explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2712: Gravity

2022-12-16T22:46:08Z

108.162.237.175: At least it's a start :)

{{comic
| number = 2712
| date = December 16, 2022
| title = Gravity
| image = gravity_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x700px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's a long way down.
}}

*To experience the interactivity, visit the [http://xkcd.com/2712/ original comic].
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by SPACE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, you can fly around space to visit different planets.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]

Talk:1677: Contrails

2016-05-06T18:21:17Z

108.162.237.175:

Aside: worst name ever for university department: Astronomy and Cosmology - it's almost as if they want people to make the association... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.20|141.101.104.20]] 10:58, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Love the title text, you can choose to laugh or take offence irrespective of where you call home. Which you do says more about you than the text. [[User:Toltec|Toltec]] ([[User talk:Toltec|talk]]) 11:41, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Worth noting that 'contrails' is itself a North Americanism? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.111|108.162.229.111]] 12:03, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

The final paragraph does not logically follow from the comic or from the explanation. He's hooking different pseudoscience terms on different cultures (astrology on the UK and chemtrails on the US) so the comic doesn't take a stance on which country's educational system is better or more prone to superstitions than the other. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.106|108.162.245.106]] 15:04, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

I've always called them vapour trails (north west England)

The comic reminded me of the Hungarian Phrasebook sketch from Monty Python - basically someone who enjoys causing confusion for its own sake between speakers of (in this case, slightly) different languages. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.175|108.162.237.175]] 18:21, 6 May 2016 (UTC)Pat

525: I Know You're Listening

2015-07-01T02:33:04Z

108.162.237.175: Repeated "the" removed

{{comic
| number = 525
| date = January 2, 2009
| title = I Know You're Listening
| image = i know youre listening.png
| titletext = Basically it's Pascal's Wager for the paranoid prankster.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] periodically says "I know you're listening" aloud in empty rooms. The idea is, that if nobody is listening he doesn't lose anything, but if somebody ''is'' listening he gains by freaking them out. In this case another Cueball-like surveillance man does get quite the shock.

As mentioned in the title text, this is similar to {{w|Pascal's Wager}}. {{w|Blaise Pascal}} was a French philosopher and mathematician who discussed the issue of the possibility that God actually does exist or not. A rational person should believe in God because he wouldn't lose anything if this is wrong, but if this belief is correct he would gain immensely by going to heaven at his afterlife due to being a Christian. The argument works equally well for any and all gods, but doesn't give any reason to choose one over the other, so it seems unlikely that Pascal's Wager has ever changed anybody's religious views. One important way Cueball's wager is different from Pascal's is that Cueball can choose to engage in paranoid pranks, but belief is not something that one can possess simply by choice.

This comic has a clear resemblance to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/My_Hobby My Hobby] series. This would also make it clear the Cueball in this comic is actually [[Randall]].

==Transcript==
:[Above the two panel comic:]
:Now and then, I announce "I know you're listening" to empty rooms.
:[Cueball is sitting in an armchair, reading. He murmurs something.]
:[Second Cueball like surveillance man with headphones jumps out of chair in front of a large computer terminal after hearing Cueball's mumble. His chair has fallen over.]
:[Below the two panel comic:]
:If I'm wrong, no one knows.
:And if I'm right, maybe I just freaked
:the hell out of some secret organization.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

880: Headache

2015-06-24T03:18:41Z

108.162.237.175: /* Explanation */ Prior comics only. As much as it would be cool. I suppose 3D!Time is a bit much to ask.

{{comic
| number = 880
| date = April 1, 2011
| title = Headache
| image = headache.png
| titletext = I'm only willing to visit placid lakes, salt flats, and painting exhibits until the world's 3D technology improves.
}}

==Explanation==
Some people suffer from headaches, eyestrain, motion sickness and other problems when watching {{w|3D film|3D movies}}, playing 3D games, watching {{w|3D television}}, playing hand-held {{w|Nintendo 3DS}}, etc.

In this comic, Cueball is using the excuse that 3D gives him a headache to get out of going outside into the real world, where ''everything'' is in {{w|Three-dimensional space|3D}}. Instead he stays inside and looks at his 2D computer monitor. In the title text, he says he will only go to flat places (i.e. places where everything he could see would be 2D-like).

