explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1576: I Could Care Less

2015-09-11T06:51:47Z

108.162.238.188: /* Transcript */ broke up paragraph, corrected ponytall -> ponytail

{{comic
| number = 1576
| date = September 11, 2015
| title = I Could Care Less
| image = i_could_care_less.png
| titletext = I literally could care less.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less." And its incorrect idiomatic meaning. This dichotomy is best explained by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes": <blockquote>Like I could care less 
That means you do care 
At least a little</blockquote>
Many people argue that the phrase should be "I couldn't care less".

Megan feels alone because there is unavoidable difference between her understanding of her own words and the listener's interpretation, so while she sees discussion of semantics as being of potentially high social and emotional value, she doesn't think it has objective value. However, ironically, at the end of the comic, the meaning of "I could care less" with regards to Ponytail's behavior is ambiguous: either Megan is brushing off Ponytail's pedantry because she doesn't care about it (she couldn't care less) or she is hurt by Ponytail's focus on the details of her words rather than the emotional cues she should have learned over the course of their relationship (she actually could care less).

==Transcript==
:Megan: Anyway, I could care less.

:Ponytail: I think you mean you couldn't care less. Saying you could care less implies you care at least some amount.

:Megan: I dunno.

:Megan: We're these unbelievably complicated brains drifting through a void, trying in vain to connect with one another by blindly flinging words out into the darkness.

:Megan: Every choice of phrasing and spelling and tone and timing carries countless signals and contexts and subtexts and more, and every listener interprets those signals in their own way. Language isn't a formal system. Language is glorious chaos.

:Megan: You can never know for sure what any words will mean to anyone. All you can do is try to get better at guessing how your words affect people, so you can have a chance of finding the ones that will make them feel something like what you want them to feel. Everything else is pointless.

:Megan: I assume you're giving me tips on how you interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot.

:Megan: But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Logic]]

1535: Words for Pets

2015-06-08T11:58:04Z

108.162.238.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1535
| date = June 8, 2015
| title = Words for Pets
| image = words_for_pets.png
| titletext = Seventh year: Perfectly coherent words, but in the pet's language, not mine.
}}

==Explanation==

The graphs show the words use to refer to a pet. In the first year it is dominated by the actual name of the pet or words closely related. For example a dog might be called "Lassie", "dog" or "collie".

Moving on to the second year, words like "dog" and "collie" get more abundant while the actual name gets used less frequently.

In the third year the owner probably uses simple phrases like "come" or "come here" to call the pet, omitting the name.

The fourth year entails the use of just any sound.

This development can be attributed to the fact, that some animals don't listen to their own name but rather react to the sound of the voice of their owner. It could also refer to the growing bond between owner and the pet. This extends in the title text to communicating in the pet's own language.

{{incomplete|Could be enhanced.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[A box is shown, with title "Words I use to refer to a pet over the years I live with it".]

[Inside the box are four diagrams. Each diagram contains three circles containing the previous one, each labeled "The pet's name", "Words related to the pet", and "Coherent words of any kind", from inside going out.]

[The first diagram contains a red circle, labeled "First Year", overlapping the innermost circle.]

[In the second diagram, the red circle, labeled "Second Year", now overlaps the first two circles.]

[In the third diagram, the red circle, labeled "Third Year", has moved away from the first circle, and is now overlapping the second and third circles.]

[In the fourth diagram, the red circle, labeled "Fourth Year Onward", has moved away from all three circles.]

{{comic discussion}}

1535: Words for Pets

2015-06-08T11:56:35Z

108.162.238.188:

{{comic
| number = 1535
| date = June 8, 2015
| title = Words for Pets
| image = words_for_pets.png
| titletext = Seventh year: Perfectly coherent words, but in the pet's language, not mine.
}}

==Explanation==

The graphs show the words use to refer to a pet. In the first year it is dominated by the actual name of the pet or words closely related. For example a dog might be called "Lassie", "dog" or "collie".

Moving on to the second year, words like "dog" and "collie" get more abundant while the actual name gets used less frequently.

In the third year the owner greatly uses just any words like "come here" or similiar to call the dog.

