explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2532: Censored Vaccine Card

2021-10-23T21:04:26Z

108.162.219.105:

Huh,his birthday was a week ago. Happy belated brithday![[Special:Contributions/162.158.48.115|162.158.48.115]] 04:03, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

What if this card is from the future and Cuedall is legitimately censoring his fourth dose.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.43|162.158.255.43]] 22:38, 22 October 2021 (UTC) Running Gazelle

Numbers: Patient number is digits of pi after 3.1; 1138 and 2187 seem to be Star Wars references; 5309 is...Jenny? and 1729 is the Ramanujan-Hardy number.
[[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 23:16, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

I should be used to it by now (several decades of personal exposure to it) but I *still* have to double-take at dates in the illogical MM-DD-(YY)YY format. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.161|162.158.155.161]] 23:34, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

This is timely for me, I'm getting my booster tomorrow. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:32, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

The date of birth corresponds to the date formerly on {{w|Randall Munroe|Randall's Wikipedia article}}, which never had an acceptable citation (only a now irretrievable wiki). The year is cited there, but not the rest. [[User:Yngvadottir|Yngvadottir]] ([[User talk:Yngvadottir|talk]]) 01:42, 23 October 2021 (UTC)
:The sleuths at English Wikipedia [https://web.archive.org/web/20171222052104/https://wiki.xkcd.com/wirc/index.php?title=Denizens&diff=prev&oldid=1315 retrieved the wiki]. The context does make it highly likely that this is Randall's real birth date. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.105|108.162.219.105]] 21:04, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

Randall's pretty young. I wonder (it's none of my business, of course) whether he got a booster because his wife is a cancer survivor. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:05, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

"This is the first comic including a sentence in Spanish." Well, it includes most of the sentence in Spanish, but it not a complete Spanish sentence, because it is heavily redacted. So there has not actually been a Spanish sentence in XKCD yet. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 04:15, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

I've added the rest of the text to the transcript, but someone who knows wiki markup and/or transcript convention better than me should definitely revise the formatting. [[User:Esogalt|Esogalt]] ([[User talk:Esogalt|talk]]) 07:46, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

I was wondering why is Randal still using CVS, surely by now he has migrated to git? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]]
: Don't know if this is a joke about code repositories or not, but CVS is a pharmacy chain in the US. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.87|172.69.34.87]] 09:21, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

:: I've added this to the explanation. [[User:Esogalt|Esogalt]] ([[User talk:Esogalt|talk]]) 09:36, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

This feels very SCP-esque. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.17|172.69.214.17]] 17:31, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

It's interesting that the censor bars are parallel to the card, rather than the ''photo'' of the card, implying either a painstaking attention to detail (not implausible for Randall), or that he has actually physically blacked out the information on the card itself. [[User:Esogalt|Esogalt]] ([[User talk:Esogalt|talk]]) 17:37, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1136: Broken Mirror

2021-09-10T21:40:09Z

108.162.219.105:

The lettering on the first word is unusually sloppy. I thought it said "COPS", as in Black Hat was about to be arrested for breaking the mirror, on the TV show Cops. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:16, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

:Yep, I read COPS, too. In another vein, is Black-hat getting all religious on us? Cueball, maybe. Beret guy, more likely. But Black-hat seems to be too machiavellian to quote biblical passages, except as a crutch or an "out". (Edit: now that I think about it, it's the latter: the same fate awaits everybody... as in, everybody will cut their feet on the shards.) -- [[Special:Contributions/207.225.239.130|207.225.239.130]] 20:05, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Does anyone have an opinion on how Black Hat broke the mirror? If it simply fell from the wall, he would not incur the bad luck. [[User:Jsbqvb|Jsbqvb]] 15:31, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

: I think his point is that it wouldn't matter; ''there ain't no such thing as bad luck'': the same fate awaits everybody. -- [[Special:Contributions/207.225.239.130|207.225.239.130]] 20:05, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

: Maybe he did it on purpose, just for that soliloquy at the end (I wouldn't put it past him...).--[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 20:59, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

:: I'd say so. "My fate is a these shards" ... to cause pain and suffering to all he comes in contact with. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 06:01, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Time for some more obvious questions, which I dont get! So, why he decided not to tidy it, but to leave shards like that? [[Special:Contributions/83.166.112.53|83.166.112.53]] 05:44, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

What's the significance of the title text? "I am always [something]" rings a faint bell, but I can't place it.
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 19:49, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
:It made me think of "We have always been at war with Eastasia" (from Orwell's ''1984'') ...but that probably wasn't what Randall meant to evoke. —[[Special:Contributions/50.14.33.235|50.14.33.235]] 22:14, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Could it be the comic where the title text ends with I AM ALWAYS BREATHING MANUALLY (Skynet, comic 1046) [[Special:Contributions/220.255.1.163|220.255.1.163]] 15:18, 21 November 2012‎ (UTC)

"All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrifices, and to him that does not sacrifice: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that swears an oath, as he that fears the results of a sworn oath." means:
Everyone dies eventually.

