imagine that Skype is one of their biggest competitors, especially because Skype is included with Office, and just last month Slack introduced video calling.<br />
:- Last week Slack announced they "invested in nearly a dozen new bot startups to bolster its Slack App Directory" (from VentureBeat). Techy folks who look up Slack after seeing Friday's comic are likely to see this news.<br />
Maybe this is part of an "undergroundy" ad campaign by Slack? After reading the comic I certainly was subliminally thinking that Skype is sooo 2010; 2017 is the year of Slack! Great comic regardless. </conspiracytheories> [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.4|162.158.63.4]] 00:11, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Dammit, Dave, just become one with the singularity! We have IRC here too! --[[User:GranadalandDreamer|GranadalandDreamer]] ([[User talk:GranadalandDreamer|talk]]) 01:39, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Is there a need to explain "All consciousnesses have merged with the Galactic Singularity", or is it clear enough for XKCD readers? I mean - I've read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov, where this happens (including the one guy who isn't ready to go), but I'm old. I'm ''fifty''.<br />
Also "Ch*ldh**d's End" - kind of a spoiler. And "The Heechee Saga".<br />
rja.carnegie@excite.com <br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 21:14, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
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What? No [https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/InternetRelayChat emacs' irc client]? -- [[User:schnitz|schnitz]] 18:31, 9 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone ever looked at the history section of Internet Chat Relay on Wikipedia?<br />
<br />
"In July 1996, after months of flame wars and discussions on the mailing list, there was yet another split due to disagreement in how the development of the ircd should evolve. Most notably, the "European" (most of those servers were in Europe) side that later named itself IRCnet argued for nick and channel delays where the EFnet side argued for timestamps. There were also disagreements about policies: the European side had started to establish a set of rules directing what IRCops could and could not do, a point of view opposed by the US side.<br />
<br />
Most (not all) of the IRCnet servers were in Europe, while most of the EFnet server were in the US. This event is also known as "The Great Split" in many IRC societies. EFnet has since (as of August 1998) grown and passed the number of users it had then. In the autumn year 2000, EFnet had some 50,000 users and IRCnet 70,000."<br />
<br />
Someone needs to get in touch with the writers of History Channel's documentaries and pitch this.<br />
[[User:Beastachu|Beastachu]] ([[User talk:Beastachu|talk]]) 13:52, 16 April 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1782:_Team_Chat&diff=140218Talk:1782: Team Chat2017-05-24T17:04:54Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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This is an xkcd about why the majority is wrong. ;) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.238|108.162.229.238]] 16:32, 6 January 2017 (UTC) seirl<br />
<br />
F1rst. Jokes aside, wrote you guys something to work with. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.198|141.101.107.198]] 16:34, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
Sixi<br />
:See [[1258: First]] and [[269: TCMP]]. Well funny enough you were neither the first to edit the page nor the talk page :-) Thanks for the start, but try to not delete the incomplete tag, but just write first draft or add what you can see is missing. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:40, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::Good points for future edits! Appreciated. ♪ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.198|141.101.107.198]] 16:45, 6 January 2017 (UTC) -Sixi<br />
<br />
I find it funny how I'm editing the article, fixing the incomplete parts, then all of a sudden (as soon as I click "enter", I must add), someone's already fixed the incomplete parts, and there was a "conflict with the edit". :P --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]]<sup>[[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]]</sup> 18:47, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My first addition here, tried to explain skype vs slack and the title text. Feel free to roast me constructively :D Hope I didn't go too deep in Slack, thought most people don't know it and my little experience may help :) Also hope my unix tools explanation won't offend too many people; I'm a happy screen user myself, but it does have quite a bit of a learning curve. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.88|141.101.96.88]] 19:20, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::I gave up with Screen. I would try tmux, but their documentation doesn't include verbs. Plus, my iPad keeps changing 'tmux' to 'thus' and doesn't support sending six-key combinations over ssh when I am using handwriting recognition. I need to amortize the cost of the Apple Pencil over something useful to make it a logical decision.<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, at least not [http://tools.suckless.org/ii/ ii] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.47|172.68.11.47]] 02:13, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, I think Randal is slightly off, it more goes like this:<br />
<br />
2006: The company officially use Messenger - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2009: The company officially use Skype - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2012: The company officially use Lync - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2014: The company officially use Slack - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2016: The company officially use Teams - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.200|162.158.88.200]] 10:45, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
:You forgot to add the part where it says that in 2018 they finally migrate... but to {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}}. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]]<sup>[[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]]</sup> 12:54, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: randall didnt mention discord? smh [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.159|162.158.58.159]] 21:18, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I find it strange no-one has mentioned that IRC let's you run your own servers, with no 3rd party involved; whereas Skype & Slack both depend upon centralized corporate-owned servers, which are forced to silently comply with surveillance requests without so much as a warrant. That's just unacceptable for many dev groups. (Hence the popularity of apps like Discord.)<br />
<br />
I had a lot of trouble viewing this page in Lynx through the Worldgroup gateway on a local dial-up Bulletin Board System. I think it's a problem with my QModem configuration. If anyone can help, please contact me on IRC. I'm usually available in the #Kaypro users room. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.46|108.162.221.46]] 21:59, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Surveillance requests are not be only reason Skype is monitoring your communication. Try to enter url into Skype: it will be visited by msnbot. I don't care why: that's something tool for devs shouldn't be doing. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:34, 9 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I've seen this before, I'd guess the problem is with your 56K modem, during its handshake protocol I'm sure it's going *squeak!* when it's supposed to be going *squawk!*. Just disconnect and reconnect the phone line and make sure no phones are off the hook, then disconnect / reconnect again. That should fix you right up! And remove the AOL disc from the drive, those things are always causing problems. Oh, and sometimes being connected to IRQ or MSN Messenger can interfere, connect with them afterwards. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 05:16, 11 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So this past fall I remember seeing a bunch of web (and TV?) ads for Slack. You think Munroe got any kickback from Slack for this comic? It's worth noting that:<br />
:- Microsoft launched Skype for Business in April 2015 (as a replacement to Lync). I would imagine that Skype is one of their biggest competitors, especially because Skype is included with Office, and just last month Slack introduced video calling.<br />
:- Last week Slack announced they "invested in nearly a dozen new bot startups to bolster its Slack App Directory" (from VentureBeat). Techy folks who look up Slack after seeing Friday's comic are likely to see this news.<br />
Maybe this is part of an "undergroundy" ad campaign by Slack? After reading the comic I certainly was subliminally thinking that Skype is sooo 2010; 2017 is the year of Slack! Great comic regardless. </conspiracytheories> [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.4|162.158.63.4]] 00:11, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Dammit, Dave, just become one with the singularity! We have IRC here too! --[[User:GranadalandDreamer|GranadalandDreamer]] ([[User talk:GranadalandDreamer|talk]]) 01:39, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is there a need to explain "All consciousnesses have merged with the Galactic Singularity", or is it clear enough for XKCD readers? I mean - I've read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov, where this happens (including the one guy who isn't ready to go), but I'm old. I'm ''fifty''.<br />
Also "Ch*ldh**d's End" - kind of a spoiler. And "The Heechee Saga".<br />
rja.carnegie@excite.com <br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 21:14, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What? No [https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/InternetRelayChat emacs' irc client]? -- [[User:schnitz|schnitz]] 18:31, 9 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone ever looked at the history section of Internet Chat Relay on Wikipedia?<br />
<br />
"In July 1996, after months of flame wars and discussions on the mailing list, there was yet another split due to disagreement in how the development of the ircd should evolve. Most notably, the "European" (most of those servers were in Europe) side that later named itself IRCnet argued for nick and channel delays where the EFnet side argued for timestamps. There were also disagreements about policies: the European side had started to establish a set of rules directing what IRCops could and could not do, a point of view opposed by the US side.<br />
<br />
Most (not all) of the IRCnet servers were in Europe, while most of the EFnet server were in the US. This event is also known as "The Great Split" in many IRC societies. EFnet has since (as of August 1998) grown and passed the number of users it had then. In the autumn year 2000, EFnet had some 50,000 users and IRCnet 70,000."<br />
<br />
Someone needs to get in touch with the writers of History Channel's documentaries and pitch this.<br />
[[User:Beastachu|Beastachu]] ([[User talk:Beastachu|talk]]) 13:52, 16 April 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1782:_Team_Chat&diff=140217Talk:1782: Team Chat2017-05-24T17:01:00Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
This is an xkcd about why the majority is wrong. ;) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.238|108.162.229.238]] 16:32, 6 January 2017 (UTC) seirl<br />
<br />
F1rst. Jokes aside, wrote you guys something to work with. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.198|141.101.107.198]] 16:34, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
Sixi<br />
:See [[1258: First]] and [[269: TCMP]]. Well funny enough you were neither the first to edit the page nor the talk page :-) Thanks for the start, but try to not delete the incomplete tag, but just write first draft or add what you can see is missing. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:40, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::Good points for future edits! Appreciated. ♪ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.198|141.101.107.198]] 16:45, 6 January 2017 (UTC) -Sixi<br />
<br />
I find it funny how I'm editing the article, fixing the incomplete parts, then all of a sudden (as soon as I click "enter", I must add), someone's already fixed the incomplete parts, and there was a "conflict with the edit". :P --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]]<sup>[[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]]</sup> 18:47, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
My first addition here, tried to explain skype vs slack and the title text. Feel free to roast me constructively :D Hope I didn't go too deep in Slack, thought most people don't know it and my little experience may help :) Also hope my unix tools explanation won't offend too many people; I'm a happy screen user myself, but it does have quite a bit of a learning curve. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.88|141.101.96.88]] 19:20, 6 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
::I gave up with Screen. I would try thus, but their documentation doesn't include verbs.<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, at least not [http://tools.suckless.org/ii/ ii] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.47|172.68.11.47]] 02:13, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Well, I think Randal is slightly off, it more goes like this:<br />