This comic was released on {{w|April Fools' Day}}. The April fools joke for 2011 made every comic on the site 3D, thus forcing people like Cueball to endure 3D even at their computer screens. The 3D view is still available at [http://xk3d.xkcd.com/ xk3d.xkcd.com] for all comics prior to this one.

==Transcript==
:[Megan has a bike, and is wearing a helmet. Cueball is at a computer.]
:Megan: Wanna go for a bike ride?
:Cueball: Nah, I hate 3D stuff. It gives me a headache.
:When you think about it, this excuse can get you out of almost anything.

==Trivia==
*When clicking the 'next' or 'latest' buttons, a blue [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_teapot Utah-teapot] appears, in random locations and sizes, instead of proceeding. Attempting to proceed beyond via manually pointing the URL elsewhere is not supported.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

880: Headache

2015-06-24T03:17:26Z

108.162.237.175: /* Trivia */ More clarification after some experimentation.

{{comic
| number = 880
| date = April 1, 2011
| title = Headache
| image = headache.png
| titletext = I'm only willing to visit placid lakes, salt flats, and painting exhibits until the world's 3D technology improves.
}}

==Explanation==
Some people suffer from headaches, eyestrain, motion sickness and other problems when watching {{w|3D film|3D movies}}, playing 3D games, watching {{w|3D television}}, playing hand-held {{w|Nintendo 3DS}}, etc.

In this comic, Cueball is using the excuse that 3D gives him a headache to get out of going outside into the real world, where ''everything'' is in {{w|Three-dimensional space|3D}}. Instead he stays inside and looks at his 2D computer monitor. In the title text, he says he will only go to flat places (i.e. places where everything he could see would be 2D-like).

This comic was released on {{w|April Fools' Day}}. The April fools joke for 2011 made every comic on the site 3D, thus forcing people like Cueball to endure 3D even at their computer screens. The 3D view is still available at [http://xk3d.xkcd.com/ xk3d.xkcd.com].

==Transcript==
:[Megan has a bike, and is wearing a helmet. Cueball is at a computer.]
:Megan: Wanna go for a bike ride?
:Cueball: Nah, I hate 3D stuff. It gives me a headache.
:When you think about it, this excuse can get you out of almost anything.

==Trivia==
*When clicking the 'next' or 'latest' buttons, a blue [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_teapot Utah-teapot] appears, in random locations and sizes, instead of proceeding. Attempting to proceed beyond via manually pointing the URL elsewhere is not supported.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

880: Headache

2015-06-24T03:16:05Z

108.162.237.175: /* Trivia */ Clarified about what exactly happens post-teapot.

{{comic
| number = 880
| date = April 1, 2011
| title = Headache
| image = headache.png
| titletext = I'm only willing to visit placid lakes, salt flats, and painting exhibits until the world's 3D technology improves.
}}

==Explanation==
Some people suffer from headaches, eyestrain, motion sickness and other problems when watching {{w|3D film|3D movies}}, playing 3D games, watching {{w|3D television}}, playing hand-held {{w|Nintendo 3DS}}, etc.

In this comic, Cueball is using the excuse that 3D gives him a headache to get out of going outside into the real world, where ''everything'' is in {{w|Three-dimensional space|3D}}. Instead he stays inside and looks at his 2D computer monitor. In the title text, he says he will only go to flat places (i.e. places where everything he could see would be 2D-like).

This comic was released on {{w|April Fools' Day}}. The April fools joke for 2011 made every comic on the site 3D, thus forcing people like Cueball to endure 3D even at their computer screens. The 3D view is still available at [http://xk3d.xkcd.com/ xk3d.xkcd.com].

==Transcript==
:[Megan has a bike, and is wearing a helmet. Cueball is at a computer.]
:Megan: Wanna go for a bike ride?
:Cueball: Nah, I hate 3D stuff. It gives me a headache.
:When you think about it, this excuse can get you out of almost anything.