If you sweep up the shards you will clean most of them up but will not gather every piece for sure. It looks like you care if you do that though. Black hat has an history of not caring. Not that anyone has the right to interpret what another man writes. Nor should one care so deeply as to do so. Especially not for a bloody comic! I think he was just pointing out that Cueball's statement, though possible, was not necessarily true or untrue.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 14:35, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Given that Black Hat is known to be based on Aram from Men In Hats, this seems relevant: http://meninhats.com/d/20031022.html [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.116|199.27.128.116]] 03:39, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
The rain, it raineth on the just,
And also on the unjust fella.
But mainly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just's umbrella.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.34|173.245.54.34]] 05:49, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

Wanna feel old? Black Hat's cures of bad luck ran down two years ago. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.105|108.162.219.105]] 21:40, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

1748: Future Archaeology

2016-12-13T18:36:51Z

108.162.219.105: /* Explanation */ Pluralized 'comic' to 'comics' when referring to both

{{comic
| number = 1748
| date = October 19, 2016
| title = Future Archaeology
| image = future_archaeology.png
| titletext = "The only link we've found between the two documents is that a fragment of the Noah one mentions Aaron's brother Moses parting an ocean. Is that right?" "... yes. Yes, exactly."
}}

==Explanation==
This Wednesday comic is a direct continuation of the previous comic [[1747: Spider Paleontology]] from Monday about a {{w|time travel|time-traveler}} (the black floating energy Sphere) who has come back from far in to the future to see {{w|spiders}} (only known from {{w|fossils}} in their time). See [[1747: Spider Paleontology]] for a more complete explanation of this part of the joke. This series ended with this comic. Both comics in this series have titles of a noun followed by a field of research. It was a so far unused release schedule and it was the first time in six years two related comics were released in the same week. See more under the [[:Category:Time traveling Sphere|Time traveling Sphere]] series.

Since [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] now have access to the Sphere from the future they ask if it knows who will win the election. This is a reference to the {{w|United States elections, 2016}} where the ''very'' controversial {{w|Donald Trump}} was up against former United States first lady {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, who also had several {{w|Hillary_Clinton#Email_controversy|controversies}} going on. This comic was released about three weeks before election day. It is likely one of the most discussed elections ever, especially in the rest of the world outside the US, where especially Europe leaders have made it clear that they are against Trump. That was mainly earlier on, before they realized he might actually stand a chance. Of course anyone interested in any election would be interested to hear from the future how it went, but this particular election may interest a larger proportion of the world population than any prior election. (The election was the subject three weeks later the day before the election where [[Randall]] endorsed Hillary directly in [[1756: I'm With Her]].)

Sadly for Megan and Cueball, the sphere has come back from so far in to the future, that even spiders have gone extinct. (Whether humans also have is unclear, see discussion about this in [[1747: Spider Paleontology]]). The Sphere makes this clear by stating that its civilization hardly know anything about our era and they know little about our history and culture. (And by the way it only came back for the spiders, anyway).

The idea is that history is filtered in similar fashion to fossils. What is contemporaneously important, like a {{w|spider web|spider's web}}, {{w|Feathered dinosaur|dinosaur feathers}} (see previous comic), or the United States presidential election may not survive. The Sphere tells them that only two written accounts have been reconstructed (note that they are not found in their entirety). And they do not know if they even represents real events or myths. One of the two is indeed a myth, as it is about a man building a boat to survive a great flood. Megan recognizes this as being about {{w|Noah}} and his famous {{w|Noah's Ark|Ark}} from the {{w|Genesis flood narrative}}, as Cueball refers to. The other is a reference to a popular pop song.

The joke is that, in the future, the 2000 {{w|Aaron Carter}} hip hop song "{{w|That's How I Beat Shaq}}" ([http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/aaroncarter/thatshowibeatshaq.html lyrics] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfhhWA9GF0M video]) is considered as valuable a historical document when researching humans as parts of the {{w|Bible}}.

While secular historians consider the story of the Flood to be mythical, they still use it to infer facts about the early history of the Middle East, simply because there are a fairly small number of texts surviving from that era. "That's How I Beat Shaq" is, likewise, a fictional story including some true elements; it's just that as long as there are abundant sources documenting life in the year 2000, there's no reason to consult the song in any historical context. Yet it is the latter story that the time traveler assumes to be a clearly religious one, while seeing the former as a relatively straightforward survival story. A further layer of humor is that "That's How I Beat Shaq" is an archetypal {{w|David and Goliath}} story—the story of David and Goliath of course being a Biblical one as well.