<br />
2006: The company officially use Messenger - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2009: The company officially use Skype - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2012: The company officially use Lync - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2014: The company officially use Slack - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
2016: The company officially use Teams - Except all of development ignores it and use IRC<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.200|162.158.88.200]] 10:45, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
:You forgot to add the part where it says that in 2018 they finally migrate... but to {{w|Discord (software)|Discord}}. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]]<sup>[[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]]</sup> 12:54, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
:: randall didnt mention discord? smh [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.159|162.158.58.159]] 21:18, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I find it strange no-one has mentioned that IRC let's you run your own servers, with no 3rd party involved; whereas Skype & Slack both depend upon centralized corporate-owned servers, which are forced to silently comply with surveillance requests without so much as a warrant. That's just unacceptable for many dev groups. (Hence the popularity of apps like Discord.)<br />
<br />
I had a lot of trouble viewing this page in Lynx through the Worldgroup gateway on a local dial-up Bulletin Board System. I think it's a problem with my QModem configuration. If anyone can help, please contact me on IRC. I'm usually available in the #Kaypro users room. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.46|108.162.221.46]] 21:59, 7 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Surveillance requests are not be only reason Skype is monitoring your communication. Try to enter url into Skype: it will be visited by msnbot. I don't care why: that's something tool for devs shouldn't be doing. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:34, 9 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I've seen this before, I'd guess the problem is with your 56K modem, during its handshake protocol I'm sure it's going *squeak!* when it's supposed to be going *squawk!*. Just disconnect and reconnect the phone line and make sure no phones are off the hook, then disconnect / reconnect again. That should fix you right up! And remove the AOL disc from the drive, those things are always causing problems. Oh, and sometimes being connected to IRQ or MSN Messenger can interfere, connect with them afterwards. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 05:16, 11 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So this past fall I remember seeing a bunch of web (and TV?) ads for Slack. You think Munroe got any kickback from Slack for this comic? It's worth noting that:<br />
:- Microsoft launched Skype for Business in April 2015 (as a replacement to Lync). I would imagine that Skype is one of their biggest competitors, especially because Skype is included with Office, and just last month Slack introduced video calling.<br />
:- Last week Slack announced they "invested in nearly a dozen new bot startups to bolster its Slack App Directory" (from VentureBeat). Techy folks who look up Slack after seeing Friday's comic are likely to see this news.<br />
Maybe this is part of an "undergroundy" ad campaign by Slack? After reading the comic I certainly was subliminally thinking that Skype is sooo 2010; 2017 is the year of Slack! Great comic regardless. </conspiracytheories> [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.4|162.158.63.4]] 00:11, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Dammit, Dave, just become one with the singularity! We have IRC here too! --[[User:GranadalandDreamer|GranadalandDreamer]] ([[User talk:GranadalandDreamer|talk]]) 01:39, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is there a need to explain "All consciousnesses have merged with the Galactic Singularity", or is it clear enough for XKCD readers? I mean - I've read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov, where this happens (including the one guy who isn't ready to go), but I'm old. I'm ''fifty''.<br />
Also "Ch*ldh**d's End" - kind of a spoiler. And "The Heechee Saga".<br />
rja.carnegie@excite.com <br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 21:14, 8 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What? No [https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/InternetRelayChat emacs' irc client]? -- [[User:schnitz|schnitz]] 18:31, 9 January 2017 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone ever looked at the history section of Internet Chat Relay on Wikipedia?<br />
<br />
"In July 1996, after months of flame wars and discussions on the mailing list, there was yet another split due to disagreement in how the development of the ircd should evolve. Most notably, the "European" (most of those servers were in Europe) side that later named itself IRCnet argued for nick and channel delays where the EFnet side argued for timestamps. There were also disagreements about policies: the European side had started to establish a set of rules directing what IRCops could and could not do, a point of view opposed by the US side.<br />
<br />
Most (not all) of the IRCnet servers were in Europe, while most of the EFnet server were in the US. This event is also known as "The Great Split" in many IRC societies. EFnet has since (as of August 1998) grown and passed the number of users it had then. In the autumn year 2000, EFnet had some 50,000 users and IRCnet 70,000."<br />
<br />
Someone needs to get in touch with the writers of History Channel's documentaries and pitch this.<br />
[[User:Beastachu|Beastachu]] ([[User talk:Beastachu|talk]]) 13:52, 16 April 2017 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1654:_Universal_Install_Script&diff=1147251654: Universal Install Script2016-03-11T20:38:00Z<p>108.162.216.40: /* Trivia */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1654<br />
| date = March 11, 2016<br />
| title = Universal Install Script<br />
| image = universal_install_script.png<br />
| titletext = The failures usually don't hurt anything, and if it installs several versions, it increases the chance that one of them is right. (Note: The 'yes' command and '2>/dev/null' are recommended additions.)<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
Most users of computers today are used to simple, easy installation of programs. You just download a .exe or a .dmg, double click it, and do what it says. Sometimes you don't even have to install anything at all, and it runs without any installation.<br />
<br />
However, when things are more "homebrew", for example downloading source code, things are more complicated. Under {{w|Unix-like}} systems, which this universal install script is designed for, you may have to work with "build environments" and "makefiles", and command line tools. To make this process simpler, there exist repositories of programs which host either packages of source code and the things needed to build it or the pre-built programs. When you download the package, it automatically does most of the work of building the code into something executable if necessary and then installing it. However, there are many such repositories, such as "pip" and "brew", among others listed in the comic. If you only know the name of a program or package, you may not know in which repository(ies) it resides.<br />
<br />
The script provided in the comic attempts to fix this problem, by giving a "universal install script", which contains a lot of common install commands used in various Unix-like systems. In between each of the install commands in the script is the & character, which in POSIX-compatible shells (including {{w|Bash (Unix shell)|Bash}}, a popular shell scripting language) means it should continue to run the next command without waiting for the first command to finish, and not print any output of the command other than errors. This has the effect of running all the install commands simultaneously; whatever errors each commands would have because of a package not existing in that repository will be mixed together as they are all displaying on the screen around the same time. More about the & below.<br />
<br />
The script accepts the name of a program when you run it as an argument. This value is then referenced as "$1" (argument number 1). Everywhere the script says "$1", it substitutes in the name of the package you gave it. The end result is the name being tried against a large number of software repositories and package managers, and hopefully, at least one of them will be appropriate and the program will be successfully installed. Near the end, it even tries changing the current working directory to that which is assumed to hold the package to be installed, and then runs several commands which build the program from source code.<br />
<br />
All in all, this script would probably work; it runs many standard popular repository programs and package managers, and runs the nearly-universal commands needed to build a program. Most of the commands would simply give an error and exit, but hopefully the correct one will proceed with the install.<br />
<br />
One of the more subtle jokes in the comic is the inclusion of <code>apt-get</code> and <code>sudo apt-get</code> in the same script. In most cases this would be redundant as the <code>sudo</code> command is just to add admin permissions. This could be an allusion to a joke in the Linux community about forgetting to include the sudo command. An example of this joke being used elsewhere was a [https://twitter.com/liamosaur/status/506975850596536320 viral tweet] that showed a workaround for the issue. Sudo has also been used both by [[Randall]] in [[149: Sandwich]] and by Jason Fox to force Randall to let him appear on xkcd with [[824: Guest Week: Bill Amend (FoxTrot)]].<br />
<br />
Another explanation for this could be that plain "apt-get" is for Debian, while Ubuntu etc. use sudo.<br />
<br />
The tool <code>curl</code> downloads files from the network (e.g., the Internet). Used like <code>curl http://xkcd.com/</code> it downloads the xkcd main page and displays the HTML source code. The pipe <code>|</code> in the script attaches the output of the command before the pipe to the input of the command after the pipe. Both commands are executed concurrently. Bash is a popular shell for Unix-like operating systems. The line <code>curl "$1" | bash</code> tries to download a file from the network and to execute the download directly. <!--- Although this is a common practice for conveniently installing software, it is considered extremely insecure and should never be done. [ed. note: there's no reason this cannot be secure, especially if HTTPS with validated certificates is used, from a trusted domain which utilizes DNSSEC] --><br />
<br />
The use of & at the end of each line causes the shell interpreter to execute the commands in parallel (asynchronously) instead of sequentially. Even if single commands fail, the rest of them will be executed. Note this is even the case for the final commands which attempt to change to the installed package, probably the only reason why this may not work completely for packages that do need compiling after being downloaded. (However, just running this script again would probably do the trick.)<br />
<br />
There appears to be a bug with the & at the end of the "git clone" line; since a git repository typically contains program source code, not executables, it may have been intended to retrieve the source code with git and then compile and install the program in the next line. In this case, the single & should be replaced with &&, an operator that will run the second command only if the first one has completed successfully. This plays into a second bug on the "configure" line, where the placement of the & means that only the "make install" command will be run asynchronously after the "configure" and "make" steps have finished in sequence. To make success as likely as possible, the two lines should be like this:<br />
<br />
git clone <nowiki>https://github.com/</nowiki>"$1"/"$1" && (cd "$1"; ./configure; make; make install) &<br />
<br />
The title text mentions the possibility that the same program may be in multiple repositories, so in this case, the script will download and install several versions, or it may fail on a number of repositories, in which case usually nothing bad happens. Since all the commands come from different operating systems, versions, or distributions, it is not very likely that more than one will work (with the exception of pip/easy_install and the two forms of apt-get) or even exist on the same system. It mentions that adding a way of automatically saying "yes" to questions asked during the different repository-fetching programs' running, by making them read input from another program that writes a (nearly) endless stream of "y"s, could simplify things further. <code>2>/dev/null</code> redirects the second output stream (the "error stream") to the null device driver, which discards all writes to it, meaning errors (the package not existing) will be ignored.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[In the panel is a shell script which, unusual for xkcd, uses only lower case. At the top the title of the program is inlaid in the frame, which has been broken here.]<br />
:<big>Install.sh</big><br />
<br />
:<nowiki>#!/bin/bash</nowiki><br />