==Trivia==
*When clicking the 'next' or 'latest' buttons, a blue [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_teapot Utah-teapot] appears, in random locations and sizes, instead of proceeding.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2015-06-22T22:17:44Z

108.162.237.175: /* Transcript */i'm having a wet dream

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = eyelash wish log.png
| titletext = Ooh, another one. Uh... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is based on a common belief/superstition that when someone's eyelash falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish. A common trope in fiction is that wishing for more wishes is prohibited and for many of his wishes [[Black Hat]] attempts to circumvent that.

;January 9: That wishing on eyelashes worked
:This wish is pointless. If wishing on eyelashes worked, then this would do absolutely nothing (because it already works) and if it didn't then nothing would happen because wishing on eyelashes wouldn't work.

;January 12: A pony
:This wish functions as a test to see whether or not previous wish worked. It can be assumed that it did, as Black Hat then continued to make additional wishes.

;January 15: Unlimited wishes
:This appears to have failed, due to the typical ban of wishing for additional wishes in conventional folklore.

;January 19: Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
:An attempt to circumvent the ban in the previous wish.

;January 20: A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
:Another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;January 28: The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
:Yet another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 5: Unlimited eyelashes
:This wish likely caused Black Hat to grow unlimited eyelashes, which could be quite inconvenient and painful. And, yes, one more attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 6: That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
:This wish is likely a response to the previous day's misguided wish. It's actually quite a common problem that people making wishes leave them open for misinterpretation.

;February 8: That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
:An attempt to prevent whatever being is powerful enough to grant wishes from becoming angry with Black Hat while he tries to manipulate the system.

;February 12 #1: Unlimited breadsticks
:The first wish of this day seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

;February 12 #2: Veto power over others' wishes
:A power that could be interesting to have. It also very much fits with Black Hat's character.

;February 19: Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
:An improvement of the previous wish. This would be very interesting to have indeed, especially if you are Black Hat, because you could veto any federal law, a power normally entrusted only to the President.

;February 23: The power to override any veto
:This wish would allow Black Hat to override vetoes which in addition to the previous wish would effectively make him control the US legislature and, to some extent, also all other governing bodies. (Notably the UN, where the veto powers wielded by the "big 5" cannot be overridden and can have large impacts on global politics.) Note that it will not allow him to turn laws off (veto them) and on again (override the veto) at any moment, as once a bill becomes law it cannot be vetoed. Without the ability to propose legislation, Black Hat's powers are still limited. The wish may also refer back to the February 19 wish: by granting himself veto power over wishes, Black Hat just made vetoes more powerful than wishes; now he is trying to control other people's vetoes as well, lest they one-up him.

;February 27: The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
:This wish relates to a common practice especially in tweets or other short length media where full length specific HTML addresses such as <tt>www.somewhere.com/articles/specificdate/the page.html</tt> would not be feasible. So a more compressed but nonsensical string of seemingly random characters is used which links to a link of the full text address. This creates some problems for people who are security or privacy conscious and prefer to be informed beforehand where they will be traveling on the Internet.

;February 29: The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
:This wish likely appeals to Black Hat's mischevious side, allowing him to cause news anchors to look at the wrong camera during live broadcast. Repeatedly switching to the incorrect camera would cause havoc in the studio.

;March 7: The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
:A reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for {{w|Five Thirty Eight}} in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data. This would grant Black Hat the power to influence the result of elections. This would tighten the Black Hat's control of the US even more.

;March 15: A house of stairs
:This wish refers to the {{w|lithograph}} {{w|Relativity (M. C. Escher)|Relativity}} by {{w|M. C. Escher}}, or perhaps another of his lithographs, {{w|House of Stairs}}

;March 23: A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
:Another attempt to circumvent the rules against wishing for more wishes.

;March 29: Free transportation to and from that universe
:While the previous wish appears to have worked, Black Hat notes a problem with it: he is still in our universe with no ways to get to the new one.

;April 2: A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
:It appears that one or both of the previous two wishes failed, so Black Hat tries to discover exactly what is offending the Bureau. Having clear rules and how they work helps anyone finding loopholes in them.

;April 7: The power to banish people into the TV show they are talking about
:Black hat is obviously fed up of hearing people talking about certain TV shows, and would like to be able to banish them into the show, thus prevent him having to listen to those people.

