https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.54.24&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T12:18:00ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:206:_Reno_Rhymes&diff=123828Talk:206: Reno Rhymes2016-07-22T07:42:45Z<p>173.245.54.24: </p>
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<div>my Lai may also be a reference to Lai's definition, " a lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance." Can anyone tell if the poem in the comic fits the Lai's definition? If so, then Black Hat might also be saying "I shot a man in Reno, and a bunch more in my poem", referencing the poem they're saying. ---- {{unsigned|Bluewin}}<br />
:Interesting idea, but unfortunately the rhymes are not octosyallbic, which means to contain eight syllables. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 17:06, 6 March 2016 (UTC)<br />
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The "Now, I don't mean to pry" is a reference to "The Princess Bride" (Inigo says that to Westley). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.56|108.162.231.56]] 21:44, 15 February 2015 (UTC) {{unsigned|Idanbhk}}<br />
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Reno: where poets go to satisfy their homocidal urges. The murder rate is through the roof. {{unsigned ip|RedHatGuy68}}<br />
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't My Lai pronounced similar to melee? Would that not prevent it from rhyming in the comic? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.24|173.245.54.24]] 07:42, 22 July 2016 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.24https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1677:_Contrails&diff=1194931677: Contrails2016-05-08T15:59:21Z<p>173.245.54.24: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1677<br />
| date = May 6, 2016<br />
| title = Contrails<br />
| image = contrails.png<br />
| titletext = Astronomy (or "astrology" in British English) is the study of ...<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{w|Contrail}}s (short for "condensation trails") are trails of vapor produced by aircraft exhaust, trailing the airplane. They are formed from water condensing on jet fuel exhaust particles, some impurities of which provide bases for ice crystals to accumulate on. Some can dissipate in minutes, but others can last for hours or even longer, depending on the temperature and wind conditions at that particular altitude. The {{w|chemtrail conspiracy theory}} claims that contrails lasting unusually long are actually chemical or biological agents sprayed into the air for sinister purposes. There is no evidence such a thing is happening.<br />
<br />
Here, [[White Hat]] notices that there are a lot of contrails in the air. [[Cueball]] corrects him, saying that in {{w|American English}}, contrails are called chemtrails, which is incorrect.<br />
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This is a comic in the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series. Some of these comics involve [[Cueball]] giving misleading information about pedantic terms, such as [[1405: Meteor]]. Another of these comics, [[966: Jet Fuel]], even mentions chemtrails, saying that they are made of mind-control agents carried on board the planes that make them.<br />
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The title text includes a similar situation, implying that {{w|astronomy}} and {{w|astrology}} are synonymous, with astrology being the term used in British English. However, this is incorrect. Astronomy is the scientific study of things in outer space, like stars, planets, and galaxies. Astrology, however, is a system that infers a person's personality and characteristics from those same things in outer space. Though both involve studying celestial objects, astrology is considered a pseudoscience rather than an empirical science.<br />
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The joke is that {{w|British English}} and American English often call the same object with different terms, and one can often learn new words for a simple thing. This, however is not the case in this comic; contrail and chemtrail do not refer to the same thing, the latter being only a subtype of the former. And it being xkcd, we can assume that chemtrail is a term that is frowned upon. Thus the comic states it as misinformation.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball and a White Hat are walking. White Hat is looking up to the sky while Cueball, walking in front holds out one arm towards him.]<br />
:White Hat: Lots of contrails today.<br />
:Cueball: Oh, you must be from the UK. In American English it's "Chemtrail".<br />
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:[Caption under the panel]<br />
:My hobby: Spreading linguistic misinformation<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]</div>173.245.54.24https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:530:_I%27m_An_Idiot&diff=106840Talk:530: I'm An Idiot2015-12-11T22:40:13Z<p>173.245.54.24: </p>