The fourth year entails the use of just any sound.

This development can be attributed to the fact, that some animals don't listen to their own name but rather react to the sound of the voice of their owner. It could also refer to the growing bond between owner and the pet. This extends in the title text to communicating in the pet's own language.

{{incomplete|Could be enhanced.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[A box is shown, with title "Words I use to refer to a pet over the years I live with it".]

[Inside the box are four diagrams. Each diagram contains three circles containing the previous one, each labeled "The pet's name", "Words related to the pet", and "Coherent words of any kind", from inside going out.]

[The first diagram contains a red circle, labeled "First Year", overlapping the innermost circle.]

[In the second diagram, the red circle, labeled "Second Year", now overlaps the first two circles.]

[In the third diagram, the red circle, labeled "Third Year", has moved away from the first circle, and is now overlapping the second and third circles.]

[In the fourth diagram, the red circle, labeled "Fourth Year Onward", has moved away from all three circles.]

{{comic discussion}}

1067: Pressures

2015-06-03T13:53:07Z

108.162.238.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1067
| date = June 11, 2012
| title = Pressures
| image = pressures.png
| titletext = Everyone's caught by surprise when a theory of quantum gravity is developed by a sound technician wearing patent leather shoes while editing Clerks II.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to revolutionary physicist {{w|Albert Einstein}}, who got his first big ideas about physics while he was working as a Swiss patent clerk. Hence, Randall jokes that there is pressure on other Swiss patent clerks to come up with genius ideas while they are working there.

The title text makes the joke that instead of a patent clerk making the next breakthrough theory, as everyone is supposedly expecting, it's instead made by someone wearing "patent" leather shoes and working on a movie called "Clerks" II, thereby suggesting that anytime something called a "patent" crosses with anything called a "clerk", radical breakthroughs in physics result. {{w|Clerks II}} is the second movie in the Clerks series by Kevin Smith, widely regarded as not nearly as good as the first — which could be said about most sequels, but you get the point.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail walks up to Megan examining documents]
:Ponytail: So.. what"ve you been up to?
:Megan: Handling patent applications.
:Ponytail: Yeah, but... besides that?
:Megan: That's about it.
:Ponytail: You're not, like, thinking about any cool stuff? Just curious.

:For the last hundred years, Swiss patent clerks have been under some weird pressures.

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

1533: Antique Factory

2015-06-03T12:45:33Z

108.162.238.188:

{{comic
| number = 1533
| date = June 3, 2015
| title = Antique Factory
| image = Antique_Factory.PNG
| titletext = WARNING: This item was aged by the same inexorable passage of time that also processes nuts.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This antique has just recently been constructed.}}
[[Beret Guy]] seems to have another new job with a confusing premise. When asked where he works, he says "an {{w|antique}} factory", which seems to be a contradiction. He walks up to a chair, table, and small cabinet, sits down in the chair, and does nothing else. Of course, one does not simply make antiques. Instead, one must wait. Beret Guy appears to be doing exactly this. The implication is that the "antique factory" is simply a place where furniture is stored until it gets old enough to be considered "antique", and that Beret Guy doesn't perform any useful function (except perhaps to keep an eye on the inventory so it doesn't get stolen).

The title text refers to allergy warning labels that say "Manufactured in a facility which processes nuts",
"Manufactured on equipment that processes products containing nuts",
"Manufactured on equipment that uses nuts", or similar. Sometimes these warnings are used for allergens besides nuts, but nuts may be the most common. The joke here is that of course time affects both antiques and nuts; time affects everything, and may even effect some things. (See [[326: Effect an Effect]].)

==Transcript==
Beret Guy: Gotta go - I'm late for work.
Offscreen voice: Oh, where are you working now?
Beret: Antique factory!

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

1524: Dimensions

2015-05-28T03:40:38Z

108.162.238.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1524
| date = May 13, 2015
| title = Dimensions
| image = dimensions.png
| titletext = I would say time is definitely one of my top three favorite dimensions.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Too much like a discussion. Needs a rewrite.}}
Our world is {{w|Dimension|3-dimensional}} (like in a box; length, width and height.) But in modern {{w|physics}}, {{w|space}} and {{w|time}} are unified in a four-dimensional continuum called {{w|Spacetime|spacetime}} where time becomes the fourth dimension.

