explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2873: Supersymmetry

2023-12-27T21:53:28Z

108.162.245.202:

Ah, good, I was ''just'' about to tell people (on 2872's Talk page) that there was a new one... (And that we obviously need to prod the theusafBOT.) Currently, [[2872: Hydrothermal Vents]] doesn't have the 'Next' links to here, but (from last comic's experience) it might just be a matter of nudging its server-side cache a bit. I'll try the tricks I tried yesterday. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.101|141.101.99.101]] 20:08, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Too bad the franchise has never introduced a Weach character (there's a couple of witches). A game with Peach as the main protagonist would be interesting, and it would give us a convenient positron. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.135|172.71.26.135]] 20:56, 27 December 2023 (UTC)
:If they made Weach, people would start asking for Wowser. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.202|108.162.245.202]] 21:53, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2249: I Love the 20s

2020-01-02T21:21:08Z

108.162.245.202:

in gif diehard is a Christmas movie. There is no right or wrong answer.
But is White Hat right or wrong? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.197|162.158.91.197]] 19:00, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
:Both. It's the only way to settle this. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.63|173.245.54.63]] 19:13, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
::I think that he is right, but it’s like asking if diehard is a Christmas movie. There is no right or wrong answer.
:::Indeed, famed D.J. and space journalist [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZVOSZqth70 Scott Manley says it's a new decade in C but not in FORTRAN]. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:37, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
::::You mean it's already 21th century for FORTRAN? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:33, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
::::But what decade is it in the {{w|Delisle scale}}? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 20:35, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
I'm fairly certain Ponytail contradicts herself in panel 5. Arguing that decades are not cardinally numbered is arguing that the decade starts in 2021 (ordinal numbering.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.34|162.158.126.34]] 21:20, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
:She doesn't: you're assuming there are only two options, but that's not the case. Decades (in the common "20s, 30s, 40s" form) are not technically numbered at all: they're named, it's just that those names are based on numbers.
:It's still a sequence, like names or dictionary entries being grouped into "As, Bs, Cs" and so on, though. (Is there a specific name for this type of sequence? If so, I don't know it.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.144|141.101.107.144]] 23:03, 1 January 2020 (UTC)
::She (more likely Randall's slip of the pen) is still wrong: what she means is that they aren't ''ordinally'' numbered, which is the reason the other guy is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.179|162.158.158.179]] 08:23, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
Having had this conversation on WhatsApp, I have settled on an ingenious solution that works for me (on being told that "0" had not been invented in the year between -1 and +1") and explains why decades start with "10, 20...": As usually nowadays, the first decade was the Betaversion and so only ran from 1-9... {{unsigned ip|188.114.103.5|07:29, 2 January 2020 (UTC)}}
:Nobody really recognised the possibility of having/not having 0AD until c.525AD, anyway. (Sitting betwixt the nominal start of what became in our zero in 5thC and its eventual formalising in 7thC, over in India/etc.) If you ask me (and you aren't doing, I know!) I think they probably were envisaging an early version of 1s' Compliment, but knew it would be silly to have two separate numbers for the year ±0 and so fudged it entirely the other way. ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.9|162.158.158.9]] 11:37, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Every year is a new decade. Just some of them overlap. The 203rd decade was from 2021 to 2030, while the '20s will run from 1920 to 1929. Both are legitimate decades. So id 1994-2003; it just doesn't have a convenient name to refer to it by. Heck, you don't even need a new year. 1981-12-03 to 1991-12-02 is the first decade of my life :) So if you want to celebrate the start of a new decade, you should celebrate ''every single day''. [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 10:48, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
:By that logic, the 203rd decade started 203 planck lengths (or other smaller time units) after the big bang. Or was it 202 planck lenghts after? However I agree, that decades start and end all the time. The question is just, what day does the decade "the 20s" start. I'd say it started on January 1, 2020. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:23, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