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<div>Does this count as a self-nerd-snipe? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.101|108.162.218.101]] 02:44, 9 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Anyone have an idea how he made his Mac Mini speak? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.129|199.27.133.129]] 19:46, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Yes. Read the title text. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.83|108.162.216.83]] 03:36, 29 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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osascript -e "set volume 7", if anybody is curious --[[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 17:34, 1 May 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I like how the doorbell pops out real obviously in the last panel. like 0_0... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.24|173.245.54.24]]</div>173.245.54.24https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:437:_SUV&diff=106439Talk:437: SUV2015-12-04T22:59:11Z<p>173.245.54.24: </p>
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<div>Im not sure this strip even needs an explanation [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 21:46, 11 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Hey what's M, P and D stand for? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.187|108.162.250.187]] 17:43, 1 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
:God question. The first price without a letter should be petrol/gasoline. M should be {{w|Methanol fuel|Methanol fuel}} used in some racing cars. P could be {{w|Propane|Propane}}. D must be {{w|Diesel fuel|Diesel fuel}} which is more expensive than petrol.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:24, 1 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:: M and P mean 89 and 91 or 92 octane. Officially, each chain has their own brand names for each grade, but they all settled on M names (Medium, Midrange, etc.) pretty quickly, and P names (Premium, Pro-Tech, etc.) beat out H names (Hi-Test) by the early 90s. So, now they can all advertise their prices with signs with M and P.<br />
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:: The D is always for diesel (and in America, there's only one kind of diesel at non-truck pumps instead of the two found in some parts of the world).<br />
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:: By the way, mid-range gas is almost entirely a scam. It sort of made sense in the 70s, when cars that needed more than 88 octane were allowed to use leader gas for a few years after cars using 87 octane. But once that exception expired, its only purpose has been idiots who think "my $50000 BMW can't possibly use the same gas as my crappy old VW, so I'd better spend a bit more". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.69|162.158.255.69]] 04:34, 15 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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::: Actually, higher octane gasses are less susceptible to knocking. I have an older 2004 Subaru Baja manual, and 89 octane gas actually helps the car make more efficient starts. Knocking isn't good for the engine, and it occurrs more at 87. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.24|173.245.54.24]]<br />
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P is probably Premium gasoline. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.164}}</div>173.245.54.24https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1611:_Baking_Soda_and_Vinegar&diff=1063221611: Baking Soda and Vinegar2015-12-03T19:50:37Z<p>173.245.54.24: /* Transcript */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1611<br />
| date = December 2, 2015<br />
| title = Baking Soda and Vinegar<br />
| image = baking_soda_and_vinegar.png<br />
| titletext = Sure, it may not meet science fair standards, but I want credit for getting my baking soda and vinegar mountain added to the Decade Volcanoes list.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Does it miss something about the reaction although that may not count as "real" science?}}<br />
In popular fiction (and maybe in part in fact) the "{{w|Sodium bicarbonate|Baking Soda}} and {{w|Vinegar}}" {{w|volcano}} is often a staple image of the science nerd at the science fair (see [https://sciencebob.com/the-erupting-volcano/ example here]), unless all the science nerds are doing ''real'' imaginative science and the student(s) with the volcano exhibit are dragging out the old hackneyed stereotype. It may also be age-dependent, this being something that is relatively advanced science for the lower grades but rather a childish experiment in the hands of older students.<br />
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As [[Ponytail]] is probably about to point out, the 'volcano' exhibit doesn't (usually) actually demonstrate anything about volcanic activity, it is just simple chemistry - such as you usually conduct in a simple test-tube - dressed up to look more impressive, often with dye or other additives to make the 'lava' look realistic for the model, but unrelated to the geology it supposedly represents. In most soda volcano projects people don't even explain what's happening.<br />