It is to this 4-dimensional spacetime that [[Cueball]] refers in his monologue to [[Megan]], while he is philosophizing about his life in these four dimensions.

What Cueball comments on is that whereas we can, to some extent, determine in which direction we wish to move (at least on the surface of the Earth) in the three dimensions of space (up-down, left-right, forward-backward), we cannot help but being pushed ''inexorably forward'' through time. So it is quite lucky for Cueball that he thinks this is OK.

Being pushed constantly in one of the other directions would very soon be lethal. Suddenly if you where pushed over a cliff or in front of a truck, or also if you were pushed hard enough {{w|Between a Rock and a Hard Place|against a rock}}. But even if you avoided any of these you would die soon enough if it was some constant direction, because then you would soon leave the Earth if you travel in a tangent to the surface, as the Earth is approximately spherical. (see [[1376: Jump]] especially the title text). Also because of all the movements the Earth undergoes, (spinning and orbiting the sun, that orbits the galaxy that moves toward Andromeda) we are already constantly being pushed in several directions at once, without realizing it. But it is always changing directions, as opposed to times, which we always move forward through.

Moving forward in time will also eventually be lethal by causing old age. It also may place you in dangerous times when natural or man-made disasters have happened (or placing you in the path of a moving truck), but it is only possible to avoid these dangers by sidestepping them in one of the three spatial dimensions.

In the title text Cueball then continues to muse about his favorite dimensions and places time in his top three dimensions. This initially seems to mean that one of the three space dimensions must be his least favorite. But since in space there is no difference between the three dimensions, it's not obvious why any one would be preferred over another. And if that was the case, then time would have to be his favorite dimension. (Radial and cylindrical coordinate systems describe 3d worlds with vastly differing dimensionalities)

There are, though, a couple of other ways to think about this:

# Cueball could be referring to a naive view of three spatial dimensions in a fixed reference system (like on earth), where the three directions can be different. In a {{W|Cartesian coordinate system}}, as often seen in geometry textbooks, two axes form a horizontal plane and the third axis is the vertical one. In this case, perhaps his two other top three "dimensions" could be those in the plane (along the surface of the Earth) as he could easily move along these two axes, but moving along the third axis (e.g. flying away from ground - or falling down a cliff) requires special arrangements or is outright dangerous.
# If Cueball is not supposed to represent a real person (like for instance [[Randall]] himself, as he often does in this type of comic) then he may be viewed as a "real" comic strip character, thus always living in a two dimensional world. This view offers another explanation, which may be that since he only exists in two spatial dimensions, these are his "favorite" ones along with time (or "movement" from panel to panel, see wired comic mentioned below), with the third spatial dimension being outside his experience. Since Cueball specifically mentions the four dimensions in the comic, and makes it clear that he '''could''' have been pushed through any of them (but has been subject only to a push through time), this may not be such a likely explanation.
# It's a rephrasal of the statement "time isn't the worst", meaning that it isn't hist most hated, i.e. fourth favourite dimension

In {{W|M-theory}}, a conjectured theory that unifies all consistent versions of {{w|superstring theory}}, spacetime is eleven-dimensional, which would make a place in the top three a somewhat more interesting position. However, these extra dimensions are not currently detectable.

Interestingly, [[Randall]] has already, back in the December 2014 issue of Wired magazine, published the [http://www.wired.com/2014/11/xkcd-guide-to-dimensions/ xkcd guide to dimensions] where the main part of this comic was already used in panel 9 out of 20. This issue of Wired magazine was about multiple dimensions, and Randall's section is about imagining higher dimension. The article is a mix of xkcd-style comics and captions explaining them. The panel in question show Cueball saying, "Of '''all the''' dimensions I could have spent my life being pushed inexorably through, I guess "time" isn't the worst." (the only difference being that "all the" has been changed to "the four" in this comic). In panel 15 of the Wired comic series, Randall considers how dimensions can be represented in a two-dimensional comic strip: a character moving within a panel represents movement in space but movement from panel to panel represents movement in time.