;April 8: Zero wishes
:An attempt to hack the wish-granting system by using a quite common vulnerability in input validation: an unexpected value. There may be multiple vectors this can work:
:* in many computer systems, 0 is reserved for unlimited
:* the number may be used as a divisor in some equation and this will make the system divide by zero and probably crash
:* there also may be an assertion like "number of wishes granted == 1" which would fail, again crashing the system
:However it seems the eyelash wish-granting system does proper input validation on zero because it did not crash or grant unlimited wishes
:This wish may also be a reversal of the January 9 wish. Black Hat is attempting to win his game by introducing a logical contradiction: if he gets "zero wishes", this is one wish granted; however, if it is not granted, then, de facto, he will have been granted zero wishes. This is a common technique used in logical proofs to show that an earlier assumption does not hold (in this case, the possibility of eyelash wishing to work).

;April 15: Veto power over clocks
:Midnight, April 15 is the deadline for filing income tax returns in the United States.
:It may also be that Black Hat, now in control of all human legislation, is attempting to extend this to further control also rules of nature -- in this case: time. The strange wording is likely to be due to Black Hat having consulted with the wish-hacking manual he acquired April 2.

;April 22: A pokéball that works on strangers' pets
:A reference to the cartoon and video game series {{w|Pokémon}}. A Pokéball can be thrown at a Pokémon (or in this case, a pet that the Pokéball thrower finds either annoying or cute) to capture/contain it and/or achieve ownership of it. Unless cheats are used, Pokéballs cannot be used on Pokémon owned by other people in the Pokémon games. Many players wish to obtain the often high-level Pokémon of NPCs, and black hat guy may also be interested in pranking other players by stealing their powerful Pokémon

The title text is another yet another mischievous wish. The coefficients of friction, though usually not noticed as they are unchanging, are all-important when performing physical activities — imagine trying to play hockey on a field of sand or sprinting over a sheet of ice. In addition to the difficulty going where you want or getting any balls that might be in play where you want them to go in a changing friction environment, angular momentum would also be very difficult to control.

==Transcript==
:{|
! align="left" colspan="2" |<font size="+1">Eyelash Wish Log</font>
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Wish bureau ID#:
|-
|
|align="right"|21118378
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Date range:
|-
!scope="row" style="color: gray;"|Wisher
|align="right"|Jan-Apr 2012
|}

:{|
!align="left" width="50px"|Date
!align="left"|Wish
|-
|Jan 09
|That wishing on eyelashes worked
|-
|Jan 12
|A pony
|-
|Jan 15
|Unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 19
|Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 20
|A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
|-
|Jan 28
|The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
|-
|Feb 05
|Unlimited eyelashes
|-
|Feb 06
|That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in<br>accordance with the intent of the wisher
|-
|Feb 08
|That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
|-
|Feb 12
|Unlimited breadsticks
|-
|Feb 12
|Veto power over others' wishes
|-
|Feb 19
|Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
|-
|Feb 23
|The power to override any veto
|-
|Feb 27
|The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
|-
|Feb 29
|The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
|-
|Mar 07
|The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
|-
|Mar 15
|A house of stairs
|-
|Mar 23
|A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
|-
|Mar 29
|Free transportation to and from that universe
|-
|Apr 02
|A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
|-
|Apr 07
|The power to banish people into the TV show they're talking about
|-
|Apr 08
|Zero wishes
|-
|Apr 15
|Veto power over clocks
|-
|Apr 22
|A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
|}
----
|(Apr 41)
|(a quantum computer)
----
{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]

Talk:207: What xkcd Means

2015-06-22T21:57:19Z

108.162.237.175: XKCD

I do the last panel ALL THE FRIGGIN' TIME. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 20:07, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
Graham's Number has not had that title for several years now.... See here: http://googology.wikia.com/wiki/Graham's_number
XKCD also means getting addicted to webcomics because they are too funny
-[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.175|108.162.237.175]] 21:57, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Talk:133: The Raven

2015-03-18T19:17:02Z

108.162.237.175: Further comment on "of" vs "if".

[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) Date is definitely incorrect. Could someone fix that?