<br />
:pip install "$1" &<br />
:easy_install "$1" &<br />
:brew install "$1" &<br />
:npm install "$1" &<br />
:yum install "$1" & dnf install "$1" &<br />
:docker run "$1" &<br />
:pkg install "$1" &<br />
:apt-get install "$1" &<br />
:sudo apt-get install "$1" &<br />
:steamcmd +app_update "$1" validate &<br />
:git clone <nowiki>https://github.com/</nowiki>"$1"/"$1" &<br />
:cd "$1";./configure;make;make install &<br />
:curl "$1" | bash &<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*pip and easy install are package managers for Python<br />
*brew is the successor/replacement for MacPorts and a package manager for OS X<br />
*npm is the node package manager that maintains node.js packages<br />
*yum is the package management tool for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and some derivatives.<br />
*dnf is the package management tool for Fedora since version 22.<br />
*docker run is an Amazon Web Services command that "Specifies one or more commands that install packages and configure your web application inside the [AWS] image." (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/create_deploy_docker_image.html)<br />
*pkg is the package management tool on BSD systems<br />
*apt-get is the package management tool of Debian and derivatives (eg Ubuntu)<br />
*steamcmd refers to Steam, the computer game client<br />
*git is the revision control software used for eg. the linux kernel and gained a lot of traction through the github plattform<br />
*configure/make/make install refers to the default way of compiling software from source (on Linux/Unix)<br />
*curl is a tool for loading data via http:// (eg from a website), this data is then pushed to the shell interpreter (in order to install). <br />
**Note: While this is a security nightmare, the Nvidia drivers for Linux were (but no longer are) installed like that<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Programming]]</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1632:_Palindrome&diff=1095231632: Palindrome2016-01-20T05:55:30Z<p>108.162.216.40: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1632<br />
| date = January 20, 2016<br />
| title = Palindrome<br />
| image = palindrome.png<br />
| titletext = I hope that somewhere in the world, "Panamax" is the last option on a "size" drop-down menu on a sex toy site.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
<br />
This comic is about palindromes, which is a word or a phrase which is spelled the same way backwards or forwards. The classic palindrome in this case is: "A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama", which references the construction of the Panama Canal. Randall has created his own palindrome which is longer, though less logical, than the original.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
A man, a plan, a God's 'nam tables, nitrate, tar, tinsel, batman's dog: anal panama.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1632:_Palindrome&diff=1095221632: Palindrome2016-01-20T05:54:14Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1632<br />
| date = January 20, 2016<br />
| title = Palindrome<br />
| image = palindrome.png<br />
| titletext = I hope that somewhere in the world, "Panamax" is the last option on a "size" drop-down menu on a sex toy site.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
<br />
This comic is about palindromes, which is a word or a phrase which is spelled the same way backwards or forwards. The classic palindrome in this case is: "A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama". Randall has created his own palindrome which is longer, though less logical, than the original.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
A man, a plan, a God's 'nam tables, nitrate, tar, tinsel, batman's dog: anal panama.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1579:_Tech_Loops&diff=102040Talk:1579: Tech Loops2015-09-18T12:55:50Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>RANDALL, WHY DID YOU GIVE ME AN EXISTENIAL CRISIS?! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.113|173.245.54.113]] 10:49, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There are only three loops; "Awful hack from 2009" and "IRC for some reason" forms one, "Tool" → "Updater" → "Library" → "Tool" is the second, and there's a long one from "Awful hack from 2009" → "Library" → "Library" → "Custom settings" → "Library" → "Hardware workaround" → "Awful hack from 2009". Any other path not from "DLL needed by something" ends at "Repository". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.193|108.162.237.193]] 04:35, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: I think the fact that "Repository" ends to be a sink (only entering connections) is a mistake - all other have at least one entry and at least one exit --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:24, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:: No, I think that makes sense. A repository is where something is stored. If it's in use by something, it's not a repository. Of course, I'm thinking that repository means something like "USB Hard Drive", so I might be wrong. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.187|108.162.249.187]] 09:12, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
::: I agree to this. A repository is a perfect location for "dumping" things where they never come back [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:31, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::: I interpreted it to mean that the repository hosts the things it is dependent on, using the things it is dependent on, making the loop conceptual. The code that is hosted in the repository is only ultimately required because of the need for the repository to host thing code that the repository runs on. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.187|141.101.98.187]] 11:19, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Doesn't Buddha sais "The Path is the Goal"? Just because what you are doing is on path which seems to go nowhere doesn't mean the path is not worth it. Did you saw any tourist complaining that the trek he's on is supposed to end on the same place it started? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:07, 18 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Does it bother anyone else that he wrote "soley" or am I missing something?</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1463:_Altitude&diff=81246Talk:1463: Altitude2014-12-22T21:07:29Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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<div>Ok, Is everyone on vacation today? or is this explanation that hard? [[User:Edo|Edo]] ([[User talk:Edo|talk]]) 19:27, 22 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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: The comic was uploaded just minutes before you commented at 19:23. [[User:ThePurpleK|ThePurpleK]] ([[User talk:ThePurpleK|talk]]) 19:36, 22 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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: "Ok, Is everyone on vacation today?" Randall was ... --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 20:01, 22 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Transcript right now assumes two Astronomers. It looks to me like three. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.142|173.245.52.142]] 21:03, 22 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_guide_star laser guide star] is a device for focussing telescopes. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcjB2qN0TxM Cats go crazy chasing lasers]. I can only imagine what havoc a star cat might wreck chasing a laser guide star. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 21:07, 22 December 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1417:_Seven&diff=754691417: Seven2014-09-08T16:30:32Z<p>108.162.216.40: Subject-verb agreement</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1417<br />
| date = September 5, 2014<br />
| title = Seven<br />
| image = seven.png<br />
| titletext = The days of the week are Monday, Arctic, Wellsley, Green, Electra, Synergize, and the Seventh Seal.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
In this comic, [[Cueball]] (or perhaps [[Randall]]) says he can't distinguish between sets that have exactly seven objects. This leads him to exchange the items in the sets without noticing, to the point where, when attempting to list a single set, each item mentioned actually belongs to a different set.<br />
<br />
This is shown in the comic when Cueball tries to enumerate the seven dwarfs from ''{{w|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs}}'' (a task some people might find difficult, although they would not just chose words from other sets of seven to fill in the gaps...) <br />
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The title text reveals that even a trivial set of seven items, like the days of the week, also goes completely wrong.<br />
<br />
The comic is a reference to the {{w|Set-theoretic definition of natural numbers#Oldest definition|oldest set-theoretic definition of the natural numbers}}, in which for each natural number, an equivalence class is defined over all sets which contain the same number of items. As Cueball is known for [[:Category:Math|mathematical thinking]], he could be presumed to have taken the underlying equivalence relation to heart, and (over)applying it to real life, genuinely judging sets to be identical if they all contain N objects.<br />
<br />
The number seven being the number for when sets become indistinguishable is possibly a reference to {{w|The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two|Miller's law}}; however, this law refers to elements ''within the same set'' becoming indistinguishable, rather than the indistinguishability of different sets of the same size -- indeed, its original tests involved either distinguishing between the items, or repeating them back ''in the correct order''.<br />
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The number seven has culturally been {{w|7 (number)#Religion and mythology|regarded as a special, magical or holy number}}, which contributes to the large number of familiar sets of seven that make this comic possible. This proliferation of well-known sets of 7 items could be another reason why Randall chose to use the number {{w|seven}} in the comic.<br />
<br />
=== Comic list ===<br />
For each of the seven lists below, the relevant item's traditional position within its own list of seven, according to Wikipedia, is '''not''' necessarily equal to its position on the list in the comic. For some list it is true but not for most. For instance Sneezy is traditionally never mentioned first amongst the dwarfs since the leader Doc normally comes first. But "phylum" is the second major taxonomic rank as is "phylum" the second item on the list in the comic.<br />
<br />
The seven "dwarfs" mentioned and their relevant sets of seven are (items in the set are written in bold):<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|<br />
! 1<br />
! 2<br />
! 3<br />
! 4<br />
! 5<br />
! 6<br />
! 7<br />
|-<br />
!{{W|Seven Dwarfs#Disney Dwarfs|Disney's Dwarfs}} from ''{{w|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs}}''<ref group=c>The order is taken from the page about the movie. But Sneezy is never no. 1, on the other page, which is listed alphabetically, he is no. 5.</ref><br />
|Doc<br />
|Grumpy<br />
|Happy<br />
|Sleepy<br />
|Bashful<br />
|'''Sneezy''' <br />
|Dopey<br />
|-<br />
!Major {{w|taxonomic ranks}}<ref group=c>There are now actually 8 on this list as {{w|Domain (biology)|domain}} has been included as the first in the list in 1990. It is, however, still normal to only list the 7 ranks in the table.</ref>. <br />
|kingdom<br />
|'''phylum'''<br />
|class<br />
|order<br />
|family<br />
|genus<br />
|species<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Continents}}<ref group=c>Continents are normally listed by size (as here in the table), in which case Europe is no. 6. Alphabetically it would be fifth. By population, Europe would actually be no. 3 (i.e. it would match the position in Cueball's list). But by population density, it is no. 2.</ref><br />
|Asia<br />
|Africa<br />
|North America<br />
|South America<br />
|Antarctica<br />
|'''Europe'''<br />
|Australia<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Seven deadly sins|Deadly sins}}<ref group=c>List as on Wikipedia.</ref><br />
|lust<br />
|gluttony<br />
|greed<br />
|'''sloth'''<br />
|wrath<br />
|envy<br />
|pride<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Seven-layer dip|Seven Layer Dip (recipe)}}<ref group=c>The list on Wikipedia is not in the order the dip should be made. The order used above is from this [http://allrecipes.com/recipe/seven-layer-dip-i/ recipe].</ref><br />
|refried beans<br />
|cheese<br />
|ground beef<br />
|sour cream<br />
|'''guacamole'''<br />
|salsa<br />
|chopped black olives/tomatoes/green onions<br />
|-<br />
!|Layers of the {{w|OSI model}}<ref group=c>The order above is in reverse. The numbers given on Wikipedia is from 7 to 1 as they stand above. However when showing them in a table they begin with no. 7. So it can be discussed if this is the correct order or the reverse. Since Data link is no. 2, the reverse above becomes the "correct" no. 6.</ref><br />
|application<br />
|presentation<br />
|session<br />
|transport<br />
|network<br />
|'''data link'''<br />
|physical<br />
|-<br />
!|{{w|Wonders of the World#Seven Wonders of the Ancient World|Wonders of the Ancient World}}<ref group=c>List as on Wikipedia.</ref><br />
|Great Pyramid of Giza<br />
