Talk:1400: D.B. Cooper

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Feels like a conspiracy(?) 108.162.227.35 12:15, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Isn't it a reference to the Malaysia Airlines conspiracy theory? http://humansarefree.com/2014/07/busted-mh-17-was-in-fact-lost-flight-mh.html?m=0 - Renee 108.162.245.75 00:44, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

No.141.101.98.12 10:31, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Oh, this is a hilarious comic! --Dangerkeith3000 (talk) 15:14, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Could someone explain what "the Citizen Kane of ____" is all about? --NeatNit (talk) 17:05, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

"Citizen Kane" is regarded as a masterpiece landmark film, and other films are often compared to it as a highly favorable compliment. 173.245.52.211 18:08, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
"Citizen Kane" as a reference point here is more meaningful that that. Apart from being a landmark film, "Citizen Kane" was also made by a movie-newbie at that day, namely Orson Welles, who not only played the title role, but also directed, co-wrote and co-produced the movie, very much like Wiseau did with his landmark film; the only significant difference thus being "Citizen Kane" the best and "The Room" the worst movie ever made. 141.101.88.223 13:14, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

This is really just a curiosity, but what is unusual about the phrasing "You are tearing me apart"? (I'm obviously not a native speaker) Ly mar (talk) 17:12, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

  • Beyond using "You are" instead of "You're", not much. The oddness of the line is mostly through the delivery in the film, not the grammar. ImVeryAngryItsNotButter (talk) 17:14, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
photograph

Is this the first xkcd to feature a full color photograph of a person? 108.162.216.52 17:38, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

con·tem·po·rar·y

adjective: contemporary

   1.
   living or occurring at the same time.
   "the event was recorded by a contemporary historian"
       dating from the same time.
       "this series of paintings is contemporary with other works in an early style"
       synonyms:	of the time, of the day, contemporaneous, concurrent, coeval, coexisting, coexistent More
       "contemporary sources"
   2.
   belonging to or occurring in the present.
   "the tension and complexities of our contemporary society"


"In 1971, a man referred to by the media as D. B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 and escaped with the contemporary equivalent of over $1 million in ransom money."

So that can be either 1971 dollars (contemporary to D. B. Cooper's time) or 2014 dollars (contemporary to the present time).

(A lot of people think definition no. 2 is the only definition, but it isn't.)

--RenniePet (talk) 00:49, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

I appreciate your work to improve the explanations here. But, such theatrics over a one word edit are unnecessary. lcarsos_a (talk) 02:14, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
I've changed it now so it's clearer anyway141.101.98.12 10:31, 29 July 2014 (UTC)


I created an account solely so I could remove the anomalous use of "beg the question". [1] Gidklio (talk) 04:31, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

What is a "European accent"? Any accent that is not Indian, Chinese, or Japanese? --Frerin (talk) 10:15, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Yeah - or Australian, or Inuit, or African, or South American or any other accent that's not from a cultural/language group primary to Europe (and definitely not North American [clear from the context of the sentence]), but more specifically, not any European form of English (so, perhaps, Icelandic, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, and many other possibilities) which might be hard for an untrained listener to specifically identify as anything but "European". Many languages have commonalities due to geographic proximity, not only in terms of accent, but also syntax and vocabulary, which would modify the learners' ability to accurately acquire and render a foreign language in the same ways. That is, someone who natively speaks Portuguese and someone who natively speaks French will have similar troubles in learning subtleties of American English but which would contrast from those troubles encountered by someone who's native language is Hindi, Tagalog, or Yoruba. Brettpeirce (talk) 13:41, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

According to one reddit user, Tommy Wiseau is from Poland, and his last name was "Wieczór" [meaning "Evening"] or variation of it. 141.101.88.219 17:10, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

Just popping in to note that Cooper's fate is no longer unknown, his niece came forward in 2011. He was survived the jump with some injuries but had lost the money in the process. Real name Lynn Doyle Cooper, died 1999. 173.245.54.169 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Not to deny or confirm that, but the Wikipedia article on D.B. Cooper states that 9,710 of the bills are still missing (290 bills were found in Washington State wilderness in 1980). If one does not spend the money one holds (because even if it is to be invested or laundered, someone will notice the serial number(s) and report it; the numbers are now available online, not to mention the look of old bills; the average replacement rate for US bills is about two years, so seeing a large bundle of slightly-peculiar looking 1970s-era bills may engender a slight sense of difference), one will not have enough to make an independent film, because money is only useful to us when it is used. PS. I'm sorry for the length of this comment, but it's just getting all the details ironed out and fixed down - my apology is just making the comment longer? OK... 108.162.249.225 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)