There is an interesting theory that CULTURALLY, a new decade doesn't really start until year 2 or year 3 of said decade. So, what we traditionally envision as "the 80s" actually was typical for ca. 1983-1992, what we think of as "the 90s" actually happened between 1993 and 2002, and so on. It makes a lot of sense if you think of it (and if you listen to music or look at pictures of the time); mullets were still a thing in 1991, just as carrot pants were in 1981 and psychedelic music was in 1971. (It also works for centuries, but with a longer timespan, about 15 years. 1910 or 1911 feels a lot more 19th century than 20th century. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna was held, which ended the European Wars of the 18th century and laid the foundation for the nation states typical of the 19th century, and for a period of relative peace that enabled the Industrial Revolution. And so on.)--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.233|162.158.158.233]] 12:00, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
:I'd argue that this is just randomness. There is no reason, any trends should align to the way the years are set up. Of course noone says "hey, it's first January 2020, let's start a new style of dressing and listen to new music." But neither do they in 2022. However e.g. carrot pants were MOST popular, and on their peak of popularity in the 70s, and psychadelic music in the 60s, even though trends linger and resurface long after all the time. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:54, 2 January 2020 (UTC)
::Well, I'd already planned to use exclusive and entirely 2020s' slang and fashion from yesterday onwards. After a few false starts because nobody knew what I was vocing about, I'm now starting it ween and only going full-barbecue as I get past the prime snick of my voc, in empthy my viewclan viz my deltas and merj my vocstyel, all charged for the dec fronting up! Ten-four, me hearties? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.40|141.101.98.40]] 16:20, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

In the decades under discussion, VH1 and MTV were competing channels, not parent company - child company. (And MTV came first.) It's much more relevant to the explanation that VH1 was a music channel on cable TV than to explain who owns what now, three decades later. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.159|172.69.63.159]] 15:59, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

I find it surprising that Randall didn't reference ISO-8601 by way of Wikipedia, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero#ISO_8601 in the Year Zero article], to make the argument that the first 10 years ran from 0-9 as "the standard". Though I suppose it is more entertaining/broadly targeted to reference pop. culture sources when labeling pop. culture trends. [[User:SensorSmith|SensorSmith]] ([[User talk:SensorSmith|talk]]) 16:12, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Well I might be stepping into a minefield by saying this, but obviously both CNN and FOX had dedicated articles reporting this issue and, as expected, have slightly different stances on the answer. I wonder if Randall is aware of this.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/21/us/when-does-the-decade-end-begin-trnd/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/us/does-2020-start-a-new-decade-or-not-everyone-has-an-opinion

2242: Ground vs Air

2019-12-18T18:49:51Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2242
| date = December 16, 2019
| title = Ground vs Air
| image = ground vs air.png
| titletext = Water is thinner than both, and fire is *definitely* thicker.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a THICK FIRE. More on the general thickness of the "ground", especially on the oceans and at the thickest parts. Needs more about the actual data portrayed.}}
This comic depicts a map of the world using the {{w|Winkel tripel projection}}, comparing the thickness of the ground, which refers to the {{w|lithosphere}}, to the "thickness" (or height) of the air above it, which refers to the {{w|atmosphere}}.

In an inserted figure, [[Randall]] defines the thickness using three boundaries. At the top is {{w|space}}, defined by the {{w|Kármán line}} at an altitude of 100 km (≈ 62 mi). (See the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section below for a discussion of this definition of the beginning of space). Below that is the atmosphere which goes down to the ground, where [[Cueball]] is standing, including the ocean down to the seafloor as indicated on the left side. Beneath the surface is the lithosphere, comprised of the Earth's crust along with the rigid upper part of the mantle, and beneath this is the {{w|asthenosphere}}, the partially melted, highly viscous region of the {{w|upper mantle}} just below the lithosphere. The lithosphere is variable in thickness, averaging about 100 km, but the oceanic lithosphere is much thinner than the continental lithosphere (oceanic crust is thinner and denser than continental crust). The two measurements are between space and the surface, and the surface to the asthenosphere.