|Hanging Gardens of Babylon<br />
|Statue of Zeus at Olympia<br />
|Temple of Artemis at Ephesus<br />
|Mausoleum at Halicarnassus<br />
|'''Colossus of Rhodes'''<br />
|Lighthouse of Alexandria<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<references group=c /><br />
<br />
===Title text list===<br />
The title text extends this saying he also does the same with the set of the seven days of the week. <br />
<br />
The sets Cueball's "days of the week" come from are:<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|<br />
! 1<br />
! 2<br />
! 3<br />
! 4<br />
! 5<br />
! 6<br />
! 7<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Days of the week}}<ref group=t>In the US, the weekdays are usually mentioned with Sunday first, whereas the international {{w|ISO week date}} standard defines Monday as the first day of the week. Although Randall is from the US, he has previosuly expressed his preference for [[1179: ISO 8601|ISO 8601]] (among [[526: Converting to Metric|other international standards]]), so it's reasonable to assume he'd list the days of the week starting on Monday.</ref><br />
|'''Monday'''<br />
|Tuesday<br />
|Wednesday<br />
|Thursday<br />
|Friday <br />
|Saturday<br />
|Sunday<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Seven Seas#Modern|The Seven Seas (modern version)}}<ref group=t>There are many ways to lists 7 named bodies of water. the one in the table uses the order from Wikipedia, from the largest to the smallest of the seven. But if the list is sorted in alphabetic order, "Arctic" indeed comes second: Antarctic, '''Arctic''', Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian, Mediterranean, and Pacific. "Arctic" could also be a reference to {{w|Climate zones}} - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]. It could not, however, be a reference to {{w|Continents}}, because the Arctic is not a continent {{w|Continent#Number of continents|regardless of how they're counted}}.</ref> <br />
|The Pacific Ocean<br />
|The Atlantic Ocean<br />
|The Indian Ocean<br />
|The '''Arctic''' Ocean<br />
|The Mediterranean Sea <br />
|The Caribbean Sea<br />
|The Gulf of Mexico.<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Seven Sisters (colleges)|Seven Sisters}}, historically women's colleges in U.S.<ref group=t>List as on Wikipedia.</ref><br />
|Mount Holyoke<br />
|Vassar<br />
|'''Wellesley'''<br />
|Smith<br />
|Radcliffe<br />
|Bryn Mawr<br />
|Barnard<br />
|-<br />
!Traditional {{w|spectral color}}s<ref group=t>On the list on Wikipedia there are only six colors but Indigo was used to get to seven colors by Newton - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]].</ref><br />
|Red<br />
|Orange <br />
|Yellow<br />
|'''Green'''<br />
|Blue<br />
|Indigo <br />
|Violet<br />
|-<br />
!{{w|Pleiades (Greek mythology)|Pleiades}}, Seven Sisters, nymphs and daughters of Atlas and Pleone in Greek mythology<ref group=t>List as on Wikipedia, with the oldest first and the youngest last (it's unclear whether the ones in the middle are also listed by age). In any case, only in reverse alphabetical order Electra would be no. 5: Taygete, Sterope, Merope, Maia, '''Electra''', Celaeno, and Alcyone.</ref><br />
|Maia<br />
|'''Electra'''<br />
|Taygete<br />
|Alcyone<br />
|Celaeno<br />
|Sterope<br />
|Merope<br />
|-<br />
!|''{{w|The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People}}'' by Dr. Stephen R. Covey<ref group=t>These seven habits are clearly named in order as they are listed as Habit 1 through Habit 7.</ref><br />
|Be proactive<br />
|Begin with the end in mind<br />
|Put first things first<br />
|Think win-win<br />
|Seek first to understand and then to be understood<br />
|'''Synergize'''<br />
|Sharpen the saw<br />
|-<br />
!|In the {{w|Book of Revelation}} in the {{w|New Testament}} there are {{w|Seven seals}}<ref group=t>''The Seventh Seal'' is also the name of a movie released in 1957, which belongs to a '''lot''' of sets of seven -- see the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section.</ref><br />
|The First seal<br />
|The Second seal<br />
|The Third seal<br />
|The Fourth seal<br />
|The Fifth seal<br />
|The Sixth seal<br />
|'''The Seventh seal'''<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<references group=t /><br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
: [Megan and Cueball are talking]<br />
: Megan: Can you name all the dwarfs from Snow White?<br />
: Cueball: Sure, there's, um...<br />
: Cueball's thoughts: Sneezy, phylum, Europe, sloth, guacamole, data link, Colossus of Rhodes<br />
: Caption: I have this problem where all sets of seven things are indistinguishable to me.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*Arctic (no. 2 on the title text list) could also be a reference to {{w|Climate zones|climate zones}}: '''Arctic''', North Temperate, Northern Subtropical, Tropical, Southern Subtropical, South Temperate and Antarctic. <br />
** There are however usually only five mentioned according to the {{w|Köppen climate classification}}. They are: Tropical, Dry, Temperate, Continental and Polar climate.<br />
*Concerning the seven colours of the spectrum (no. 4 on the title text list) {{w|Indigo#Classification_as_a_spectral_color|indigo is stuck in}} by {{w|Isaac Newton}} to add up to the seven notes in the {{w|Scale_(music)#Western_music|Western musical scale}} <br />
** It should be noted that {{w|Indigo#Classification as a spectral color|Newton probably meant}} the colours {{w|cyan}} and {{w|blue}} as we think of it today, rather than blue and {{w|indigo}}. <br />
** Also note that in a {{w|rainbow}} you usually {{w|Rainbow#Number_of_colours_in_spectrum_or_rainbow|cannot distinguish more than six colours}} with cyan melting in with green and blue and the same for indigo with blue and violet.<br />
*** {{w|Color term#Basic color terms|This is highly dependent on the language you speak.}} Russian, for example, has both sinij and goluboj to describe different blues that in English are both blue. Japanese, as another example, has blue and green together (kinda) in 青.<br />
** These are also the traditional seven artists' pigments, {{w|Roy_G._Biv|with the accompanying mnemonic "Roy G. Biv"}}. Indigo dye is a widely known and readily available colouring agent. The ongoing ubiquity of the ''pigment'' (think denim) gives it a unique prominence in spite of its uncertain status as a spectral colour. <br />
*''The Seventh Seal'' (no. 7 on the title text list) could also refer to the 1957 film {{w|The Seventh Seal}} by Swedish director {{w|Ingmar Bergman}}. Indeed, we can put it in quite a few sets of seven... <br />
**This was Bergman's seventh film with an English title beginning with the letter ‘S’ (ignoring articles). ''A Ship Bound for India'', ''Summer Interlude'', ''Secrets of Women'', ''Summer with Monika'', ''Sawdust and Tinsel'', ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', '''''The Seventh Seal'''''. <br />
**Similary ''The Seventh Seal'' is also the seventh Bergman film whose Swedish title starts with ‘S’, although the list has some different members. ''Skepp till Indialand'', ''Sånt händer inte här'', ''Sommarlek'', ''Sommaren med Monika'', ''Sommarnattens leende'', ''Sista paret ut'', '''''Det sjunde inseglet'''''. <br />
**''The Seventh Seal'' was also one of seven Bergman films submitted by Sweden for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film during the 1950s and 1960s. '''The Seventh Seal''', ''The Magician'', ''The Virgin Spring'', ''Through a Glass Darkly'', ''The Silence'', ''Persona'', ''Shame''.<br />
**According to the Wikipedia page on {{w|The Seventh Seal|The Seventh Seal}}, the Jesuit publication America wrote, "It also began a series of seven films that explored the possibility of faith in a post-Holocaust, nuclear age. In 'The Virgin Spring' (1960), 'Through a Glass Darkly' (1961), 'Winter Light' (1962) and 'The Silence' (1963), he poses traditional faith questions in identifiably religious language. The characters struggle self-consciously with their inability to believe in God and form relationships with one another. In 'Wild Strawberries' (1957) and 'The Magician' (1958), the issues are veiled in layers of metaphor. The theological questions become apparent only by placing them in the context of the other films of the period. With 'The Silence' he concludes that God is unknowable, and the human person must simply continue life's journey seeking understanding and happiness however one can. At that point, [http://americamagazine.org/node/148305 God-questions drop out of his films altogether].<br />
* One way to remember the names of the Seven Dwarfs from the Disney film is: three emotions (Happy, Bashful, Grumpy), two S's (Sleepy, Sneezy), two D's (Dopey, Doc). Cueball assumes that Megan is asking in the context of the Disney film, but other works have named the dwarfs differently; see {{w|Seven Dwarfs}}. <br />
* Megan's question uses the plural '''dwarfs'''. Astronomers also refer to the plural of {{w|dwarf star}}s as "dwarfs". The word "dwarves" is used in {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}'s works, but has been seen as far back as [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000293.html the early 1800s].<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1417:_Seven&diff=75320Talk:1417: Seven2014-09-05T19:44:42Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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<div>Guacamole = 7-layer dip ingredient<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.81|108.162.215.81]] 05:08, 5 September 2014 (UTC)Anonymous XKCD reader<br />
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Seventh Seal more likely to be a reference to Book of Revelation (I think he's brought it up before?) or the film? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.96|199.27.133.96]] 05:17, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Arctic Ocean is one of the modern Seven "Seas" of the world.<br />
Green is the 4th color of seven in the Arthur Hamilton song "I Can Sing a Rainbow". {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.212}}<br />
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I guess the title text is a play on the fact that the dwarves in the new Snow White (2001) movie are called Monday, Tuesday, ... That is the connection between Snow White dwarves and days of the week. The filmmakers decided to intermix sets of seven in the first place. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.90|108.162.254.90]] 06:27, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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There could be a pattern with order.<br />
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*Sneezy: 1st dwarf of the seven dwarves in Snow White.<br />
*Phylum: 2nd rank in the Seven Taxonomic Ranks<br />
*Europe: 3rd continent of the world <br />
*Sloth: 4th sin of the Seven Deadly Sin<br />
*Guacamole: 5th Layer in a 7 Layer Bean Dip<br />
*Data Link: 6th Layer in the OSI Model<br />
*Collosus of Rhodes: 7th Wonder of the Ancient World<br />
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*Monday: 1st Day of the Week (American).<br />
*Arctic: 2nd ocean in the modern Seven "Seas" of the world.<br />
*Wellesley: 3rd college of the Seven Sister colleges<br />
*Green: 4th color in the Arthur Hamilton song "I Can Sing a Rainbow".<br />
*Electra: 5th sister of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters.<br />
*Synergize: 6th Habit in the Stephen R. Covey self-help book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".<br />
*Seventh Seal: 7th Seal of the Seven Seals in the Book of Revelations<br />
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{{unsigned ip|108.162.249.212}}<br />
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:The list on the page needs to be fixed to show Europe third. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.213|141.101.99.213]] 11:15, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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The Pleiades is Randall's favorite constellation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 08:40, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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It sure is nice seeing the explanation getting more refined and complete every time I visit... [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.168|103.22.201.168]] 10:37, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I've always been told there are only six continents. North America and South America are one continent. The seventh continent sometimes refers to this gigantic area filled with plastic rubbish in the Pacific Ocean. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.143|108.162.229.143]] 11:47, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
: See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34 But no one talks about the Great Pacific garbage patch as a continent. 7 continents is the most common model, with some (mainly Latin Americans) considering the Americas a single continent. Some others consider Eurasia a single continent (personally that's what I prefer, it makes the most sense). --[[User:Zagorath|Zagorath]] ([[User talk:Zagorath|talk]]) 12:12, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
