Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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| − | {{comic
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| − | | number = 765
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| − | | date = July 12, 2010
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| − | | title = Dilution
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| − | | image = dilution.png
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| − | | titletext = Dear editors of Homeopathy Monthly: I have two small corrections for your July issue. One, it's spelled "echinacea", and two, homeopathic medicines are no better than placebos and your entire magazine is a sham.
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| − | }}
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| − | ==Explanation==
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| − | {{w|Homeopathy}} is the belief that poisons, bacteria, and other disease-causing substances can actually cure the diseases they'd normally cause after going through several rounds of dilution. (There's also a "succussion" step in between rounds, which basically consists of shaking or striking the mixture, but no serious mechanism for how this would affect anything has been provided.) In the medical world, it's widely believed to be total bunk, with countless scientific studies repeatedly showing it to have no more effectiveness than a {{w|placebo}}.
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| − | Here we find [[Cueball]], a firm believer in homeopathy, applying the idea to fertility by diluting his semen. 30X means that the semen has been diluted with water at a 1:10 ratio 30 times, so the solution contains 1 part semen to one-novillion parts water. Since the average ejaculation contains 200 to 500 million sperm cells, this means the solution Cueball is holding has a 0.000000000000000000035% chance of containing even a single sperm cell. Clearly, [[Megan]] will not be getting pregnant from this, so Cueball will not be passing on his genes, which is why the comic states that the belief in homeopathy is not selected for.
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| − | {{w|Echinacea}} is a genus of flowers commonly used in herbal remedies to stimulate the immune system. Scientific studies have not shown that such an effect exists.
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| − | ==Transcript==
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| − | :[Cueball stands at a desk with a beaker in one hand and a turkey baster in the other. Megan lies in a bed in the same room.]
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| − | :Cueball: Okay, this time I've diluted the semen 30x.
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| − | :Woman: We'll be ''sure'' to get pregnant now!
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| − | :Caption: Belief in homeopathy is not, evolutionarily, selected for.
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| − | {{comic discussion}}
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
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| − | [[Category:Romance]]
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Revision as of 05:40, 17 February 2013