The map shades in the parts where the thickness of the ground is thicker than the thickness of the air. This almost only occurs over continents, and certainly only where the continental plates are located (which can stretch into the shallow parts of the oceans). But there are several sections, such as in the Caribbean, northernmost Canada, and the Sea of Japan, where the ground is thicker even being below sea level.

Randall has mainly used a work by Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni from 2006 to estimate the thickness of the "ground", and he gives the reference to the paper [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2005GL025621 DOI.1029/2005GL025621]. Basically, Randall has taken their map and shaded the blue areas. It is the second comic in a row with a citation, after the footnote in [[2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect]].

The title text refers to the ancient four {{w|classical element}}s: earth, water, air, fire. The lithosphere, or ground, is earth, the oceans is water, the atmosphere is air, and fire would thus be the hot, plastic rock of the Earth's mantle, see [[913: Core]]. The mantle is not "on fire", but it is hot enough that it would ignite almost anything on the surface. The water layer on Earth is never more than 11 km deep, even at the deepest part of the ocean, the {{w|Mariana Trench}}, and thus cannot compare to the thickness of the atmosphere or the lithosphere. An expansive definition of "fire" to include the rest of the Earth below the lithosphere puts the fire layer at 6,000 km thick, the radius of the Earth, much thicker than the other layers, hence the ''and fire is *definitely* thicker'' comment at the end of the title text. Space or vacuum would in the classical element terminology have been called the {{w|Aether (classical element)|Aether}}.

In [[977: Map Projections]] the [[977:_Map_Projections#Winkel-Tripel|Winkel-Tripel projection]] is the fifth projection which is linked to the {{w|Hipster (contemporary subculture)|hipster}} subculture.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the drawing]:
:Which is thicker—the ground or the air?

:[The drawing shows a Winkel tripel projection of the Earth. The features of the main map is unlabeled, with only the outlines of the landmasses present. Various parts of the map are labeled with "Air" (four times) or "Ground" (5 times). Areas marked as "Ground" are differentiated with gray shading. These are always over large landmasses or close to them. They cover most of North America (labeled), the northern part of South America (labeled), Northern Europe and most of Asia (labeled), Japan, most of Australia and part of the Indonesia, Western Africa, sub-equatorial Africa (labeled), and finally the central parts of Antarctica (labeled). Air is written on the West Coast of the United States, in the Atlantic Ocean, over the central part of Africa and in the Pacific Ocean, near the Philippines.]
:[Over West Coast of the United States]: Air
:[Over North America]: Ground
:[Over Atlantic Ocean]: Air
:[Over South America]: Ground
:[Over the central part of Africa]: Air
:[Over the southern part of Africa]: Ground
:[Over Asia]: Ground
:[Over Pacific Ocean]: Air
:[Over Antarctica ]: Ground

:[A small diagram is present in the Pacific Ocean left of South America. The diagram depicts several labeled layers of Earth and its atmosphere, listed below. Cueball, a body of water, and several mountains are shown on the flat surface part of the diagram, with the ocean floor lower than where Cueball stands. Above is a line representing the border to space. The line beneath the surface is much more curved going both up and down. Two double arrows representing the thickness of the atmosphere and the lithosphere are drawn between the surface and the layers above and below. Another curved double arrow is pointing to each of these distances and it is marked with a question mark in the middle of the line.]
:Space
:Atmosphere
:Lithosphere
:Asthenosphere
:?