: I've only ever heard folks say there are seven continents. By strict definition of the word, North and South America do form a single continent (at least did prior to the Panama Canal cutting them apart) the vast majority of people see then as two separate continents. Dividing the Eurasian landmass in two, however, that one never made much sense. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.117|199.27.128.117]] 16:53, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Guacamole may also be a reference to a famous joke which made the rounds about 15 years ago, where somebody had compared the 7 layers of the OSI network model to Taco Bell's 7-layer burrito. Guacamole was the 5th layer, which lends credence to this idea. It's still available on the WayBack Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/19990826193318/http://www.europa.com/~dogman/osi/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.151|108.162.219.151]] 11:59, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I suspect Electra is from the list of extant complete plays of Sophocles: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. [[User:Besimmons|Besimmons]] ([[User talk:Besimmons|talk]]) 13:42, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I find it interesting that although Randall is American he lists Monday as the first day of the week. That's where it's positioned in most cultures outside the USA, but Americans normally consider Sunday to be the first day. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:51, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
: I can't speak for anyone outside the US, but as someone who has spent 99.9% of my life within US borders (few weeks in Canada, if you think that should essentially count...), I only acknowledge that the first day listed on any monthly calendar I see around here is most often Sunday. If you were to ask me what the first day of the week is, I would very quickly and easily say "Monday". That is what I'm teaching my 4- and 2-year olds... There are a few reasons I would give to explain that other than "I think of it as the first day of the week". It's the first work day of the "work week", and since life is for most people centered around one form of work or another, that gives the "work week" high importance. By extension, Sunday is the last day in the "weekend". By Judeo-Christian beliefs, God rested on the "seventh" Day - most Christians believe that to be Sunday; others (I believe mostly Jewish) believe it to be Saturday - I think, though that even those who consider Saturday to be a holy day, if you were to ask them in casual conversation what the first day of the week is (I may be wrong, but), I think they would say "Monday"... (?) Any other "Americans" or "Non-Americans" (I'd ask for you to clearly identify with one or the other) want to weight in on this? - [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:51, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I find instead interesting that he makes no mention of the seven notes, while mentioning other sets less ubiquitous --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.163|108.162.229.163]] 14:13, 5 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
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OMFG, the second picture of a dwarf in the list is Dopey, why the hell did somebody say it's Fievel!? http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=seven+dwarfs+dopey&qpvt=Seven+Dwarves+Dopey&FORM=IGRE<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 19:44, 5 September 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1391:_Darkness&diff=71093Talk:1391: Darkness2014-07-07T13:17:34Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
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<div>http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MundaneMadeAwesome --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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This narrative was actually the very first story I've read in The Onion back in 2006: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/rotation-of-earth-plunges-entire-north-american-co,1905/] -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 08:28, 7 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Isn't there a problem with the wish formulation? If the genie does not remember ever granting any wishes, how come the one in the comic is labelled as his "last wish". {{unsigned ip|173.245.49.181}}<br />
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"There usually is an added stipulation" ... really? Most time I read about genies, it's about someone using some clever way to overcome the limit on number of wishes, if there IS any limit to start with - but what I read may not be representative. This may require more research ... what is the most "traditional" genie story? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:47, 7 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:The most traditional would be the character simply carefully choosing all three wishes, using the last one at the very end of e story. Again, not representative either, but from what I've read the concept of "getting around the three-wish limit" seems to be a more recent take on the 'traditional' version. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:00, 7 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Um... If the genie cannot remember that each wish was NOT his first, that does not preclude him from keeping track of or remembering how many wishes he has made. It doesn't keep him from remembering other wishes, he simply can't remember which one was NOT first. Perhaps I'm over-thinking this, but the genie would probably say, "I may remember your last wish was only your first, but I distinctly remember the 3 wishes you've made so far, especially the one to screw with my head. So... no more wishes for you." XP -naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 13:17, 7 July 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:955:_Neutrinos&diff=62645Talk:955: Neutrinos2014-03-13T15:00:51Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>When the news about the neutrino speed thing first came out, all these people I knew were asking if everything they knew was wrong because of the new discovery, and panning me for not believing the word of god that is the scientific journal. I don't know how these people get through life blindly believing everything that they're told. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]]<br />
<br />
: It actually isn't too hard to live like that. Fortunately for me, though, I didn't have all these people I know asking if everything they knew was wrong. Inversion? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"...arguing with people and preaching caution is futile. Cueball realizes that it is more satisfying and profitable to place bets with them instead." Does anyone else notice the similarity between this sentiment and mortgage security? Instead of preaching caution in lending and trying to convince people that they shouldn't be taking on loans, hedge funds were created - much more satisfying and profitable. Sorry if this has nothing to do with the comic, it was just an observation that struck me. -naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:00, 13 March 2014 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 19:58, 11 March 2014 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.40}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:326:_Effect_an_Effect&diff=62643Talk:326: Effect an Effect2014-03-13T11:34:46Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>Can someone explain the title text, thanks! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:20, 22 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, I'd like to see that get added as well. I kind of assumed it was like taking a kill-count; one painting for each victim. I'm not sure what it specifically refers to, or what the origin of the term is. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:55, 28 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:seen the silhouette images of enemy planes painted next to the pilots canopy on mid 20th century fighter planes? its a reference to that. i've only seen it in films but presumably where there's smoke there's fire. *edit for improved explanation: the images are painted by the pilot to show how many 'bogies' he's shot down,much like how cueball will paint the grammarian on his desktop as another victim. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 10:02, 15 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::"mid 20th century fighter planes"?? As opposed to what? Late 18th century fighter planes?[[Special:Contributions/86.44.215.73|86.44.215.73]] 02:44, 23 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::As opposed to late 20th and 21st century fighter planes perhaps? [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:20, 24 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::And assuming "mid 20th century" refers to World War II of 1939-45 (less years for Americans, arguably more so for some other countries), there were already gun-attached 'fighter aircraft' in WWI and onward (though often technically called "scouts" or "pursuit" aircraft, in English and American terminology, respectively... other countries/languages having their own varients). Maybe not from the ''very'' start of the 1914-18 conflict, as opposing aircrews were apparently quite friendly to each other for a while until some air-reconnaissance pilot took a pistol up with him (or perhaps it was originally a solution against airships, leastwise those that they could get high enough to attack). And then some people had the idea to hard-attach various projectile weapons to the planes. And, oh boy, they had fun for a while trying to mount them to fire through their own front propellers, didn't they? ;)<br />
::::Anyway, the concept definitely had become engrained before the 'mid' 20thC, by whatever name. Did the Red Baron paint kills on his triplane? Did Biggles (fictionally) do so? Someone ought to actually research this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Effects effecting affects affect effects effectively. Also, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. --naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 20:29, 12 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:326:_Effect_an_Effect&diff=62592Talk:326: Effect an Effect2014-03-12T20:34:42Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>Can someone explain the title text, thanks! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:20, 22 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, I'd like to see that get added as well. I kind of assumed it was like taking a kill-count; one painting for each victim. I'm not sure what it specifically refers to, or what the origin of the term is. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:55, 28 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:seen the silhouette images of enemy planes painted next to the pilots canopy on mid 20th century fighter planes? its a reference to that. i've only seen it in films but presumably where there's smoke there's fire. *edit for improved explanation: the images are painted by the pilot to show how many 'bogies' he's shot down,much like how cueball will paint the grammarian on his desktop as another victim. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 10:02, 15 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::"mid 20th century fighter planes"?? As opposed to what? Late 18th century fighter planes?[[Special:Contributions/86.44.215.73|86.44.215.73]] 02:44, 23 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::As opposed to late 20th and 21st century fighter planes perhaps? [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:20, 24 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::And assuming "mid 20th century" refers to World War II of 1939-45 (less years for Americans, arguably more so for some other countries), there were already gun-attached 'fighter aircraft' in WWI and onward (though often technically called "scouts" or "pursuit" aircraft, in English and American terminology, respectively... other countries/languages having their own varients). Maybe not from the ''very'' start of the 1914-18 conflict, as opposing aircrews were apparently quite friendly to each other for a while until some air-reconnaissance pilot took a pistol up with him (or perhaps it was originally a solution against airships, leastwise those that they could get high enough to attack). And then some people had the idea to hard-attach various projectile weapons to the planes. And, oh boy, they had fun for a while trying to mount them to fire through their own front propellers, didn't they? ;)<br />