In fact the Spheres civilization believes Shaq ({{w|Shaquille O'Neal}} a professional basketball player 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) tall) to refer to a God, which was then defeated by Aaron, a 14 year old (and rather small kid) at the time of the release of his single in 2001. He beats Shaq on the basketball court one on one, so although this is a David vs. Goliath story it is not a fight till death. But to Aaron and his basketball fan friends, Shaq is probably seen as kind of God. Megan comments that the pop song may have been mangled by the {{w|Aeon|eons}}.

The title text expands on the joke by letting the Sphere explain that the only connection they have found between their two historical documents is via the biblical story of {{w|Moses}}. As Moses is also one of God's chosen prophets and leaders, like Noah and {{w|Abraham}} before him, these two stories appear close together in the Bible, though not close together chronologically, and it would be likely that their document with the Flood story also has some parts about Moses. Moses had an older biological brother named {{w|Aaron}} and the Sphere's civilization has hastily concluded that Moses' brother and Aaron Carter are one and the same. According to the Bible, God {{w|parting of the Red Sea|parted the Red Sea}} for Moses and the {{w|Israelites}}. This is often referred to, either erroneously or out of simplification, as Moses having parted the Red Sea. Along with Noah's Flood, this is one of the two major times in the Bible that God effects grand change on a body or bodies of water.

The Sphere asks Megan and Cueball if it is true that Aaron (Carter's) brother Moses did part an ocean. Megan decides to refrain from trying to explain this, having already in the previous comic realized how hard it is to explain spiders to someone who is a fan, but has never heard of spider web, and thus just states yes, yes exactly. Of course according to the bible she can say yes to the question about Moses parting the water, as long as she do not say anything about the connection with Aaron Carter.

There appears to be a major flaw in the comic on the fact that the Sphere speaks perfect English, and understands Megan and Cueball. If they only have two written accounts from our time, why do they then speak English? Especially since they seem to come from another planet and are thus likely not humans (see discussion of the sphere in the previous comic). Of course if they are humans and have come from Earth (maybe traveled away), they may just have retained the English language. But given the fact that more young people today probably would not understand their own grandparents grandparents, and that the Sphere is from so long into the future that Megan calls it eons, spiders are extinct, and only two text have survived, it should be impossible for the language to have stayed the same. Alternatively they have also recovered some video clips, but then it would be strange the Sphere did not mention this. A final solution is that the Sphere's civilization is so advanced that it can learn the language instantly by just being in the room with other beings, simply reading it from their mind. Given the fact that it seems the Sphere has come to Earth from another planet, and has the ability to travel in time, this last option may not even be so far fetched.

This comic was published the day after the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|152|Flood Death Valley}}'', thus referring indirectly to a new possible flood history. It was the first what if? post in almost three months, the longest break between two post during 2016 (and third longest of all time at the time of its release), and it thus seems realistic that there should be some kind of connection between that and this comic. A later comic ([[1750: Life Goals]]) also referenced this what if? post more or less directly.

In this comic Randall manages to combine no less than four of his favorite recurring subjects with [[:Category:Time travel|time travel]], [[:Category:Spiders|spiders]], [[:Category:Politics|politics]] and [[:Category:Religion|religion]].

==Transcript==
:[The Sphere, a time-traveler depicted as a solid floating black energy sphere surrounded by six outwardly-curved segments (first seen in the previous comic), is floating in front of Megan and Cueball who is walking after it towards the right part of the panel. The Sphere looks like this in all panels, but in the zoom in from panel two more details can be seen. A voice emanates from the Sphere.]
:Megan: Since you're from the future, do you know who wins the election?
:Sphere: Haven't the faintest idea. Hardly any text has been recovered from your era, so we know little about your history and culture.
:Sphere: We're mostly here for the spiders, anyway. 

:[A close-up of the Sphere, still depicted as a black sphere, but not perfectly round at this zoom level and also clearly with some white dots in the dark area. It is still surrounded by six narrow rays with irregular dots between the rays.]
:Sphere: There are only two written accounts we've reconstructed.
:Sphere: We don't know whether they describe real events or myths.

:[The Sphere is now on the left side of Megan and Cueball who has stopped walking and has turned to look at the Sphere.]
:Sphere: One is a story about a man who built a boat to survive a great flood.
:Megan: Oh yeah. Noah.
:Cueball: We do like our flood narratives.