Previously Randall has made a comic about a man who was pushed sideways (although that was by the gravity which affected him wrongly) - so he was pushed both through time and fell sideways: [[417: The Man Who Fell Sideways]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting up against a tree, Megan lies with her hands behind her neck in front him under the foliage of the tree.]
:Cueball: Of the four dimensions I could have spent my life being pushed inexorably forward through, I guess "time" isn't the worst.

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Time]]

452: Mission

2015-05-19T18:09:03Z

108.162.238.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 452
| date = July 21, 2008
| title = Mission
| image = mission.png
| titletext = Don't you know? The chances of a random object being a scone are about one in six.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Beret Guy]] are on a mission, intending to destroy whatever machine they are in. Except that Beret Guy tends to be a bit surreal and brought a bag for holding pastries instead of explosive charges.

This is not the first time he's made such a bakery mistake; see [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]].

He then attempts to eat what Cueball identifies as {{w|Lug nut}}s, believing them to be scones.

The title text further emphasizes Beret Guy's obsession with bakery goods, by stating that if you pick up six random objects it is highly likely that one of these will be a scone. Explaining his behaviour with the Lug nuts.

Beret guy and scones are also referenced in the title text of both [[677: Asshole]] and [[1030: Keyed]].

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Cueball are rappelling down separate ropes into the interior workings of a large machine.]
:Cueball: Okay, we're in the belly of the machine. You got the charges?
:Beret Guy: The what?

:[The two are standing next to some large pieces of machinery.]
:Cueball [gesturing]: The explosive charges!
:Beret Guy [pulling out a bag]: I just brought this bag for pastries.
:Cueball: The hell? We're on a mission here!

:Beret Guy [looking around]: This isn't a bakery?
:Cueball [head in hand]: Oh, Christ, not this shit again.

:Beret Guy [crouching by some lug nuts lying on a piece of machinery]: What about these scones?
:Cueball: Those are lug nuts.
:Beret Guy [stuffing them in his mouth]: ...Maybe SOME of them aren't. ''crunch'' Ow! ''crunch''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

Talk:1526: Placebo Blocker

2015-05-18T18:36:30Z

108.162.238.188: /* How to do it. */

;Placebome

The title of the referenced paper introduces the 'Placebome', the collection of genes which lead to the placebo effect. This is an absolutely ridiculous word, and would be worthy of Jonathan Eisen's [http://phylogenomics.blogspot.ch/search/label/Worst%20New%20Omics%20Word%20Award Worst New Omics Word Award]. [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 08:31, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

;Title text bottle

It seems more plausible to me that the "they" and "same bottle" in the title text refer to the sugar pills for headache. The title text would then be an organic continuation of the immediately preceding dialogue. [[User:Angew|Angew]] ([[User talk:Angew|talk]]) 09:01, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
:Agreed. Take two sugar pils. The second will boost the effect of the first. It could work if you believe it.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:14, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
:: Agreed, updated. -- [[User:Phyzome|Phyzome]] ([[User talk:Phyzome|talk]]) 13:47, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm confused about why this explanation is a stub. Personally, I think it explains the comic well, but I'll refrain from removing the incomplete tag in case most people think that the explanation isn't adequate. [[User:Caeleste Alarum|Caeleste Alarum]] ([[User talk:Caeleste Alarum|talk]]) 15:21, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Wouldn't you find a malady that can be treated via placebo, like a headache, give control group A a headache pill, control group B a placebo and tell them it was a headache pill and give the test group a placebo blocker as the placebo and tell them it is a headache pill?

A placebo blocker would be really useful in medical testing to find out which medicines are actually effective and which are simply producing a stronger placebo effect through a noticeable side effect.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.125|173.245.48.125]] 15:46, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

== How to do it. ==

Compound two sets of placebos. The control set is just sugar pills. The other set would be the blocker. Unless the active dose is massive, it'd also be partially a sugar pill already.

Present both as a possible treatment for some malady.

