Difference between revisions of "635: Locke and Demosthenes"

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(Created page with "{{comic | number = 635 | date = 2009-9-10 | title = Locke and Demosthenes | image = http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/locke_and_demosthenes.png | imagesize = | titl...")
 
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| date      = 2009-9-10
 
| date      = 2009-9-10
 
| title    = Locke and Demosthenes
 
| title    = Locke and Demosthenes
| image    = http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/locke_and_demosthenes.png
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| image    = locke_and_demosthenes.png
 
| imagesize =  
 
| imagesize =  
| titletext = Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.}
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| titletext = Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
<!-- This is from Ender's game, by Orson Scott Card. Shown are Valentine and Peter Wiggin, who are discussing their plan to save the world from itself as their brother saves it from the alien Buggers. The last panel is meant to show the utter absurdity of anyone gaining a major political office through blogging and chat forums. The title text is meant to show that the utterly absurd happens sometimes. -->
 
 
This is from Ender's game, by Orson Scott Card. Shown are Valentine and Peter Wiggin, who are discussing their plan to save the world from itself as their brother saves it from the alien Buggers. The last panel is meant to show the utter absurdity of anyone gaining a major political office through blogging and chat forums. The title text is meant to show that the utterly absurd happens sometimes.
 
This is from Ender's game, by Orson Scott Card. Shown are Valentine and Peter Wiggin, who are discussing their plan to save the world from itself as their brother saves it from the alien Buggers. The last panel is meant to show the utter absurdity of anyone gaining a major political office through blogging and chat forums. The title text is meant to show that the utterly absurd happens sometimes.
 +
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
 
<!-- The transcript can be found in a hidden <div> element on the xkcd comic's html source, with id "transcript".
 
<!-- The transcript can be found in a hidden <div> element on the xkcd comic's html source, with id "transcript".
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   -- Do not include the title text again here -->
 
   -- Do not include the title text again here -->
 
[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground.  Peter is feeding a squirrel.]
 
[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground.  Peter is feeding a squirrel.]
Valentine: Ender&#39;s up there saving the world, but down here it&#39;s fallig apart politically. What can we do?
+
Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it&#39;s falling apart politically. What can we do?
  
 
Peter: I know -- we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions.  People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything!
 
Peter: I know -- we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions.  People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything!

Revision as of 05:17, 19 September 2012

Locke and Demosthenes
Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.
Title text: Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.

Explanation

This is from Ender's game, by Orson Scott Card. Shown are Valentine and Peter Wiggin, who are discussing their plan to save the world from itself as their brother saves it from the alien Buggers. The last panel is meant to show the utter absurdity of anyone gaining a major political office through blogging and chat forums. The title text is meant to show that the utterly absurd happens sometimes.

Transcript

[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground. Peter is feeding a squirrel.] Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it's falling apart politically. What can we do?

Peter: I know -- we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions. People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything! Valentine: Brilliant! [The squirrel is vomiting.]

[A blog.] ((Header.)) LOCKE Powered by Wordpress

((Articles, partly scrolled down.)) [...] which is why we must reach out to the Russian leadership.

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((In a larger font)) The Problem with China In recent months much has been made of [...]

((In a sidebar)) Recent posts: >> A few thoughts on...

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>> Russian Aggression...

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>> And one more thing...

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((A list of links to other websites.)) Blogroll: >> Demosthenes >> FiveThirtyEight

comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

...may someone explain FiveThirtyEight? Greyson (talk) 15:34, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

FiveThirtyEight AFAIK is the Twitter handle (and the name of his blog, which is now a part of the NY Times) of statistician Nate Silver. He may have chosen to use that handle as it is the number of votes in the Electoral College. And now that I've done all that research, I might copy this into the explanation. lcarsos_a (talk) 17:13, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
This is important and should be part of the explanation. I might add it, if I can find a way to work it into the current explanation. --Kynde (talk) 20:21, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

I didn't add this because it might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that Ender and Valentine aren't going to the formic homeworld, since that was destroyed by the M. D. Device, and I think that in Ender in Exile, Ender is shown to have gone to a mere colony of the formics. Athang (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I agree with your interpretation, but the book does not come out and say such. For this reason, I changed the wording from "the former Bugger homeworld" to "a planet formerly inhabitted by Buggers". Smperron (talk) 04:55, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Someone may want to change the transcript about the squirrel vomiting. It's far more likely Peter is holding food in panel 1 and has dropped it on the ground for the squirrel to eat in panel 2...108.162.250.212 05:02, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

The official transcript states the former, so that was most likely Randall's intention when drawing it. Zowayix (talk) 18:55, 18 April 2015 (UTC)
True to both. I have added that it doesn't look like it is vomiting, but added the link to the official transcript and noted both that it does vomit, and that it looks like it eats from the ground. The transcript here should describe the comic. Not copy the transcript from xkcd. But use it for clarifications. For instance the names are also not given in the comic, at least not for Valentine, whereas they are given in the official transcript. --Kynde (talk) 20:21, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
It makes sense that the squirrel is vomiting. Peter Wiggin, in the books, was a psychopath and an animal abuser, so what he fed the squirrel might have been poisonous. 172.71.123.159 18:49, 5 November 2023 (UTC)