:[The Sphere has drifted further away from Megan and Cueball.]
:Sphere: The other is an account of how a man named Aaron Carter defeated a god named Shaq.
:Megan: That one may have been mangled a bit by the eons.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Time traveling Sphere]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Basketball]] 
[[Category:Songs]]

19: George Clinton

2015-05-15T22:02:18Z

108.162.219.105: Removed incomplete

{{comic
| number = 19
| date = October 12, 2005
| title = George Clinton
| image = George_clinton.jpg
| titletext = I still wish it were true.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|George Clinton (musician)|George Clinton}} is an American musician most famous for his funk music and wild hair style.
His recorded music features themes of space, sci-fi, technology and futurism. An example of his work most appropriate to this comic is the song "Mathematics" from the 1996 album T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M (The awesome power of a fully operational mothership)

:"I count the moments we're apart. And add them up mathematically
:and multiply them by the kisses supposedly I've been missing.
:Divided by the attention not to mention the affection.
:Subtract that from your gross potential and see I ain't missin' none.
::Cause any percentage of you is as good the whole pie.
::Any fractions thereof brings dividends of interest.
::Any percentage of you is as good as the whole pie.
::Any fractions thereof brings dividends of love.
:I take the square root and get boxed in every time.
:When I know the shortest distance between two points is in a straight line.
:I'ma go into you, I'ma come into you two times, and carry the fun over the one to where we equal one.”
:(Chorus 2x)

As [[Randall]] says, he had attempted to spread around an {{w|urban legend}} that George Clinton had a {{w|Bachelor of Arts}} degree in mathematics. However, the more Randall thought about this rumor, the more he found himself believing it was true. This behavior is related to {{w|Pseudologia fantastica}}, which is more commonly known as pathological or compulsive lying. This comic references the associated behavior that an "individual may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being unaware that they are relating fantasies." These individuals may eventually stop the lie as demonstrated by the title text, which indicates that at some later time the individual realized that the rumor was not true, but wishes it to be so.

The equations on the board are {{w|Laplace transforms}} of functions.

==Transcript==
:[George Clinton indicates one of two equations on the blackboard to the left. There are one more equation and a diagram on the blackboard to the right that exits the frame. The first part of the text is above the blackboards:]
:I once tried to start the urban legend that George Clinton has a B.A. in mathematics

:[On the left blackboard are two formulas, George points to the lower one:]
:L(F(t) = F(s) = ∫∞0f(t)e-stdt

:L-1 (F(s)) = f(t) = ∫∞0 F(t)estdt

:[On the right blackboard are one formula (partly) and an diagram with an x-y scale and three other lines touching down to the base. Above these lines are some numbers, that are partly indecipherable.]
:γn = 2n/12K

: 0 2 3
:⌊⌊⌊⌊

:[Below George and the blackboards are the part of the text:]
:...but I wanted it to be true so badly that I started believing it myself.

==Trivia==
*This was the 18th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[18: Snapple]].
**The next was [[20: Ferret]].
*Original title: "Wednesday: George Clinton"
*There were no original [[Randall]] quote for this comic.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*The first Laplace transform has a mismatched left parenthesis, which was the topic of [[859: (]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 18]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:19: George Clinton

2015-05-15T22:01:08Z

108.162.219.105: Just added insight.

I feel we should just remove the "incomplete marker, as noone seems to have changed anything. Also, regarding the date of this comic, assuming Randall has always uploaded on mondays, wednesdays, and fridays, couldn't we then create a formula to see how many days ago the comic was made? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.105|108.162.219.105]] 22:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) Does anybody know what the correct date of issue of this comic is? Also, does anybody know why Randall loves George Clinton?
:Have you listened to George Clinton? It's seems reasonable to me that [[Randall]] should love him. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 03:54, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

While reading that I got curious: How is it possible to gain a B.A. in mathematics? I couldn't find any information about the U.S. bachelor system, but in Germany a bachelor's degree in any STEM field is considered a B.Sc. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:08, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Interestingly, a few years after this comic was made, George Clinton did record the track "Mathematics Of Love" (http://www.metrolyrics.com/mathematics-of-love-lyrics-george-clinton.html). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.77|141.101.99.77]] 11:57, 6 January 2015 (UTC) Kingofderby

I don't think explainxkcd has a math extension yet...--{{User:17jiangz1/signature|12:49, 01 May 2015}}

The expression on the blackboard is the expression of Laplace transformation and inverse Laplace transformation.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.145|173.245.53.145]] 06:21, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

added lyrics and background [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.205|173.245.54.205]] 03:57, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

1133: Up Goer Five

2015-05-14T20:00:40Z

108.162.219.105: Explained the [humans]

{{comic
| number = 1133
| date = November 12, 2012
| title = Up Goer Five
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = up goer five.png
| titletext = Another thing that is a bad problem is if you're flying up to space and the parts start to fall off your space car in the wrong order. If that happens, it means you won't go to space today, or maybe ever.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is an illustration (albeit to a comical degree) of the principle that given the appropriate vocabulary, any technical concept should be understandable to a lay audience. Since most of the jargon used in rocket science is not among the most commonly used words in everyday life, Randall has challenged himself to "translate" the blueprints for the Saturn Five rocket using only one thousand of the most commonly-used words in the English language.