::::Anyway, the concept definitely had become engrained before the 'mid' 20thC, by whatever name. Did the Red Baron paint kills on his triplane? Did Biggles (fictionally) do so? Someone ought to actually research this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Effects effecting affects affect effects effectively. Also, buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. --naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 20:29, 12 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:326:_Effect_an_Effect&diff=62589Talk:326: Effect an Effect2014-03-12T20:31:23Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>Can someone explain the title text, thanks! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:20, 22 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, I'd like to see that get added as well. I kind of assumed it was like taking a kill-count; one painting for each victim. I'm not sure what it specifically refers to, or what the origin of the term is. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:55, 28 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:seen the silhouette images of enemy planes painted next to the pilots canopy on mid 20th century fighter planes? its a reference to that. i've only seen it in films but presumably where there's smoke there's fire. *edit for improved explanation: the images are painted by the pilot to show how many 'bogies' he's shot down,much like how cueball will paint the grammarian on his desktop as another victim. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 10:02, 15 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::"mid 20th century fighter planes"?? As opposed to what? Late 18th century fighter planes?[[Special:Contributions/86.44.215.73|86.44.215.73]] 02:44, 23 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::As opposed to late 20th and 21st century fighter planes perhaps? [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:20, 24 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::And assuming "mid 20th century" refers to World War II of 1939-45 (less years for Americans, arguably more so for some other countries), there were already gun-attached 'fighter aircraft' in WWI and onward (though often technically called "scouts" or "pursuit" aircraft, in English and American terminology, respectively... other countries/languages having their own varients). Maybe not from the ''very'' start of the 1914-18 conflict, as opposing aircrews were apparently quite friendly to each other for a while until some air-reconnaissance pilot took a pistol up with him (or perhaps it was originally a solution against airships, leastwise those that they could get high enough to attack). And then some people had the idea to hard-attach various projectile weapons to the planes. And, oh boy, they had fun for a while trying to mount them to fire through their own front propellers, didn't they? ;)<br />
::::Anyway, the concept definitely had become engrained before the 'mid' 20thC, by whatever name. Did the Red Baron paint kills on his triplane? Did Biggles (fictionally) do so? Someone ought to actually research this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Effects effecting affects affect effects effectively. Also, buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo buffalo buffalo. --naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 20:29, 12 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:326:_Effect_an_Effect&diff=62588Talk:326: Effect an Effect2014-03-12T20:29:26Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>Can someone explain the title text, thanks! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:20, 22 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, I'd like to see that get added as well. I kind of assumed it was like taking a kill-count; one painting for each victim. I'm not sure what it specifically refers to, or what the origin of the term is. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:55, 28 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:seen the silhouette images of enemy planes painted next to the pilots canopy on mid 20th century fighter planes? its a reference to that. i've only seen it in films but presumably where there's smoke there's fire. *edit for improved explanation: the images are painted by the pilot to show how many 'bogies' he's shot down,much like how cueball will paint the grammarian on his desktop as another victim. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 10:02, 15 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::"mid 20th century fighter planes"?? As opposed to what? Late 18th century fighter planes?[[Special:Contributions/86.44.215.73|86.44.215.73]] 02:44, 23 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::As opposed to late 20th and 21st century fighter planes perhaps? [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:20, 24 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::And assuming "mid 20th century" refers to World War II of 1939-45 (less years for Americans, arguably more so for some other countries), there were already gun-attached 'fighter aircraft' in WWI and onward (though often technically called "scouts" or "pursuit" aircraft, in English and American terminology, respectively... other countries/languages having their own varients). Maybe not from the ''very'' start of the 1914-18 conflict, as opposing aircrews were apparently quite friendly to each other for a while until some air-reconnaissance pilot took a pistol up with him (or perhaps it was originally a solution against airships, leastwise those that they could get high enough to attack). And then some people had the idea to hard-attach various projectile weapons to the planes. And, oh boy, they had fun for a while trying to mount them to fire through their own front propellers, didn't they? ;)<br />
::::Anyway, the concept definitely had become engrained before the 'mid' 20thC, by whatever name. Did the Red Baron paint kills on his triplane? Did Biggles (fictionally) do so? Someone ought to actually research this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Effects effecting affects affect effects effectively. --naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 20:29, 12 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:903:_Extended_Mind&diff=62555Talk:903: Extended Mind2014-03-12T15:39:53Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>Title text is true - unless you happen to stumble upon any one of: {{w|Fact}}, {{w|Proof (truth)}}, {{w|Evidence}}, or {{w|Truth}}. Then you'll be stranded in an eternal loop. <br />
:What do you mean? {{w|Fact}} works fine, you get there in 7 steps. Proof gets you there in 6 - you go to {{w|Necessity and Sufficiency}} not {{w|Evidence}}. Same for {{w|Evidence}}. {{w|Truth}} leads you to {{w|Fact}}. So all of your examples actually work.<br />
--[[User:T0IVI|T0IVI]] ([[User talk:T0IVI|talk]]) 09:27, 28 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Yeah, I hit a loop on the page Community. Went right from National community to Community again. {{unsigned|69.91.105.111}}<br />
<br />
These infinite loops seem to be 'fixed', I went through fact and other stuff right to philosophy.{{unsigned|141.35.48.11}}<br />
<br />
Another loop is "England". It goes right to "Countries of the United Kingdom" which returns immediately to England. <br />
<br />
Finally we all end up in {{w|Reality}}. [[Special:Contributions/85.178.28.173|85.178.28.173]] 21:16, 29 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do have to say that the best loop that doesn't feed to Philosophy is {{w|Sand Fence}} and {{w|Snow Fence}}. The first sentence of each article is identical except for switching the instances of sand and snow. --[[Special:Contributions/68.97.21.122|68.97.21.122]] 05:17, 6 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Saying that everything ends up in "philosophy" is simply choosing from a long list of possible entries to suit an argument. I found it much more interesting, having gotten to philosophy, to keep going through the loop, then to see where certain pages drop you into said loop. The loop currenty is reality, existence, world, human, hominini, tribe, biology, natural science, sciences, knowledge, fact, proof, necessity and sufficiency, logic, reason, consciousness, quality (philosophy), property (philosophy), modern philosophy, then finally philosophy. It's as if we've stumbled upon a new classification of knowledge. If only we could look recursively at ALL the things that lead into a certain topic in the loop. For example, goat drops you into the loop at biology, which makes perfect sense, but Volvo drops you in at natural sciences from a very convoluted path which includes physics, time, dimension, list of time periods, and scandinavia. In other words, it's the journey not the destination that I find interesting. - naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:39, 12 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall is either mistaken or intentionally misinformative (or rather, politically correct) in his IQ estimates. What's a car hyperbole aside, the cluelessness, sentence length, and spelling of the outage-messages remind of a person in their low 90s-high 80s, if not lower, and Randall is clearly more than 120, (conservative) average for physics majors as it might be. [[Special:Contributions/178.42.101.38|178.42.101.38]] 20:08, 13 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;What can we learn?<br />
I've learned that memorizing facts is so yesteryear. Over next few years facts will be even easier to find, understand, use, reference and forget. When in school we should concentrate not on memorizing facts we can look up later, but rather new methods to think outside the box full of facts others placed inside it. (Thank you Mr. XKCD) - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 13:42, 28 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
: That is true, but the overhead for looking something up versus remembering it is usually great enough that memorizing some things (multiplication tables come to mind) can increase the speed we can arrive at conclusions, or can give us other options (correlation between spark plug gapping and engine performance) that might not have come to mind otherwise. Outside of that, even though we forget much of it, having a vague sense of things (dates, locations/countries, etc) allow us to start out knowing at least something (order of things that occurred, Egypt being in Africa, Pythagorean theorem). This is just my opinion, and I may be biased, since I like facts. [[User:Tryc|Tryc]] ([[User talk:Tryc|talk]]) 13:19, 25 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
You can't teach everyone to think outside the box, that would spoil my advantage over the common man. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:03, 26 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wikiloop: (noun) A loop that results in wikipedia articles from clicking the first link not in brackets or italics over and over again. <br />
Here is the most commonly encountered wikiloop. (Reality is also the first link in Philosophy) --[[User:ParadoX|ParadoX]] ([[User talk:ParadoX|talk]]) 09:03, 13 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
Reality<br />
Existence<br />
World<br />
Human<br />
Primate<br />
Mammal<br />
Clade<br />
Tree of life (biology)<br />
Metaphor<br />
Figure of speech<br />
Word<br />
Linguistics<br />
Science<br />
Knowledge<br />
Fact<br />
Reality<br />
...<br />
<br />
;wikipedia outages<br />
<br />
There was a major outage in 2005 when a power failure hit their database servers http://cyberbrahma.com/power-corrupts-power-failure-corrupts-absolutely/. I also remember countless minor outages over the years (though not recently). -- plugwash<br />
:And just after I wrote the above wikipedia went down....... -- plugwash {{unsigned}}<br />
<br />
::Yeah, a link like {{w|Sand Fence}} should be work like {{w|Sand fence}}, but it doesn't right now. So some outages for the "Extended Mind"... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:955:_Neutrinos&diff=62455Talk:955: Neutrinos2014-03-11T19:59:59Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>When the news about the neutrino speed thing first came out, all these people I knew were asking if everything they knew was wrong because of the new discovery, and panning me for not believing the word of god that is the scientific journal. I don't know how these people get through life blindly believing everything that they're told. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]]<br />
<br />
: It actually isn't too hard to live like that. Fortunately for me, though, I didn't have all these people I know asking if everything they knew was wrong. Inversion? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"...arguing with people and preaching caution is futile. Cueball realizes that it is more satisfying and profitable to place bets with them instead." Does anyone else notice the similarity between this sentiment and mortgage security? Instead of preaching caution in lending and trying to convince people that they shouldn't be taking on loans, hedge funds were created - much more satisfying and profitable. Sorry if this has nothing to do with the comic, it was just an observation that struck me. -naginalf[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 19:58, 11 March 2014 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.40}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:955:_Neutrinos&diff=62454Talk:955: Neutrinos2014-03-11T19:58:11Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>When the news about the neutrino speed thing first came out, all these people I knew were asking if everything they knew was wrong because of the new discovery, and panning me for not believing the word of god that is the scientific journal. I don't know how these people get through life blindly believing everything that they're told. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]]<br />
<br />
: It actually isn't too hard to live like that. Fortunately for me, though, I didn't have all these people I know asking if everything they knew was wrong. Inversion? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"...arguing with people and preaching caution is futile. Cueball realizes that it is more satisfying and profitable to place bets with them instead." Does anyone else notice the similarity between this sentiment and mortgage security? Instead of preaching caution in lending and trying to convince people that they shouldn't be taking on loans, hedge funds were created - much more satisfying and profitable. Sorry if this has nothing to do with the comic, it was just an observation that struck me. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 19:58, 11 March 2014 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.40}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:955:_Neutrinos&diff=62445Talk:955: Neutrinos2014-03-11T19:06:23Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>When the news about the neutrino speed thing first came out, all these people I knew were asking if everything they knew was wrong because of the new discovery, and panning me for not believing the word of god that is the scientific journal. I don't know how these people get through life blindly believing everything that they're told. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]]<br />
