https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.52.201&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-19T12:55:46ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1257:_Monster&diff=2111571257: Monster2021-04-28T19:07:06Z<p>173.245.52.201: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1257<br />
| date = August 28, 2013<br />
| title = Monster<br />
| image = monster.png<br />
| titletext = It was finally destroyed with a nuclear weapon carrying the destructive energy of the Hiroshima bomb.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
In this comic, officials and police are evidently trying to describe the extraordinary qualities of a huge monster by comparing it with everyday objects instead of numbers, which seems to be a recurring theme on xkcd (see [[526: Converting to Metric]], [[1047: Approximations]]) and also in the [[Blag]] article [http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/05/15/dictionary-of-numbers/ Dictionary of Numbers] where [[Randall]] says that he doesn't "like large numbers without context."<br />
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This comic pokes fun at how common it is in the media to compare things of extraordinary qualities to a certain narrow set of well-known objects. The comic features people discussing a fictional monster which - apparently - can be only described by these overused comparisons. The three used by [[Megan]], [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] are:<br />
*The monster is as long as a football field. This is most likely an {{w|American_football#Field_and_equipment|American football field}} (given the author is American). So the monster is about 120 yards/110 m long.<br />
**Here is an {{w|Marco Polo Park|example from Wikipedia}} where a building is compared to the length of a football field.<br />
*The monster runs as fast as a cheetah, at least 60 mph or 96 kmh.<br />
**The {{w|Cheetah}} is famous for being the fastest land animal at full sprint. Like the monster, the cheetah is prone to comparisons: to cars, since 60 mph is a common highway speed limit. Unlike a cheetah, however, the monster's speed is almost certainly thanks to its large stride.<br />
*The monster is as heavy as a {{w|blue whale}} (about 180 tonnes).<br />
**Here is an [http://factismals.com/tag/fish/ example] where the weight of a blue whale is used in two different comparison (something heavier and something lighter).<br />
*Finally it is stated that it has the intelligence of a two-year-old child. Comparing someones intelligence to a child of a given age is very common.<br />
**Here is an [http://www.livescience.com/5613-dogs-smart-2-year-kids.html example] where a dog is compared to a two year old kid.<br />
**There is even an xkcd comic that is referring to this age IQ: [[1364: Like I'm Five]].<br />
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The caption below the panel names the monster the ''Frequently-Made Comparisons Monster'', joking that the monster was created by comparing it to things, and continues the joke by comparing the number of killed people to those that could fill a (sports) stadium (of the order tens of thousands), and the area of devastation to the smallest state in the US {{w|Rhode Island}} (1,214&nbsp;sq&nbsp;mi/3,140&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) (a state Randall also used for comparison in the What if? [http://what-if.xkcd.com/8/ Everybody Jump]. In another What if? he uses a football stadium filled with ants as a comparison: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/ Lethal Neutrinos].)<br />
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The title text takes the joke one step further by comparing the {{w|nuclear bomb}} used to destroy the monster to {{w|Little Boy|the bomb dropped on Hiroshima}} at the end of the Second World War. This is an oft-used reference for explosive devices, and implying that it is the frequently-made-comparison quality of the bomb that destroyed the monster. (Here is an {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event#Effects of impact|example from Wikipedia}} of such a comparison with the strength of a meteor strike.)<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Four people are standing around a table-top crisis planning model. Cueball and Ponytail are wearing police-style hats; Megan holds a clipboard and Blondie has her hands on the table.]<br />
:Megan: It's as long as a football field. Runs as fast as a cheetah.<br />
:Cueball: Weighs as much as a blue whale.<br />
:Blondie: Can we negotiate with it?<br />
:Ponytail: No. It has the intelligence of a two-year-old child.<br />
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:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:By the time the Frequently-Made Comparisons Monster was finally defeated, it had eaten enough people to fill a stadium and devastated an area the size of Rhode Island. <br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:American football]]<br />
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]</div>173.245.52.201https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2447:_Hammer_Incident&diff=209991Talk:2447: Hammer Incident2021-04-08T13:17:57Z<p>173.245.52.201: Giant comic now fixed</p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
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big --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.153|162.158.187.153]] 02:04, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
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I added a basic explanation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.224|162.158.212.224]] 02:28, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
== Giant comic ==<br />
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Is it meant to be that size? Does the bad luck apply to trying to upload comics at reasonable sizes? <br />
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[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.19|172.69.33.19]] 02:09, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Oooh boy, indeed... "Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP" is the Wiki's assessment of the auto-uploaded image. I haven't checked the resolution, but the https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hammer_incident.png one is apparently 4332x4838 (scales to 8% on my device), and I don't care to test the _2x version right now. I'm not sure that was the native res of it on creation, looks to be an accidental up-scaling prior to posting to xkcd itself. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.6|141.101.98.6]] 02:20, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
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::The _2x version is actually the proper size for a normal comic - 578x645 pixels. [[User:Noëlle|Noëlle]] ([[User talk:Noëlle|talk]]) 02:21, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
:::Still seems larger than normal to me, even the 2x seems larger than I would expect. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.78|172.69.34.78]] 04:02, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Maybe the extra-large image is what the original looks like using the James Webb telescope? Maybe over-thinking. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.145|172.68.132.145]] 04:19, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Or perhaps its an resolution/aspect ratio/zoom factor difference between it and the old telescope. Implying all other comics have secretly been placed in front of the other telescope [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.50|172.69.170.50]] 04:56, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Perhaps overthinking, if the main reflecting mirror was actually destroyed, the light entering the telescope would never be focused into the secondary mirror and the image would be "light size" so you would only be able to see a small portion of what you expect<br />
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:It looks to me that, while most of the text is rendered smoothly in full resolution, the caption below the panel ("Man, NASA is really on my case about the James Webb Space Telescope.") is very jaggy on a pixel level, but only on the Y-axis. There could be quite a bit of information in there. No idea what it means, though. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.36|141.101.77.36]] 07:29, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
::It could be floating-point errors that indicate the code flow of the renderer Randall used. Or it could mean anything else. Curious to compare it to a correct rendering of that text with the same font, but wouldn't know what to do with the vector of edge differences myself. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.140|162.158.63.140]] 09:03, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
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:It seems to be fixed now so I am sure it was an accident<br />
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== inspiration ==<br />
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When I read this comic I was worried it might have been inspired by recent news of something breaking during the final assembly process. Fortunately this seems not to be the case. Among the many delays of the telescope, were any of them caused by mirror and/or cryo failures that might have inspired this comic? [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 05:53, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
:What caused the most recent delay? It seems it's been pushed forward more as Randall predicted in the other comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.140|162.158.63.140]] 09:03, 8 April 2021 (UTC)<br />
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== Cryogenic? ==<br />
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I get the sense that the title text is inspired by liquid nitrogen ice cream. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.252|108.162.237.252]] 13:14, 8 April 2021 (UTC)</div>173.245.52.201https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:886:_Craigslist_Apartments&diff=54014Talk:886: Craigslist Apartments2013-12-01T05:05:14Z<p>173.245.52.201: Comment</p>
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<div>The house with a house inside may be a reference to the tesseracted, 4D house from Robert Heinlein's "-And He Built A Crooked House." {{unsigned ip|173.225.52.131}}<br />
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I would have thought the klein stairs with the intense heat in short bursts may be a reference to a research fusion reactor. 'Net searches seem to suggest there may be connections between plasma behaviour and klein bottle mathematics. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.5}}<br />
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The Minotaur sounds like a reference to Doctor Who The God Complex. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.201|173.245.52.201]] 05:05, 1 December 2013 (UTC)</div>173.245.52.201