:[In the bottom right corner of the comic with gray text is a reference:]
:Based mostly on Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni (2006) DOI.1029/2005GL025621

==Trivia==
*[[Randall]] always uses the {{w|Kármán line}} as the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.
**He has previously mocked the alternative definition of the atmosphere boundary (at 80 km ≈ 50 mi) used by {{w|US Air Force}} and {{w|NASA}} in the title text of [[1375: Astronaut Vandalism]].
***That definition would, of course, have resulted in a significantly different picture where the ''air'' is thicker than the ''ground'' only inside small areas around mid-ocean ridges.
**Although most authorities use the FAI definition of the Kármán line since it is the international organization of record for aeronautics, there are good scientific reasons for the U.S. Air Force definition.
**The Kármán line is named for {{W|Theodore von Kármán}}, who originally calculated the height at which a vehicle would have to travel faster than orbital velocity to generate lift from wings (therefore making the vehicle a spacecraft in orbit rather an "air"craft using aerodynamics for flight).
**Von Kármán originally calculated this height as 51.9 miles (83.6 km) - closer to the Air Force definition.
**Additionally, the boundary between the {{W|Mesosphere}} and the {{W|Thermosphere}} is traditionally taken to be 52.7 miles (85 km), also close to the Air Force definition.
**On the other hand, some newer research suggests the mesopause (the line between the mesosphere and thermosphere) may have peaks between 53 and 62 miles (85-100 km).
**Also the {{w|turbopause}} - the line where gas molecules cease mixing atmospherically and begin stratifying by molecular weight as if they are in orbit - is generally taken to be about 100 kilometers (62 miles), and as such, closer to the FAI definition.
**Regardless of which definition is used, the reality is that the transition from atmosphere to space takes place gradually over tens of kilometers.
***But the idea behind this comic is only funny if an atmosphere of 100 km thickness is used.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Space]]

2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect

2019-12-14T06:46:18Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2241
| date = December 13, 2019
| title = Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect
| image = brussels_sprouts_mandela_effect.png
| titletext = I love Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect; I saw them open for Correct Horse Battery Staple.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TASTY BRUSSELS SPROUT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
False memories may arise via suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution, and they can be shared, sometimes widely, when one of these triggers happens to many people in a population. The {{w|False_memory#Mandela_Effect|Mandela Effect}} is a pseudoscience explanation for a {{w|false memory}} shared by multiple people. It states that the false memory is actually a real memory of people who had lived in a parallel world where the memory was true.

{{w|Brussels sprouts}} are a leafy vegetable from the cabbage family which were cultivated in Brussels, Belgium in the 13th century, giving them their name. Many adults and children [https://www.camdenliving.com/blog/why-do-we-hate-brussel-sprout dislike Brussels sprouts], perhaps because of their bitterness.

Cueball was one of these people who had a dislike for Brussels sprouts, but after trying them recently he had a change of heart and likes them now. He feels "misled" by the public dislike for Brussels sprouts. Megan chimes in and also notes that there is a [https://npr.org/773457637 newer cultivar of Brussels sprouts] (incorrectly linked by Randall, see [[#Trivia]] section) from around 15 years ago which may taste better than the "original" cultivar of Brussels sprouts that Cueball grew up eating.

It seems that others have also started to like Brussels sprouts, which Cueball calls a Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect - that they now have a "false" shared memory of Brussels sprouts tasting bad caused by having lived in a past reality where Brussel sprouts really were bitter.

In the last panel, Ponytail tricks Cueball into thinking that licorice, [https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/why-do-so-many-us-hate-black-licorice-few-theories-963738 another widely disliked food], is good tasting. Additionally, she claims that {{w|Silica_gel#Desiccant|silica gel packets}} are actually edible and taste delicious. This is very false, and potentially dangerous. Silica gel packets are typically used as a desiccant, to keep electronics and other moisture sensitive items dry. They are typically marked "[https://www.123rf.com/photo_72752039_single-silica-gel-packet-isolated-on-white-background-.html Do Not Eat]" to warn people of their danger.

The title text suggests that "Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect" is {{tvtropes|AGoodNameForARockBand|a good name for a musical band}}, and humorously suggests that "Correct Horse Battery Staple" is also a band, though it is a reference to a previous comic ([[936: Password Strength]]).