I must admit curiosity as to how you equated "rapping on a door" with "rape". "Rapping" as used in the poem means exactly what it says; to tap on the door. Electric doorbells didn't exist in the 1800s and people would announce their presence at your door by knocking (rapping) on it. It has nothing to do with rape.
:Agreed, and fixed. The original posting made the incorrect association of ''rapping'' (to knock or strike) with ''rape'' (originally to sieze or carry away, in addition to its more contemporary meaning) which was incorrectly described as "too force open"... but that's the nature of wikis: we all can post, and we all can correct. Thanks for pointing it out. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:26, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Should it be mentioned that the actual poem says "as '''of''' someone gently rapping" rather than "as if"? -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.25|141.101.104.25]] 22:33, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
: I was about to say the same thing. A rare, uncorrected Randall error probably bears comment. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.175|108.162.237.175]]

372: To Be Wanted

2015-02-04T13:30:36Z

108.162.237.175: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 372
| date = January 19, 2008
| title = To Be Wanted
| image = to_be_wanted.png
| titletext = Or so I hope?
}}

==Explanation==
The comic begins with a grainy, pencil-drawing of [[Megan]] on a ship. This is a clue that things are not as they appear.

As the point-of-view pulls back in each successive frame, we see that "Megan on a ship" is really a {{w|Thought bubble#Thought bubbles|thought-bubble}} belonging to [[Cueball]], who is sitting at his desk. He apparently is day-dreaming instead of working. Note that this is presented in the standard, crisp format, as if drawn on a computer. This suggests it shows us our "normal" view.

However, as the perspective continues to pull back, we see that "Cueball thinking of Megan" is actually a thought-bubble belonging to Megan. In the final frames, the ship sails out of frame. However, since the final frames are in the same grainy pencil-drawing format, it suggests that this is still Cueball's thoughts, rather than an actual image of Megan.

The title text, "Or so I hope", shows us what this {{w|recursion}} really means: Cueball hopes that Megan realizes that he misses her, but suggests he's not entirely certain she does.

'''Alternate Explanation'''

Comic starts with Megan on the bow of a ship, but in following panels it turns out that Cueball (presumably in a relationship with Megan) is thinking about about her, sitting afar from her. As we move forward (or downwards) in the comic, it turns out indeed that Megan is thinking that her partner Cueball might be missing her and thinking about her while she is on a voyage or at least she hopes it to be that way as the title text suggests. This also explains the title of the comic "To Be Wanted" which Megan expects from Cueball.

'''More about the title text'''

Both of the above explanations could be true without conflict. But as the title text is most often assigned to [[Randall]] himself or to a Cueball character, the ''Or so I hope'' is most likely written by the guy who drew the comic. This would then indicate that it is Cueball/Randall who wishes to be wanted by Megan - but he also hopes that Megan knows/hopes that he wants her.

==Transcript==
:[Megan stands looking out on the bow of a ship.]
:[Scene backs up. More of the boat is shown.]
:[Scene backs up. The boat with Megan is within a thought bubble.]
:[Scene backs up. The thought bubble comes from Cueball sitting at a computer in an office.]
:[Scene repeated for the next frame.]
:[Scene backs up. Cueball is within yet another thought bubble.]
:[Scene backs up. The thought bubble with Cueball in it belongs to the Megan at the bow of the ship.]
:[The thought bubble disappears, showing only Megan in the boat.]
:[The boat sails out of view.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:1472: Geography

2015-01-14T21:01:15Z

108.162.237.175:

Anybody notice that he drew an isthmus but didn't label it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.94|108.162.221.94]] 05:49, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Does Randall play Dwarf Fortress? Because the perfect map to build your fort on looks about like this. Volcano near the sea is especially neat luxury. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.121|141.101.80.121]] 06:57, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

:[[1223: Dwarf Fortress]] suggests he does. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:00, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Would be nice if there could be an example of the sort of map that Randall is referring to from a textbook for people who've never seen them or don't remember. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.91}}
Yeah, shame that there isn't one in the comic itself... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.109|108.162.216.109]] 12:58, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