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The girl with hair bun has made a little more of her volcano, however, as it seems to go beyond simple chemistry. The model replicates many of the dangers (aside from the pure lava) of a volcano, and appears to have been given scaled-down vehicles (not visible in the comic) trying (and failing) to escape the dangers of the resultant mud-flows (a.k.a. {{w|lahar|lahars}} in professional terminology) being modelled.<br />
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Even more, this is not an isolated 'model volcano' but a vinegar-powered representation of a geological 'hot spot', such as with the islands of Hawaii, in which the spot moves with respect to the Earth's crust (or vice-versa) and generates a new volcano some way off. Despite this model being supported on a table, it appears that the 'project' extends some way beyond that and has somehow contrived further eruptions away from the table, the room and probably even the building.<br />
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The 'project' seems to be turning into a very thorough model of a much larger geological process (a {{w|Supervolcano}} like {{w|Yellowstone Caldera|the one}} under {{w|Yellowstone National Park|Yellowstone}}) and destined to produce a ''very real'' {{w|volcanic winter}}. Where a magma-powered volcano could produce vast clouds of dust, preventing the sun's energy from warming the Earth, in this case it's the airborne salt (probably sodium acetate) from the chemical reaction that appears to be in danger of causing crop failure. There's no mention of the corresponding environmental effects of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide (and/or aqueous carbonic acid) necessarily released in proportion to the ejected salt (presumably itself not left in solution).<br />
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It is especially troubling that the child even mentions that her model volcano is an offshoot of a bakingsoda ''super''volcano. Supervolcanoes are massive volcanoes, far larger than even those on the list of {{w|Decade Volcanoes}} (mentioned in the title text), whose eruption would likely trigger species-level extinction events comparable to the dinosaur extinction. Humanity can only hope the child is exaggerating in her description, but the symptoms witnessed by the adult looking out the window suggest otherwise. {{w|Campi Flegrei}} is actually a real life example of her project.<br />
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When someone (presumably the dark haired woman) says she wants to stop learning, the girl with the bun grimly states that "Soon, we all will", alluding to their impending doom.<br />
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[[Randall]] has mentioned supervolcanoes before in [[1053: Ten Thousand]] (title text) and [[1159: Countdown]], making it a recurring interest of his.<br />
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In the title text the student expects extra credit for getting her model volcano added to the Decade Volcanoes list, a list maintained by {{w|International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior}} of the worlds most dangerous volcanoes (currently 16). It is either an absurd notion or a very troubling achievement that a science fair project could achieve the threatlevel posed by the likes of {{w|Mount Vesuvius}} (which destroyed ancient Pompeii in Italy, and threatens modern-day Naples in the same manner), {{w|Mount Rainier}} (whose lahars could potentially destroy parts of Seattle) or {{w|Mauna Loa}} (which could create a massive landslide, triggering a major tsunami that would threaten all of Hawaii). But at least that means that it was only a "local" volcano event and not a supervolcano event that she created. But considering the scale of her original model volcano, then the eruption of her supervolcano would probably fit with the difference between a normal single volcano eruption and that of one supervolcano! She kept it to scale!<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Ponytail is standing behind a small girl with a hair bun who has one hand up. They are looking at a table with a model volcano.]<br />
:Girl: My science project is a baking soda and vinegar volcano!<br />
<br />
:[A larger frame that includes Megan who stands to the right. Ponytail is a little further back and the girl has taken her hand down. The baking soda volcano erupts in a small upwards explosion.]<br />
:Ponytail: Why do people make these? It isn't really even a science project. It doesn't teach anything about-<br />
:Volcano: '''''Foom! '''''<br />
<br />
:[Smaller frame again. Ponytail has moved closer to the table, the girl moves around the table to the right, pointing at the volcano while Megan walks closer. The "lava" flows down the volcano on both sides.]<br />
:Girl: See how the baking soda and vinegar mix with mud and ice to form deadly flowing lahars?<br />
<br />
:[Zoom in on the girls head close to the stream of lava going down the lower part of the volcano's right slope.]<br />
:Girl: You can see the tiny cars trying to flee. <br />
:Girl: Whoops! Too slow.<br />
<br />
:[Zoom in on Ponytail.]<br />