Each group would then only get one pill, and be ignorant that there was potentially a placebo blocker in their dose.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.160|108.162.238.160]] 17:09, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

I would guess that there would have to be at least 6 groups. Groups 1 and 2 would be the traditional experiment with a drug and a placebo, groups 3, 4, 5, and 6 are given two pills one of which they told is a drug, the other is a placebo blocker which may prevent the first drug from helping you. groups 3 and 4 are given the real placebo blocker, groups 5 and 6 are given another placebo. This would be an interesting experiment in that you could test the psychological effects of telling someone who took a real drug that "it may not work." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.188|108.162.238.188]] 18:36, 18 May 2015 (UTC) Veggiet

Talk:1520: Degree-Off

2015-05-05T18:11:35Z

108.162.238.188: Civil Engineering is left out.

Isn't this the debut of the dark hair-bun girl? Is this trivia section worthy? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 22:49, 4 May 2015 (UTC)BK201
:The hair bun girl has [[:Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl|appeared a few times]] since it's inception in [[378: Real Programmers]]. --{{User:17jiangz1/signature|01:05, 05 May 2015}}

I assume "''Your'' field gathered in the desert to create a new one." refers to the Manhattan Project? {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.74}}
:Yes [[User:Jachra|Jachra]] ([[User talk:Jachra|talk]]) 06:52, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Chem wants absolutely no part of this conversation. [[User:Jachra|Jachra]] ([[User talk:Jachra|talk]]) 06:52, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. Is she claiming that her heros have conquered death? [[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 06:58, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
: Yeah I didn't get that either. The description as it stands now seems to be implying one of the four horsemen is pestilence, but that's not what my Google search turned up… --[[User:Zagorath|Zagorath]] ([[User talk:Zagorath|talk]]) 15:15, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
::Pestilence [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.176|173.245.56.176]] 07:10, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
:::In Terry Pratchett's book the fourth horsemen is Pestilence. See also {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}. It was new to me that it was originally Conquest instead of Pestilence which can be read on wiki: {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Since Randall is a big fan of Terry Pratchett it is very likely that he refers to "his" version of the four Horsemen. (It is not Terry's invention, but he made it popular amongst people like Randall). As I disagree with the Death version of the title text, I'm not sure that Terry is directly refereed to in this comic, but I'm sure the Bilologist refers to them killing of pestilence (or plauge). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:23, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
::::There are no humanities on stage, so I think bio can get away with this one.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.23|108.162.218.23]] 17:50, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
::::Maybe it referred to famine. Though that'd be a bit odd. [[User:Halfhat|Halfhat]] ([[User talk:Halfhat|talk]]) 19:05, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
:::::Perhaps the reason why pestilence isn't a real Horseman is because its death by biology retroactively altered the prophecy ("Yes, you've had it for ages. But did you have it for ages 30 minutes ago?" - Rincewind, The Last Continent).````

also a possible reference to: https://xkcd.com/435/ ? {{unsigned ip|141.101.75.101}}

The stamp collecting quote is from Ernest Rutherford, not Richard Feynman. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.43}}

1052 also compares degrees --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.12|141.101.104.12]] 08:36, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

My assumption was that Cueball was giving a long and possibly rambling talk about physics starting with an anecdote about Feynman and ending with one about Rutherford. I didn't consider the quote to be wrongly attributed therefore. {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.71}}

Please be aware that the proper way to link to wikipedia is to use [[Template:w]].--{{User:17jiangz1/signature|10:01, 04 May 2015}}

This may be Randall's indirect way of saying what he thinks of the anti-vaxxers. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:49, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Does the "killing Pestilence" thing also refer to ''Good Omens'' (co-authored by Pratchett), where Pestilence retired in 1936 "mumbling something about penicillin"? Homusubi

Isn't the comment about vaccines kinda reaching? I don't really see any evidence, even implied, that this comic is referencing the anti-vaccine movement in any way. --[[User:Zagorath|Zagorath]] ([[User talk:Zagorath|talk]]) 13:23, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
:I agree that the anti-vaxer comments are out of place. I don't think they should be included as part of the explanation. [[User:Bmmarti3|Bmmarti3]] ([[User talk:Bmmarti3|talk]])