I'd be interested to hear where in the world people claim matches this best. Boston...? I ain't buying that one. {{unsigned ip|108.162.225.44}}
:Southern California. We don't have glaciers. But we do have alpine permafrost. We also have no active volcanoes. Otherwise this is essentially my house on the map. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.91|173.245.48.91]] 20:00, 13 January 2015 (UTC) BLuDgeons

Examples like Randall was talking about that I found on Google images.
[http://www.aparisgarcia.net/advwebdesign/LandandWaterFeaturesmap.jpg 1]
[https://ts-cdn-teachstarterptyl.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/TeachingResources_GeographicFeatures_Poster_US.jpg 2]
These appear to be two pages of the same picture: [http://secageography.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/8/8/24881589/2206129_orig.jpg 3] [http://secageography.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/8/8/24881589/9094980_orig.jpg 4]
I'm not sure if they're good enough quality to add to the main article, but if someone thinks they are, feel free. For someone who's never seen them before, they're fairly common in elementary school social studies or geography textbooks; I remember seeing them multiple times in mine. [[User:Tomari7|Tomari7]] ([[User talk:Tomari7|talk]]) 11:10, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

:I like the second one, if only for the iceberg sitting at the bottom. [[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 09:30, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Also, no Valley or Fjord. Damn insensitve tropical geography.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 11:21, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

The Region around Vancouver has a lot of the items in the picture. (Sandy) deserts and Mesas are the only missing. {{unsigned ip|141.101.64.137}}

Anyone else noticing the distinct lack of any buildings? I'd call that a reason not to live there...{{unsigned ip|108.162.216.109}}
:...well, there's My House.;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.191|141.101.98.191]] 13:55, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Or maybe a good reason TO live there! [[User:Mwburden|mwburden]] ([[User talk:Mwburden|talk]]) 14:02, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Please delete these useless musings
:Some people, when seeing paintings or pictures of landscapes, tend to dream away thinking ‘Imagine I lived there…’ This may happen even (or perhaps especially) to school children looking at schematic depictions with educational purposes, as in this case one that summarizes as many as possible geographic features on a limited area.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 16:27, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

;Penninsula: intentional?

Since I can hardly imagine Randall doesn't know how
it's written, the n too much may be a subtle gag.
(Just think of what happens in the opposite case ;-){{unsigned ip|108.162.230.221}}
:I think it's a misspelling. However, the Penninsula would certainly be in Pennsylvania. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 14:41, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the extra 'n' in Penninsula is a reference to the english version of the Legend of Zelda, specifically the phrase, "EASTMOST PENNINSULA IS THE SECRET". Considering The Legend of Zelda games usually also take place in the type of world shown here, I'd say it's a good guess. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.175|108.162.237.175]] 21:01, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

''"Randall notes that he would least like to live in the farm typically depicted in the background of such diagrams [how tornadoes form]. This is likely because the farm is depicted as being on a vast, featureless stretch of flat prairie, the opposite of the rich landscape in the comic."''

Well, perhaps.... Or perhaps it's because tornadoes keep forming there!! --[[User:Ab78|Ab78]] ([[User talk:Ab78|talk]]) 08:57, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

I think the point is that in the book the farm is very close to the actual Tornado that is there right now and about to hit said farm, quick get into the basement!, not that he objects to the type of area where tornadoes might form. [[User:Garemoko|Garemoko]] ([[User talk:Garemoko|talk]]) 22:58, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

No one has yet mentioned how conveniently named everything in this locality is. The forest is named "Forest" and so on. Someone moving there would have no difficulty when asking for directions! [[User:Jim E|Jim E]] ([[User talk:Jim E|talk]]) 17:23, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

1277: Ayn Random

2015-01-04T02:02:54Z

108.162.237.175: /* Speculation */

{{comic
| number = 1277
| date = October 14, 2013
| title = Ayn Random
| image = ayn random.png
| titletext = In a cavern deep below the Earth, Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ann Druyan, Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, and Duran Duran meet together in the Secret Council of /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is an attack on the perceived problems with the philosophy of "Objectivism". [[White Hat]] explains to [[Cueball]] a program he wrote, the "Ayn Random Number Generator", which is a pun on {{w|Ayn Rand}}, the name of a writer who created a philosophical system known as {{w|Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|Objectivism}}. The joke is an attack on her philosophy, which claims to be a completely fair mechanism for distributing resources, but (arguably) inherently favors those who start out with more resources, or already in a position to acquire the resources. It also, again arguably, has a strong overarching theme that people that believe in objectivism are inherently better than other people, and thus deserve what extra resources can be acquired - as with the Ayn Random Number Generator, which claims to be completely fair and balanced, but actually favors some numbers - which White Hat explains by saying that they deserve to come up more because they're inherently better.