:Ponytail: Um. This is a bit grim.<br />
:Girl (off panel): Learning!<br />
<br />
:[The girls stand to the right of the table looking at the now still volcano. Shaky lines surround a sound effect written over the top of this slim frame:]<br />
:''Rumble''<br />
<br />
:[Back to showing all three as before. The girl looks at something in her hand (a stopwatch maybe?)]<br />
:Girl: And now we're learning that this volcano is an offshoot of a vinegar hotspot rising from deep within the earth.<br />
:Girl: ''Annnnd...''<br />
<br />
:[The girls turns away from the table looking right as a loud noise can be heard off-panel, depicted in white text on a wavy black bubble:]<br />
:''Boooom'' <br />
<br />
:[Megan has walked over to a window to the right. It has the blinds drawn down. She opens a hole in the blinds by pulling down in the middle. It is dark outside. The other two are outside the frame to the left.]<br />
:Girl (off panel): The baking soda supervolcano erupts, injecting clouds of salt into the stratosphere.<br />
:Megan: Why is it getting dark outside?<br />
:Girl (off panel): Learning is fun!<br />
<br />
:[We see the girl standing close to the table, of which only the right leg can be seen. She holds up a tablet with a graph showing a rising trend. The other two are both out of the frame.]<br />
:Megan: Sunlight dims. The earth cools. Summer frosts form. Crops die. We check the markets. Grain prices are rising.<br />
:Girl (off panel): I want to stop learning now.<br />
:Megan: Soon, we all will.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]</div>173.245.54.24https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=942:_Juggling&diff=103304942: Juggling2015-10-12T20:54:19Z<p>173.245.54.24: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 942<br />
| date = August 24, 2011<br />
| title = Juggling<br />
| image = juggling.png<br />
| titletext = Later: 'Why is there a book hovering over the trash can?'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The joke here is that the "How to Juggle" book assumes that there is gravity and momentum in the place where you are juggling. It seems like there is no gravity or momentum because when [[Cueball]] throws the juggling balls up in the air, they don't come down, and also don't continue the trajectory that they had when they left his hands.<br />
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Or, it could be that in the third panel, it looks like he's juggling, but the next ones show that they're just floating.<br />
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The title text draws on the fact the book being thrown into the trash can can also be interpreted as a hovering book, while in a still image form, such as shown in this comic.<br />
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While it is possible to reach zero gravity (or at least microgravity), there is no place in our universe where objects with mass have no momentum. Some possible explanations might be that Cueball is outside of our universe, he has just discovered something that's theoretically impossible, or he is just dreaming, or [[Randall]] has taken comedic license on the "momentum" part for the sake of the joke. Or he could be in a place where the surrounding fluid, instead of having the normal properties of earth's atmosphere, is a very thick or viscous fluid in which things simply become stuck.<br />
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Also, because Cueball jumps and returns to the ground (panels 6 & 7), it would appear that the effect is limited to the balls and the book, and does not extend to Cueball himself. However, his return could be caused by magnetism, rather than gravity. (In science fiction, {{w|magnetic boots|boots containing magnets}} are used to hold astronauts "down" when gravity is not adequate.)<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[The panel shows a close up of Cueball reading a book. The book is called "How To Juggle" and has a picture of a person juggling on the cover.]<br />
<br />
:[The view now shows the entirety of Cueball. A book is splayed on the floor behind them, and he is holding some juggling balls.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball throws the juggling balls in the air.]<br />
<br />
:[He lowers his arms to prepare to catch the balls. The balls are still hovering in mid-air.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball now stands with his arms by his sides. The balls have not moved and are still suspended in mid-air.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball jumps, trying to grab the lowest ball. He can't reach.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball scratches his head and stares at the still floating juggling balls.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball throws the book into a trash can.]<br />
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==Trivia==<br />
*This comic actually appeared previously in [[940: Oversight]], due to a bug in the xkcd Android app where instead of the correct comic, an unpublished 'Five Minute Comics' was shown.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>173.245.54.24