This comic is a diagram of the {{w|Saturn V}} rocket, "Saturn" isn't a very common word apparently, and neither is rocket, so [[Randall]] decided to use "Up Goer" which is a fair approximation of a craft designed to lift a payload from the earth to space. The Saturn V vehicle, which was in use by {{w|NASA}} from 1967 to 1972, is the vehicle as a whole. The engines of the Saturn V (the part that makes it go up) were divided into three stages. The first stage ({{w|S-IC}}) had five {{w|F-1 (rocket engine)|F-1}} engines which burned {{w|RP-1|refined kerosene}} mixed with oxygen as its fuel. That stage burned for 2 minutes 48 seconds and pushed the whole thing up about 61 kilometers (~38 miles) into the sky. After it fell away the {{w|S-II}} stage was activated. It used 5 {{w|J-2 (rocket engine)|J-2}} engines in the same configuration as the F-1s, and burned {{w|liquid hydrogen}} mixed with {{w|liquid oxygen}} for 6 minutes 35 seconds pushing the astronauts up to 184 kilometers (114.5 miles). The third stage ({{w|S-IVB}}) was a single J-2 engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. This stage was used in two parts, the first was to put the spacecraft into a stable orbit around Earth to perform a systems check and make sure the craft will be safe for going to the moon. This would usually take three orbits around Earth. As they came around the Earth they would burn the second part of the fuel, which is called a {{w|trans-lunar injection}} which put them on course for the moon. The first burn took 2 minutes 45 seconds, which put them in orbit 185 kilometers (115 miles) high.

It was first used as the launch vehicle for the {{w|Apollo 4}} mission, and it was used as the launch vehicle for most of the subsequent {{w|Apollo mission}}s (the exceptions being Apollo 7, Skylab 2-4, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project missions, which were launched using the smaller {{w|Saturn IB}} launch vehicle). One of the last missions of this design was the unmanned launch of {{w|Skylab}}, the U.S.'s first space station; for this payloader configuration, the Saturn V launch vehicle was officially designated the {{w|Saturn INT-21}}.

The Service Module (SM) Oxygen tanks have a note that states "This part had a ''VERY'' big problem once". This is a reference to the {{w|Apollo 13}} mission. 55 hours after launch, mission control requested the oxygen tanks contents be stirred to get an accurate reading of its contents. There was {{w|Apollo 13#Oxygen tank explosion|a large bang}}, and power fluctuated throughout the craft. NASA had to scramble to ensure the safe return of the astronauts. Needless to say, the moon landing for that mission was canceled.

The {{w|Hindenburg disaster}} is referenced in the text "The kind of air that once burned a big sky bag and people died and someone said "oh, the [humans]!". The term "big sky bag" is used as the closest approximation of {{w|zeppelin}} which is a big bag filled with a lighter-than-air gas which makes the whole contraption float. The phrase "oh, the [humans]" is a workaround the simple-words rule, technically containing only the word humans, while being read "concentration of humans" or "humanity". The {{w|LZ 129 Hindenburg|Hindenburg}} on the day of the disaster was filled with {{w|hydrogen}}, despite being initially designed for use with {{w|helium}}. Helium is much less prone to catching fire, but was unavailable due to a US export ban on the element. The risks seemed acceptable at the time because the Germans had a history of flying hydrogen-based passenger airships. The original quote is "Oh, the humanity!" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54rqDh2mWA] (skip to 0:47 for the quote).

The bottom tank, which [[Randall]] describes as "...full of that stuff they burned in lights before houses had power" is highly refined kerosene, called {{w|RP-1}}, it is similar to jet fuel, burns well and is not likely to explode; unlike {{w|liquid hydrogen}}, which is much more likely to explode.

Earlier flirts with simple words can be found in [[547: Simple]] and [[722: Computer Problems]]. The use of simple words was revisited again in [[1436: Orb Hammer]].