Isn't the biologist talking in the title text? And isn't biology considered a squishy science? I think the title is directed at the physicist, telling him to get harder skin because he's so easily hurt emotionally. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|Yourlifeisalie]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 14:13, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I rather doubt that the CAPS in the title text are referring to Pratchett's figure DEATH. In my opinion, the talking-in-CAPS is just meant to infer (further) SHOUTING on the part of the biologist, since she is shouting in the last panel as well. There is no indication whatsoever that the title text should be spoken by anyone other than the biologist herself.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.180|141.101.104.180]] 14:20, 4 May 2015 (UTC)thd

Do chemistry and physics represent a helium atom with biology as the nucleus? It would also explain her hair. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:18, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
:I don't see any reason for it to make any sense. It is quite a long shot to think so. However, what explains her hair? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 17:50, 4 May 2015 (UTC)BK201

Might there also be a reference to https://xkcd.com/520/, praising biology just in case. [[User:Tzwenn|Tzwenn]] ([[User talk:Tzwenn|talk]]) 15:22, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

What is the giant bump in infectious diseases around 1925? It seems like it must have been a mayor effect, but I don't know how to google for it.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.99|141.101.104.99]] 17:43, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

:The planet-wide superflu of 1919, which happened because millions decided to go to Europe, camp in filthy trenches for months and then decided to all go back home simultaneously for some reason. {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.44}}

::Actually, it happened for other reasons, and it was mostly in 1918. Many people arrived at that camp bringing the superflu with them, actually, and the drop-off happened around when the bulk of them went home. Most of the fatalities may actually have been due to cytokine storms, AKA your immune system deciding that you ought to die horribly and now. What you ''actually'' got at the camp is the discovery that, if your feet are continuously wet for sufficiently long periods of time, they'll rot. That said, infectious diseases are on their way back, because antibiotic resistance is going up. There's already a confirmed case of TB resistant to all current antibiotics, and truly new ones becoming less and less frequent. (Most of the obvious routes we've exploited and adaptation is destroying, and many of the remaining obvious routes are insufficiently easy to distinguish from chemical warfare.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.182|108.162.237.182]] 22:46, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

moved the most important comment to the top. [[User:TheJonyMyster|TheJonyMyster]] ([[User talk:TheJonyMyster|talk]]) 00:25, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Uhm lockpicking != safecracking. Feynman was exploiting a bad design in the safes (you didn't have to dial the exact number) combined with people being lousy at choosing their codes. [[User:Poizan42|Poizan42]] ([[User talk:Poizan42|talk]]) 09:45, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
:A numpad safe still contains a lock. It locks items inside. --{{User:17jiangz1/signature|11:27, 05 May 2015}}

I'm not sure what is the biologists arguing about. Physics creating new horseman of apocalypse is definitely bigger achievement than biologists almost removing one. On the other hand, both fields are capable of making humans extinct by mistake. (Also, seriously, the idea of degree-off is flawed: we need experts in both (or rather all) fields.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:09, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

I think that Civil Engineering should get half the credit. It wouldn't make for as good a cartoon though. Why was the graph of infectious disease rates lightly doctored to reduce the 1918 flu pandemic? My guess is to increase the visual impact. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.188|108.162.238.188]] 18:11, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

95: The Sierpinski Penis Game

2014-10-22T23:45:39Z

108.162.238.188:

{{comic
| number = 95
| date = April 28, 2006
| title = The Sierpinski Penis Game
| image = the_sierpinski_penis_game.jpg
| titletext = Inappropriate places for the Penis Game include baby showers and terrorist attacks.
}}

==Explanation==
The Penis Game is an activity where people compete to shout "Penis!" the loudest while the teacher is out in the hallway without getting in trouble. Variants exist using other taboo words, and can be played in other public places such as a mall or a workplace. The placement of the phrase in a {{w|Sierpinski triangle|Sierpinski gasket}} may be a reference to the way the game tends to ripple through a crowd after someone starts it.

And as the title text states, it's pretty taboo to try and start a Penis Game at a {{w|baby shower}} or in front of the victims of a recent terrorist attack.

==Transcript==
:[A large triangle is shown, with many smaller triangles inside.]
:[Words are in the triangles.]
:PENIS! Haha, penis.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Penis]]