<br />
: It actually isn't too hard to live like that. Fortunately for me, though, I didn't have all these people I know asking if everything they knew was wrong. Inversion? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"...arguing with people and preaching caution is futile. Cueball realizes that it is more satisfying and profitable to place bets with them instead." Does anyone else notice the similarity between this sentiment and mortgage security? Instead of preaching caution in lending and trying to convince people that they shouldn't be taking on loans, hedge funds were created - much more satisfying and profitable. Sorry if this has nothing to do with the comic, it was just an observation that struck me. -naginalf {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.40}}</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:955:_Neutrinos&diff=62400Talk:955: Neutrinos2014-03-10T21:19:52Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>When the news about the neutrino speed thing first came out, all these people I knew were asking if everything they knew was wrong because of the new discovery, and panning me for not believing the word of god that is the scientific journal. I don't know how these people get through life blindly believing everything that they're told. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]]<br />
<br />
: It actually isn't too hard to live like that. Fortunately for me, though, I didn't have all these people I know asking if everything they knew was wrong. Inversion? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"...arguing with people and preaching caution is futile. Cueball realizes that it is more satisfying and profitable to place bets with them instead." Does anyone else notice the similarity between this sentiment and mortgage security? Instead of preaching caution in lending and trying to convince people that they shouldn't be taking on loans, hedge funds were created - much more satisfying and profitable. Sorry if this has nothing to do with the comic, it was just an observation that struck me.</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:955:_Neutrinos&diff=62399Talk:955: Neutrinos2014-03-10T21:18:56Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>When the news about the neutrino speed thing first came out, all these people I knew were asking if everything they knew was wrong because of the new discovery, and panning me for not believing the word of god that is the scientific journal. I don't know how these people get through life blindly believing everything that they're told. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]]<br />
<br />
: It actually isn't too hard to live like that. Fortunately for me, though, I didn't have all these people I know asking if everything they knew was wrong. Inversion? --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 17 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"...arguing with people and preaching caution is futile. Cueball realizes that it is more satisfying and profitable to place bets with them instead." Does anyone else notice the similarity between this sentiment and mortgage security? Instead of preaching caution in lending and trying to convince people that they shouldn't be taking on loans, hedge funds were created - much more satisfying and profitable. Sorry if this has nothing to do with the comic, it was just a observation that struck me.</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=482:_Height&diff=61012482: Height2014-02-25T20:40:22Z<p>108.162.216.40: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 482<br />
| date = September 29, 2008<br />
| title = Height<br />
| image = height.png<br />
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|Lots of the little references aren't even mentioned, e.g. Human Altitude record, the space elevator, and I just added an explanation for "All Hail Discordia!" This is nearly there, but not yet.}}<br />
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]], which explores a {{w|logarithmic scale}} from Earth's atmosphere down to the interior of a single proton. ''Height'' begins this process by viewing logarithmically smaller scales showing several objects in the universe, both real and fictional, from farthest (top) to closest (bottom). The comic starts with [[Black Hat]] throwing a cat off the edge of the universe, probably a reference to {{w|Schrodinger's cat}} (as since it is outside the {{w|observable universe}} (for us), it exists in a super-position of both living and dead until we actually 'observe' it and force it to be in one of the states). It may also refer to the common myth that a cat will always land on its feet, a myth Black Hat appears to be testing to the extreme. The top of the universe is shown as the distance from which the oldest rays of light reach Earth.<br />
<br />
Displaying height logarithmically while displaying width linearly noticeably distorts the shapes of the terrestrial objects. The title text notes that this distortion would approximately cancel out the curve of the Eiffel Tower's profile, and speculates that the cancellation might in fact be exact enough to convert its silhouette to a straight-edged triangle.<br />
<br />
The {{w|age of the universe}} is currently stated as 13.8 billion years. But the {{w|Observable universe}} is about 14.0 billion {{w|parsecs}} or 46 billion {{w|light years}}, as shown on the top of the image.<br />
<br />
===Fictional Objects===<br />
<br />
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space].<br />
*{{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}}, character from {{w|The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (franchise)}}, shown near his home star; Betelgeuse.<br />
*The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone], marking the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.<br />
*{{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}, the sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.<br />
*"missing WMDs", a reference to the controversy about {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction}}.<br />
*{{w|Bupkis}} is Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt and the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, hence "Bupkis".<br />
*A comet scheduled to hit earth in 2063, to coincide with the latest date for a supposed [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm Biblically prophesized end of the world].<br />
*Life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which may or may not exist.<br />
**The arrows most likely points to the following moons:<br />
**Jupiter’s moon {{W|Europa (moon)|Europa}} which may be covered by a deep ocean of water - which is again covered by layer of ice many kilometers thick. In such an ocean life could have formed.<br />
**Saturn’s moon {{W|Titan (moon)|Titan}} is the only known moon to have an atmosphere - although nothing like the one on earth. There may be oceans on the moon, but not filled with water but with liquid methane and ethane. It is way too cold for liquid water. Still in such oceans life could also have formed.<br />
**For either moon the oceans cannot be viewed from earth either due to thick ice or opaque atmosphere.<br />
*The little spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}.<br />
*The {{w|Discovery One}} from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL."<br />
*The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt." However, it could conceivably refer to these instead:<br />
**The Quasi-elemental plane of Salt from the {{w|Inner Plane}} in {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}}.<br />
**The Great Salt Vampire from [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/M-113_creature Star Trek TOS].<br />
**A relative of {{w|Russell's teapot}}.<br />
*A lunar lander with someone inside proclaming "In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land". The goal of {{w|Lunar Lander (arcade game)}} is to land the vehicle without crashing it. The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.". The actual vehicle in the movie was round and not shaped like a lunar lander.<br />
*{{w|Cory Doctorow}}'s balloon. (first referenced in [[239]].)<br />
*[[Cueball]], who is apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353]].<br />
<br />
===Real Objects===<br />
<br />
*{{w|Hubble Deep Field}}, a long-exposure photograph of extremely distant galaxies.<br />
*{{w|Great Attractor}}, an unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.<br />
*{{w|Antennae Galaxies}}, a pair of colliding galaxies.<br />
*{{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}, a sibling to our Milky Way.<br />
*{{w|Magellanic Clouds}}, a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.<br />
*{{w|Crab Nebula}}, {{w|Orion Nebula}}, and {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}, supernova remnants.<br />
*{{w|Pleiades}}, {{w|Rigel}}, and {{w|Betelgeuse}}, stars. The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]<br />
*The distance that human radio transmissions have traveled so far. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212]].<br />
*{{w|Pollux}}, {{w|Arcturus}}, {{w|Sirius}}, {{w|Alpha Centauri}}, and {{w|Barnard's Star}}, nearby stars.<br />
*{{w|Oort cloud}}, a halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system.<br />
*{{w|Pioneer 10}} and {{w|Voyager 1}}, two early probes headed out of the solar system.<br />
*{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} and {{w|Pluto}}, a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|TNOs}} now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris. <br />
*{{w|Neptune}}, {{w|Uranus}}, {{w|Saturn}}, and {{w|Jupiter}}, giant gas planets at our {{w|Solar System|solar system}}.<br />
*The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} between Mars and Jupiter.<br />
*{{w|Mars}}, {{w|Venus}}, and {{w|Mercury}}, our neighboring inner planets. Note that Venus and Mars are shown with looping paths, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits (this is true for all planets, but more noticeable for these two because the ratio of smallest to greatest distance is particularly large).<br />
*The {{w|Sun}} and the {{w|Moon}}.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labelled.]<br />
:[Labels left to right, up to down:]<br />
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]<br />
:Black Cat: mrowl!<br />
::Top of Observable Universe<br />
::46 Billion Light Years Up<br />
::Hubble Deep Field Objects<br />
:-One Billion Light Years-<br />
::Great Attractor<br />
:Antennae Galaxies (Colliding)<br />
:Andromeda<br />
:::Holy Crap Lots of Space<br />
::-One Million Light Years-<br />
::Magellanic Clouds<br />
::Edge of Galaxy<br />
::Galactic Center<br />
::Crab Nebula<br />
::Orion Nebula<br />
::Horsehead Nebula<br />
::Romulan Neutral Zone<br />
:::The PLEIADES, Duh.<br />
::Rigel<br />
::Betelgeuse<br />
::Ford Prefect<br />
::-Expanding Shell of Radio Transmissions [Arrows are pointing up.]-<br />
::Edge of Federation Sector 0-0-1<br />
::Pollux<br />
::Arcturus<br />
::Missing WMDs<br />
::Alpha Centauri<br />
::Sirius<br />
::Barnard's Star<br />
:-One Parsec-<br />
::-One Light Year-<br />
::Oort Cloud (?)<br />
::Bupkis<br />
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063<br />
::Pioneer 10<br />
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)<br />
::Voyager I<br />
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)<br />
::Neptune<br />
::Uranus<br />
:Saturn<br />
::Asteroids<br />
:::<~life~><br />
::Jupiter<br />
::Venus<br />
::Mars<br />
::Sun<br />
::Mercury<br />
::Aircraft: Hey a heaping bowl of salt!<br />
::"Open the fridge door, Hal."<br />
::Moon<br />
::Human Altitude Record (Apollo 13)<br />
::2nd Place: Snoop Dogg<br />
::Space Elevator - One of these days, promise!<br />
::-Geosynchronous Orbit-<br />
::GPS Satellites<br />
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land<br />
::International Space Station<br />
::Space Junk<br />
::-Official Edge of Space (100 km)-<br />
::Meteors<br />
::-1/10 ATM-<br />
::High Altitude Balloons<br />
::Airliners<br />
::-1/2 ATM-<br />
::Cory Doctrow<br />
::Shuttle Columbia Lost<br />
::Everest<br />
::Helicoptors<br />
::Cueball: Woo Python!<br />
::-800 m-<br />
::-1 km-<br />
::[Height progressivly gets smaller and smaller.]<br />
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)<br />
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)<br />
::Kites<br />
::Great Pyramid (140 m)<br />
::Redwood (115 m)<br />
::Pop Fly<br />
::Oak (20 m)<br />
::"Hey Squirrels!"<br />
::Tallest Stilts<br />
::Brachiosaur (13 m)<br />
::Giraffe (8 m)<br />
::[Megan and Cueball.] Folks<br />
:The Observable Universe, from Top to Bottom ~On a log scale~<br />
:Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=482:_Height&diff=61011482: Height2014-02-25T20:39:09Z<p>108.162.216.40: /* Fictional Objects */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 482<br />
| date = September 29, 2008<br />
| title = Height<br />
| image = height.png<br />