The phrase "You will not go to space today" has become something of a catchphrase for xkcd — variants of it recur in the title text in four What If? comics:
*Building a jetpack out of AK-47s and converting the potential energy. [http://what-if.xkcd.com/21/ Machine Gun Jetpack]
*The one about flying on other planets (the pilot does not want to go to space today.) [http://what-if.xkcd.com/30/ Interplanetary Cessna]
*Launching into Earth orbit (if your rocket cannot hit the right "horizontal" speed, you will go to space today, and then you will quickly come back.) [http://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ Orbital Speed]
*The Pyramid of Giza (which is not nearly enough; the title text has another reference to the comic, noting that the tip of the pyramid should point towards space.) [http://what-if.xkcd.com/95/ Pyramid Energy]

==Transcript==
:US Space Team's Up Goer Five
:The only flying space car that's taken anyone to another world (explained using only the ten hundred words people use the most often)
:[A list of Saturn-V parts, top to bottom, with their "Up Goer" description follows.]
:[Launch Escape System (LES)]: Thing to help people escape really fast if there's a problem and everything is on fire so they decide not to go to space
::[LES side nozzle]: Thing to control which direction the escaping people go
::[LES fuel]: Stuff to burn to make the box with the people in it escape ''really fast''
::[LES bottom nozzles]: Place where fire comes out to help them escape
:[Apollo spacecraft.]
::[Command Module (CM)]: Part that flies around the other world and comes back home with the people in it and fall in the water.
:::[CM capsule parts]: People box, door, chairs
::[Service Module (SM)]: Part that goes along to give people air, water, computers and stuff. It comes back home with them but burns up without landing.
:::[SM oxygen tanks]: Cold air for burning (and breathing). This part had a ''VERY'' big problem once.
::[Lunar Module (LM)]: Part that flies down to the other world with two people inside
:::[LM descent stage]: Part that stays on the other world (it's still there)
:::[LM feet]: Feet that go on the ground of the other world
:[Instrument Unit]: Ring holding most of the computers
:[S-IVB third stage]: Part that falls off third (this part flew away from our world into space and hit the world we were going toward)
::[Fuel tanks]: Wet and ''very'' cold
:::[Liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank]: The kind of air that once burned a big sky bag and people died and someone said "Oh, the [humans]!" (used for burning)
:::[Liquid oxygen (LOX) tank]: The part of air you need to breathe, but not the other stuff (used for burning)
:::[Helium pressurizing tanks]: Things holding that kind of air that makes your voice funny (it's for filling up the space left when they take the cold air out to burn it.)
::[J-2 engine nozzle]: Fire comes out here
:[S-II second stage]: Part that falls off second
::[LH2 tank]: More sky bag air (for burning) (cold + wet)
::[LOX tank]: More breathing-type air (for burning) (cold + wet)
::[Tank-to-engine fuel lines]: Thing that brings in cold wet air to burn
::[J-2 engine nozzles (qty. 5)]: Fire comes out here
:[S-IC first stage]: Part that falls off first
::[LOX tank]: More breathing-type air (for burning) (cold + wet)
::[Helium pressurizing tank]: More funny voice air (for filling up space)
::[LOX fill line]: Opening for putting in cold wet air
::[RP-1 fuel tank]: This is full of that stuff they burned in lights before houses had power.It goes together with the cold air when it's time to start going up.
::[F-1 engine nozzles (qty. 5)]: Lots of fire comes out here.
:[Bottom of spacecraft]: This end should point toward the ground if you want to go to space. If it starts pointing toward space you are having a bad problem and you will not go to space today.

==External links==
*[http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/documents/First_Stage.pdf First Stage Fact Sheet]
*[http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/documents/Second_Stage.pdf Second Stage Fact Sheet]
*[http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/documents/Third_Stage.pdf Third Stage Fact Sheet]
*[http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ The Up-Goer Five Text Editor]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Simplified language]]

User:The Dining Logician

2015-05-06T16:05:25Z

108.162.219.105: Created page with "An explain xkcd reader/author"

An explain xkcd reader/author

Talk:1127: Congress

2015-04-28T22:39:15Z

108.162.219.105:

This is something someone needs to contact Randall about.

Being a stupidly over political (please don't ask me here, this is an xkcd wiki not reddit) kinda guy, this one really interests me. Another one of those amazing visualizations of real-world facts xkcd is so great at. I have no idea what one might write for an explanation that would be useful. Everything is explained in pretty thorough fashion right on the panel... {{unsigned|Renegade4dio}}
:Well, there's always the transcript for us to <strike>waste time</strike> work on. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 12:36, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

The first thing that is missing is the explanation why there are two houses. Why never three or four?
I get why monarchy only had advisors but opposition varied with whichever branch of the family had most to lose. So there was a never ending and closely focussed stream of opposition, albeit short-lived if unsuccessful.[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 18:29, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

;Congress as check

Perhaps a pedantic point, but I couldn't leave the description describing Congress as simply a check on the president. That would imply that the president has free reign (literally) and that Congress only acts (or, more often, doesn't act) to veto the president. That is a much more accurate description of the president's role in legislation (or of a pre-modern English Parliament). {{unsigned|208.32.120.10}}