Now, objectivists, of course, would challenge the above portrayal, but the joke is, in the end, an attack on Ayn Rand's philosophies. A more nuanced description is that objectivists believe that the primary aim of life is to maximise personal happiness. In their view, if some humans are born more capable of satisfying their desires than other people, they deserve to reap greater rewards from life than others, no matter the cost to those others.

The title text identifies a group of people whose names match the {{w|regular expression}} <code>/(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i</code>. A step-by-step explanation of the expression:
*\b is a word boundary, matching anywhere there is a 'word character' next to a non-word character—punctuation, digit, spacing, etc.
*[plurandy] is a character class, and will match any single character from the set inside the square brackets; [adlnpruy] means exactly the same
*the plus sign means ''one or more'' of the previous thing, so [plurandy]+ matches one or many of the characters in that class, one after the other
*" ?" - a space followed by a question mark: "?" means "0 or 1 of the previous thing", so a space is optional
*the whole section in parentheses (\b[plurandy]+\b ?) translates to "a word containing one or more letters, all of which are in the set [plurandy], followed by an optional space"
*the {2} on the end means to repeat the pattern, so it must match exactly twice
*The slashes at each end mark out the pattern, and the "i" at the end is an expression qualifier means it is "case insensitive" (uppercase and lowercase match interchangeably)

Overall, it matches two words separated by a space, composed entirely of the letters in [plurandy], which is what all the names listed have in common.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Person !! Brief Description
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Ayn Rand}} || Author, best known for her novels {{w|The Fountainhead}} and {{w|Atlas Shrugged}}.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Paul Ryan}} || US Politician known to have been influenced by the writings of Ayn Rand.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Rand Paul}} || US Politician, also influenced by Ayn Rand's writings.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Ann Druyan}} || Author, widow of {{w|Carl Sagan}}
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Paul Rudd}} || Actor, screenwriter, comedian
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Alan Alda}} || Actor, best known for the role of Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. Played Arnold Vinick, a fiscally-conservative Republican presidential candidate, in {{w|The West Wing}}.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Duran Duran}} || New Wave/Rock band
|}

As an aside, if the entirety of the title text is matched against the regular expression, it matches "and Duran" instead of "Duran Duran".

===Speculation===
Since the primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality (or, at least, "rationality" as defined by Rand: her critics argue that the conclusions she reached do not actually derive inevitably from her premises and that additional, unstated assumptions are necessary to make the system work), the implication may be that the random number generator favors rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction, i.e. a quotient p/q). On the other hand, given computers cannot store numbers of unlimited length, it is, for all practical purposes, impossible for '''any''' real world computer random number generator to produce an irrational number - so probably not. π is an irrational number. However, a random number generator can only ever generate a number of fixed length, and any fixed-length approximation of an irrational number, such as 3.14159, is just a rational number: 3.14159 = 314159/100000, and if it can be written as a fraction, it's not irrational. Alternately, an Objectivist might argue that if the intent of the comic is to attack or mock Objectivism, then the comic inadvertently satirizes itself via the "rationality" interpretation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sitting at a laptop, White Hat behind him.]
:Cueball: This Ayn Random number generator you wrote '''''claims''''' to be fair, but the output is biased toward certain numbers.
:White Hat: '''''WELL, MAYBE THOSE NUMBERS ARE JUST INTRINSICALLY BETTER!'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:1384: Krypton

2014-06-21T03:30:13Z

108.162.237.175:

Is the Earth baby the real reason Krypton was destroyed? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.239|103.22.201.239]] 08:58, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Is now a good time to mark the shark jump? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.135|108.162.210.135]] 12:52, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
:Only if this keeps up. Yeah, it's a crappy comic, but I don't think the quality overall has been dropping that much. Everyone has off days. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.83|173.245.55.83]] 13:58, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
::Jumping the shark is a single event, not a segment of time. In this case it's launching the earth baby. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.175|108.162.237.175]] 03:30, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