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|Lots of the little references aren't even mentioned, e.g. Ford Prefect being near Betelgeuse (he's from there, isn't he?), Human Altitude record, the space elevator, and I just added an explanation for "All Hail Discordia!" This is nearly there, but not yet.}}<br />
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]], which explores a {{w|logarithmic scale}} from Earth's atmosphere down to the interior of a single proton. ''Height'' begins this process by viewing logarithmically smaller scales showing several objects in the universe, both real and fictional, from farthest (top) to closest (bottom). The comic starts with [[Black Hat]] throwing a cat off the edge of the universe, probably a reference to {{w|Schrodinger's cat}} (as since it is outside the {{w|observable universe}} (for us), it exists in a super-position of both living and dead until we actually 'observe' it and force it to be in one of the states). It may also refer to the common myth that a cat will always land on its feet, a myth Black Hat appears to be testing to the extreme. The top of the universe is shown as the distance from which the oldest rays of light reach Earth.<br />
<br />
Displaying height logarithmically while displaying width linearly noticeably distorts the shapes of the terrestrial objects. The title text notes that this distortion would approximately cancel out the curve of the Eiffel Tower's profile, and speculates that the cancellation might in fact be exact enough to convert its silhouette to a straight-edged triangle.<br />
<br />
The {{w|age of the universe}} is currently stated as 13.8 billion years. But the {{w|Observable universe}} is about 14.0 billion {{w|parsecs}} or 46 billion {{w|light years}}, as shown on the top of the image.<br />
<br />
===Fictional Objects===<br />
<br />
*[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space].<br />
*{{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}}, character from {{w|The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (franchise)}}, shown near his home star; Betelgeuse.<br />
*The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone], marking the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.<br />
*{{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}, the sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.<br />
*"missing WMDs", a reference to the controversy about {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction}}.<br />
*{{w|Bupkis}} is Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt and the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, hence "Bupkis".<br />
*A comet scheduled to hit earth in 2063, to coincide with the latest date for a supposed [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm Biblically prophesized end of the world].<br />
*Life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which may or may not exist.<br />
**The arrows most likely points to the following moons:<br />
**Jupiter’s moon {{W|Europa (moon)|Europa}} which may be covered by a deep ocean of water - which is again covered by layer of ice many kilometers thick. In such an ocean life could have formed.<br />
**Saturn’s moon {{W|Titan (moon)|Titan}} is the only known moon to have an atmosphere - although nothing like the one on earth. There may be oceans on the moon, but not filled with water but with liquid methane and ethane. It is way too cold for liquid water. Still in such oceans life could also have formed.<br />
**For either moon the oceans cannot be viewed from earth either due to thick ice or opaque atmosphere.<br />
*The little spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}.<br />
*The {{w|Discovery One}} from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL."<br />
*The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt." However, it could conceivably refer to these instead:<br />
**The Quasi-elemental plane of Salt from the {{w|Inner Plane}} in {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}}.<br />
**The Great Salt Vampire from [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/M-113_creature Star Trek TOS].<br />
**A relative of {{w|Russell's teapot}}.<br />
*A lunar lander with someone inside proclaming "In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land". The goal of {{w|Lunar Lander (arcade game)}} is to land the vehicle without crashing it. The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.". The actual vehicle in the movie was round and not shaped like a lunar lander.<br />
*{{w|Cory Doctorow}}'s balloon. (first referenced in [[239]].)<br />
*[[Cueball]], who is apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353]].<br />
<br />
===Real Objects===<br />
<br />
*{{w|Hubble Deep Field}}, a long-exposure photograph of extremely distant galaxies.<br />
*{{w|Great Attractor}}, an unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.<br />
*{{w|Antennae Galaxies}}, a pair of colliding galaxies.<br />
*{{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}, a sibling to our Milky Way.<br />
*{{w|Magellanic Clouds}}, a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.<br />
*{{w|Crab Nebula}}, {{w|Orion Nebula}}, and {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}, supernova remnants.<br />
*{{w|Pleiades}}, {{w|Rigel}}, and {{w|Betelgeuse}}, stars. The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]<br />
*The distance that human radio transmissions have traveled so far. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212]].<br />
*{{w|Pollux}}, {{w|Arcturus}}, {{w|Sirius}}, {{w|Alpha Centauri}}, and {{w|Barnard's Star}}, nearby stars.<br />
*{{w|Oort cloud}}, a halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system.<br />
*{{w|Pioneer 10}} and {{w|Voyager 1}}, two early probes headed out of the solar system.<br />
*{{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} and {{w|Pluto}}, a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|TNOs}} now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris. <br />
*{{w|Neptune}}, {{w|Uranus}}, {{w|Saturn}}, and {{w|Jupiter}}, giant gas planets at our {{w|Solar System|solar system}}.<br />
*The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} between Mars and Jupiter.<br />
*{{w|Mars}}, {{w|Venus}}, and {{w|Mercury}}, our neighboring inner planets. Note that Venus and Mars are shown with looping paths, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits (this is true for all planets, but more noticeable for these two because the ratio of smallest to greatest distance is particularly large).<br />
*The {{w|Sun}} and the {{w|Moon}}.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labelled.]<br />
:[Labels left to right, up to down:]<br />
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]<br />
:Black Cat: mrowl!<br />
::Top of Observable Universe<br />
::46 Billion Light Years Up<br />
::Hubble Deep Field Objects<br />
:-One Billion Light Years-<br />
::Great Attractor<br />
:Antennae Galaxies (Colliding)<br />
:Andromeda<br />
:::Holy Crap Lots of Space<br />
::-One Million Light Years-<br />
::Magellanic Clouds<br />
::Edge of Galaxy<br />
::Galactic Center<br />
::Crab Nebula<br />
::Orion Nebula<br />
::Horsehead Nebula<br />
::Romulan Neutral Zone<br />
:::The PLEIADES, Duh.<br />
::Rigel<br />
::Betelgeuse<br />
::Ford Prefect<br />
::-Expanding Shell of Radio Transmissions [Arrows are pointing up.]-<br />
::Edge of Federation Sector 0-0-1<br />
::Pollux<br />
::Arcturus<br />
::Missing WMDs<br />
::Alpha Centauri<br />
::Sirius<br />
::Barnard's Star<br />
:-One Parsec-<br />
::-One Light Year-<br />
::Oort Cloud (?)<br />
::Bupkis<br />
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063<br />
::Pioneer 10<br />
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)<br />
::Voyager I<br />
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)<br />
::Neptune<br />
::Uranus<br />
:Saturn<br />
::Asteroids<br />
:::<~life~><br />
::Jupiter<br />
::Venus<br />
::Mars<br />
::Sun<br />
::Mercury<br />
::Aircraft: Hey a heaping bowl of salt!<br />
::"Open the fridge door, Hal."<br />
::Moon<br />
::Human Altitude Record (Apollo 13)<br />
::2nd Place: Snoop Dogg<br />
::Space Elevator - One of these days, promise!<br />
::-Geosynchronous Orbit-<br />
::GPS Satellites<br />
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land<br />
::International Space Station<br />
::Space Junk<br />
::-Official Edge of Space (100 km)-<br />
::Meteors<br />
::-1/10 ATM-<br />
::High Altitude Balloons<br />
::Airliners<br />
::-1/2 ATM-<br />
::Cory Doctrow<br />
::Shuttle Columbia Lost<br />
::Everest<br />
::Helicoptors<br />
::Cueball: Woo Python!<br />
::-800 m-<br />
::-1 km-<br />
::[Height progressivly gets smaller and smaller.]<br />
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)<br />
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)<br />
::Kites<br />
::Great Pyramid (140 m)<br />
::Redwood (115 m)<br />
::Pop Fly<br />
::Oak (20 m)<br />
::"Hey Squirrels!"<br />
::Tallest Stilts<br />
::Brachiosaur (13 m)<br />
::Giraffe (8 m)<br />
::[Megan and Cueball.] Folks<br />
:The Observable Universe, from Top to Bottom ~On a log scale~<br />
:Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=263:_Certainty&diff=56219263: Certainty2013-12-30T18:35:15Z<p>108.162.216.40: Minor spelling correction (there --> their)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 263<br />
| date = May 18, 2007<br />
| title = Certainty<br />
| image = certainty.png<br />
| titletext = a(b+c)=(ab)+(ac). Politicize that, bitches.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are teachers at this comic, talking about their students and the political discussions with them. They outline that it's not possible to find the real truth. But then Cueball, interrupted by a harrumph of the mathematics teacher [[Miss Lenhart]], states that Mathematics is an exception (because math can actually be ''proved'', conclusively). [[Randall]] likes mathematics because their discussions as in politics are not possible.<br />
<br />
The title text shows a simple valid mathematical equation, the {{w|Distributive_law|left distributive law}}, and Randall is daring one to politicize it. But it's just impossible to discuss about equations like this; it is simply a clear statement.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A door seen from a hallway, with "Teachers' Lounge" on the glass. Inside, two teachers are talking.]<br />
:Megan: My students drew me into another political argument.<br />
:Cueball: Eh; it happens.<br />
:Megan: Lately, political debates bother me. They just show how good smart people are at rationalizing.<br />
:[The two teachers continue talking. A third one is seen reading a book on a sofa.]<br />
:Megan: The world is so complicated - the more I learn, the less clear anything gets. There are too many ideas and arguments to pick and choose from. How can I trust myself to know the truth about anything? And if everything I know is so shaky, what on Earth am I doing teaching?<br />
:Cueball: I guess you just do your best. No one can impart perfect universal truths to their students.<br />
:Mrs. Lenhart: ''ahem''<br />
:Cueball: ...Except math teachers.<br />
:Mrs. Lenhart: Thank you.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]</div>108.162.216.40https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1297:_Oort_Cloud&diff=539561297: Oort Cloud2013-11-29T16:40:02Z<p>108.162.216.40: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1297<br />
| date = November 29, 2013<br />
| title = Oort Cloud<br />
| image = oort_cloud.png<br />
| titletext = ... I wanna try. Hang on, be right back.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Not (yet) complete.}}<br />
The {{w|Oort cloud}} is a cloud mostly composed of comets that makes up the outer region of our solar system, reaching out to roughly 50,000 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit AU] or nearly one light-year from the sun. Gravitational forces from passing stars and the Milky Way sometimes perturb a comet enough to send it into the inner solar system. When the comet gets closer to the Sun (which is the “bright dot in the distance” here) it warms up and some of its body is lost as gas and dust, sometimes visible as a coma and perhaps a tail. If it gets close to the sun it may break up entirely.<br />
<br />
The comet pictured here upon its return resembles the unusual asteroid/comet {{w|P/2013 P5}} which sported six comet-like tails. In that case they seem to have been generated partly by rapid spinning.<br />
<br />
{{w|Comet ISON}} came from the Oort cloud and reached its closest approach to the sun ({{w|perihelion}}) on the day before this comic was published. The comet passed very close to the sun, at a distance of 1,860,000 kilometers or 1,150,000 miles. It was thus within one sun-diameter of the surface of the sun itself. The tail has changed its shape because the comet was partly broken up around the sun. The closest approach to Earth will be on December 27, 2013 but it's not clear if the comet will be visible by the naked eye.<br />
<br />
This video shows an animation of the encounter at the sun: [http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/browse/2013/11/28/ahead_20131128_cor2_rdiff_512.mpg ISON 28.11.2013].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Three asteroids float in space.]<br />
:ISON: Have you noticed that bright dot in the distance?<br />
:Asteroid: Yeah. What's the deal with it?<br />
<br />
:ISON: Dunno. I'm gonna go check it out.<br />
<br />
:[Pause while ISON checks it out off screen.]<br />
<br />
:[Several million years later.]<br />
:ISON (appears burnt): Wow. Do NOT go over there.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Astronomy]]</div>108.162.216.40