;Typo
There's a typo on the right-hand side of the comic around 1952 - "''Other than these few years after the war; the House [was] under control Democratic control for the entire period ...''". The "was" is missing. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 15:27, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

;definition of conservative is pejorative

Conservatives are not interested in preserving wealth amongst those who have it - they are interested in creating as many opportunities to create wealth as possible by reducing unwanted government regulation and returning to constitutional limitations (aka 10th ammendment) on Federal power. A different view of liberty and rights than what liberals maintain, but highly supported - I find your definition to be highly pejorative. [[User:Ghaller825|Ghaller825]] ([[User talk:Ghaller825|talk]]) 18:59, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:That went completely over my head, but you're entirely welcome to change it if the definition in the article bothers you. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 09:16, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

::Perhaps the segment could be changed to say "conservatives believe the government should not interfere with a person's wealth", or something very similar. The resistence to government involvement seems to be more consistent across the various degrees of the modern conservative movement. I'll admit that my suggested statement is also false, because almost everyone believes there should be some amount of taxes, and taxes affect wealth. However, it should be more palatable to the political ideology.

:I understand your offense, Ghaller. On the other hand, the current phrasing using "making wealth" is also a loaded term, as many factory workers would feel that they are "the ones who make it" more than the CEOs, but are certainly not getting more money. I'm not saying I agree with that perspective, just that it's a suggestive statement, and this is not the forum to have an endless debate over it. The unsigned comment above me has the best compromise in my opinion, so I will implement it. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 18:12, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

;Errors
I notice the following: (1) George H.W. Bush is shown as serving in the Senate. He never made it to the Senate, just the House. (2) Abraham Lincoln appears to be shown as serving in the House for about seven years. He only was there for one term (two years). --[[Special:Contributions/99.14.234.119|99.14.234.119]] 02:18, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

It also lists John A. Garfield in the House from 1862 until his election -- it is James A Garfield, not John.

It lists Abraham Lincoln (and the Republican Party of Lincoln's time in general) as right-leaning, even though it's widely accepted that the Republicans of that era (whose base was made up mostly of Northern abolitionists) were the more liberal party, and the Democrats (whose base was comprised in large part by Southern slave-owners) the more conservative. {{unsigned|140.247.0.73}}

;Definition of Liberal

While in the US, liberal might mean left-wing, in the UK it's pretty central and in Australia it's right-wing. Go figure.--[[User:Joe Green|Joe Green]] ([[User talk:Joe Green|talk]]) 04:23, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:Classical liberalism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism] is very different from American liberalism; Americans would recognize it more as Libertarianism. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 09:12, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

The socialists are well-known for hijacking the good-sounding misleading names. Such as "liberal" in America or "bolshevik" (a made-up word meaning literally "majoritan", a member of majority) in Russia. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.111|108.162.245.111]] 00:10, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

That comment makes it sound like there's some conspiracy behind the left thinking up good names for their movements. The words themselves don't really mean anything. You don't have to go back too far in US history to find 'liberals' and 'socialists' being demonized as spies and traitors, and even today the right is happy to call the left 'liberal' with strong undertones of 'weak'. Leftist are generally better at naming things I'll grant you, but then almost all leftist movements (barring the Khmer Rouge and cultural revolution era china) have had strong ties to both universities and the entertainment industry, people who are used to being persuasive with words so it's not surprising that they came up with nice friendly sounding terms for their movements.[[User:LostAlone|LostAlone]] ([[User talk:LostAlone|talk]]) 12:17, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

;Typo

In the "How Ideology Is Calculated" section, I note "acccounting".--[[User:Joe Green|Joe Green]] ([[User talk:Joe Green|talk]]) 04:23, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

;Conservative?

He didn't exactly say that Conservatives are interested in preserving wealth amongst those who have it; I think the implication is that "if you made it, you should get to keep it" (or as much of it as possible, hence lower taxes). One ''consequence'' of this is that the ''distribution'' of wealth tends to remain static, in that the rich stay rich and the poor stay (relatively) poorer. Whether or not that consequence is an intentional one is perhaps in the eye of the pejoratively-inclined beholder :-)--[[User:Joe Green|Joe Green]] ([[User talk:Joe Green|talk]]) 04:30, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

:I made an edit to that effect, but it appears to have been wiped out by another editor calling it "right-wing trolling". If you would like to try re-wording it, please do. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:05, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

::By changing just a little bit I think I removed most of the negative connotation.[[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 05:11, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