Not so bad if you can relate to the anguish of parenting a colicky kid. Sending him to Krypton is an improvement on some of the things I was tempted to do. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.71|173.245.55.71]] 15:08, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
:Sending a baby off to die is better than things you were tempted to do? You really want to make that claim? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.39|199.27.133.39]] 16:14, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

It may be a cultural-linguistic thing, but I felt compelled to change "cries" to "crying", in the explanation. Hearing "his cries" is redolent of "Ahoy there!" coming from a person attracting attention in a nautical context, the various distinctive calls of a person selling produce in a street-market or "I'm up here! Get me down!" from a person stuck on the ledge of a burning building. When a baby cries (as opposed to when someone "cries out") you hear him (or her... it's not actually specified) 'crying', not his(/her) 'calling-cries', even though both are indeed similar forms of attracting attention. I've overthought this, of course. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.57|141.101.99.57]] 15:19, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

(Also, should the baby survive... somehow... would Earth Rock, howsoever sent there, be naturally ''strenghthening'' to the child? Assuming similarly transmuted as per the mundane (for native Kryptonians) planetary material beneath their feet was, during the cataclysm... It'd probably depend on which subsection of Superman canon you observed, as they tend to reinvent the 'physics' behind standard green kryptonite, even before adding in the other colours of it...) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.57|141.101.99.57]] 15:19, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Can someone '''explain''' how this is funny?
:Seriously. ''Infanticide as entertainment?!!'' Parents deciding to kill a baby because it's noisy is neither amusing nor an interesting observation. Shame on Randall. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.39|199.27.133.39]] 16:11, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

What I totally don't get is...when the visual information about Krypton's instability has reached Earth, Krypton has already exploded many years ago. I guess that Kal-El's spaceship is travelling at near-lightspeed, so time-dilation effects cause very little apparent time to pass for Kal-El; so when he arrives he's still a a baby. This assumes that (a) the alien technology allows for extraordinary acceleration while still maintaining survivable conditions for the baby (while Superman can apparently survive extreme conditions, this trait is most probably bestowed upon him only at the end of his journey by the Earth sun), and (b) the he is a male (this primary sexual characteristics are not shown in the movie, IIRC...). An FTL spaceship is out of the question, as this would mean that the Krptonite meteors would also have been travelling at FTL speed.

:Whatever. By the time a spaceship from Earth arrives, even if it travels at near-lightspeed, Clark Kent will most probably be facing retirement already (after turning a crank for many years, of course).

Btw, having Superman turn a crank instead of having him fight crimes would not necessarily mean that Lex Luthor would have had success with his evil plans. Mr. Bond, James Bond, had proven numerous times that he can stop any criminal who attempt to achieve world domination or at least extreme wealth via over-convoluted plans. Yep, I mean, if you could build powersats, you'd immediately achieve wold domination via your monopoly for "free and clean energy", so why bother with criminal plans? Any, if you are smart enough to build powersats, but cannot resist the temptation to use them for over-convoluted criminal plans, should yout net able to think about the option to give your Legion of Doom at least basic training in marksmanship?

But I think I'm getting carried away. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.108|108.162.254.108]] 16:25, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

I actually thought this was more brilliant before I saw the second ship (rather: noticed that the crystal was a ship). I thought the gag was that some human, in attempting to resolve a crying baby (we've all been there, and if you haven't, don't knock it) actually created Superman (the shuttle destroys the unstable Krypton, and the baby is flung back). If anyone does think that this comic is gruesome, then stop reading it: your efforts could be rewardingly employed by criticizing "Cyanide and Happiness" instead. I love the quirkiness Randall! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.88|108.162.216.88]] 16:45, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Am I alone in thinking ([http://www.dvice.com/sites/dvice/files/enterprise-warp.jpg NCC-1701]) moviebombed the 1978 film? See 'version depicted' in explanation. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.73|199.27.133.73]] 20:06, 20 June 2014 (UTC)