;Arteries
Kind of unrelated but the diagram to me looks sort of like arteries and veins, with the red and blue. And the branches look like how they branch off the heart and stuff. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 05:10, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

;Red inside blue and vice versa
What do the red strands inside the blue section and the blue strands inside the red section represent? It doesn't seem to be explained anywhere.
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.200.82|199.27.200.82]] 14:15, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

:Red on the blue side represents "Conservative Democrats" and Blue on the red side represents "Liberal Republicans". Confusing a bit, but so are both those political terms (lol). It is stated (in small text) on the top right diagram of the comic--[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 14:53, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

;Left vs right - or why this comic is stupid
The traditional definition of left vs right (people attribute all sorts of things to it these days) is the support of change (hence the names progressives vs conservatives, or radicals vs reactionaries). The terminology comes from France where those that advocated reforms to government sat on the left of the chamber and those that wanted to do such things as restore the monarchy sat on the right. Your traditional Burkian conservative (smidgen to the right of the centre) would accept change is inevitable, but must be controlled. To the right of that people that want to maintain the status quo, further right people that want to go back to some "better time". To the left you get the, let change happen as it comes, further left lets make change a "good thing", to the furthest left "lets force change". A large part of the Marxist philosophy is that not only is communism desirable, but inevitable as according to Marx that is the final destination of all societies. Now to my point. Over time the parties have switched sides and often will be left on one issue and right on another. Often the parties themselves were divided (look at the civil rights act's passage) To simply say Democratic Party has always been left and the Republicans have always been is such a gross simplification that is renders the whole image a farce. [[Special:Contributions/192.43.227.18|192.43.227.18]] 01:07, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

;What can we learn from this?
I've learned that our congress (and law in general) is too complex. We are tying to keep outdated laws relevant by using an endless series of exceptions (legally called amendments). I hope someday we will be able to scrap the whole thing and simplify our laws so that our children do not have to spend up to a quarter of their lives learning our mistakes. XKCD, please help us simplify something like law so you don't have to waste your time visualizing something as broken as our understanding of it. - e-inspired [[Special:Contributions/24.51.197.187|24.51.197.187]] 18:36, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1495: Hard Reboot

2015-03-06T14:05:54Z

108.162.219.105:

My interpretation is that the 1-10 hours is how long it would take to troubleshoot the problem and the 5 minutes is how long it would take to get kitchen timer and put into socket. So slides are showing the two solutions (one techy and liable to take up to 10 hours vs. the hacky but fast solution). {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.225.118}}

:At first I thought the ten hours was troubleshooting, but 5 minutes sounds about right for the granularity of the timer. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:51, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

''Of course, the problem could be solved without a reboot simply by increasing the swap size.'', my understanding is that the SWAP is overflowing and not just 'too little'. So no, ''simply increasing the swap size'' wouldn't solve the problem. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.214|173.245.53.214]] 07:36, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

::I agree, and have removed that sentence, because there is no way to be sure that increasing the swap size will help. In fact increasing the swap size is the first step down the '1-10 hours to troubleshoot' path. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 08:52, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
::I think it deserves mention. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 09:37, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

"Also, it can be scheduled during, say, the middle of the night when most users are sleeping to minimize disruption." That would be ''so'' annoying in my case. I'm glad Randall has a better discipline of schedule than me, with my Windows NT machine which these days definitely needs its manual weekly reboot and ''really'' needs to be functionally replaced except for all the additional fuss it'd require. (Also, I'm not sure about the "first sentence of the title text" bit, as currently stated, but doubtless it'll all be adjusted slightly.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.181|141.101.98.181]] 12:02, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

:I would recommend 5:00 (am). It's nowhere near the middle of the night, but it's the time when it's most probable everyone is sleeping. Alternatively, considering it's just HIS router, he should know his sleeping patterns ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:11, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

:: When a reboot is least disruptive also depends on whether the machine is being used by users in other time zones. It really annonys me when I'm presented with "Server is down for scheduled maintenance", and the powers that be have decided that the best time to do that is in the middle of the day (for me). --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:42, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Re: ''"Why everything I have is broken"'' - I think better explanation would be that by applying soem workarounds you can use broken things without actually fixing them. E.g. you can use server with memory leak without spending 10+ hours fixing the problem. Using this approach you can end up with a buch of broken things that are still useful.

"The title text's first sentence refers to situations where the given solution to a problem is just the original problem rephrased to sound like a solution." I don't think that's right... it makes it sound like the solution to the problem is to not have the problem, but the first sentence of the title text doesn't reference a solution at all. It's just noting that there's no point in the user looking around for other posts because this is exactly what he's getting, so if there's no solution for this problem then the problem can't be solved. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.105|108.162.219.105]] 14:05, 6 March 2015 (UTC)