==Trivia==
The URL given is [https://npr.org/773457633 npr.org/773457633] but this seems to be an error; the actual URL is number 77345763'''7''' ([https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=773457637 plain HTML version] or [https://npr.org/773457637 full site]).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line]
:Cueball: I always thought of Brussels sprouts as terrible, but they're actually really good! I can't believe I let everyone mislead me!

:[Frameless panel just showing Megan]
:Megan: It's not just you! Farmers developed a less-bitter cultivar like 15 years ago.*
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>npr.org/773457633

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line. Megan is holding her arm away from her.]
:Megan: Now the whole world is having this revelation, one person at a time. It's like a real Mandela effect. We secretly switched to the parallel universe where Brussels sprouts taste good.
:Cueball: ''Cool.''

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line. Ponytail is holding up one finger.]
:Ponytail: Also, licorice is good now.
:Cueball: Whoa, really?
:Megan: This is a trap.
:Ponytail: And those silica gel packets that say "Do not eat"? '''''Delicious.'''''
:Cueball: ''I knew it.''

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

2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect

2019-12-14T06:40:55Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2241
| date = December 13, 2019
| title = Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect
| image = brussels_sprouts_mandela_effect.png
| titletext = I love Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect; I saw them open for Correct Horse Battery Staple.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TASTY BRUSSELS SPROUT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
False memories may arise via suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution, and they can be shared, sometimes widely, when one of these triggers happens to many people in a population. The {{w|False_memory#Mandela_Effect|Mandela Effect}} is a pseudoscience explanation for a {{w|false memory}} shared by multiple people. It states that the false memory is actually a real memory of people who had lived in a parallel world where the memory was true.

{{w|Brussels sprouts}} are a leafy vegetable from the cabbage family, which were cultivated in Brussels, Belgium in the 13th century, giving them their name. Many adults and children [https://www.camdenliving.com/blog/why-do-we-hate-brussel-sprout dislike Brussels sprouts], perhaps because of their bitterness.

Cueball was one of these people who had a dislike for Brussels sprouts, but after trying them recently, he had a change of heart, and likes them now. He feels "misled" by the public dislike for Brussels sprouts. Megan chimes in and also notes that there is a [https://npr.org/773457637 newer cultivar of Brussels sprouts] (incorrectly linked by Randall, see [[#Trivia]] section), from around 15 years ago, which may taste better than the "original" cultivar of Brussels sprouts that Cueball grew up eating.

It seems that others have grown to like Brussels sprouts nowadays, which Cueball calls a Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect - that they now have a "false" shared memory of Brussels sprouts not tasting good caused by having lived in a past reality where Brussel sprouts really were bitter.

In the last panel, Ponytail tricks Cueball into thinking that licorice, [https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/why-do-so-many-us-hate-black-licorice-few-theories-963738 another widely disliked food], is good tasting. Additionally, she claims that {{w|Silica_gel#Desiccant|silica gel packets}} are actually edible and taste delicious. This is very false, and potentially dangerous. Silica gel packets are typically used as a desiccant, to keep electronics and other moisture sensitive items dry. They are typically marked "[https://www.123rf.com/photo_72752039_single-silica-gel-packet-isolated-on-white-background-.html Do Not Eat]", to warn people of their danger.

The title text suggests that "Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect" is {{tvtropes|AGoodNameForARockBand|a good name for a musical band}}, and humorously suggests that "Correct Horse Battery Staple" is also a band, though it is a reference to a previous comic ([[936: Password Strength]]).

==Trivia==
The URL given is [https://npr.org/773457633 npr.org/773457633] but this seems to be an error; the actual URL is number 77345763'''7''' ([https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=773457637 plain HTML version] or [https://npr.org/773457637 full site]).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line]
:Cueball: I always thought of Brussels sprouts as terrible, but they're actually really good! I can't believe I let everyone mislead me!

:[Frameless panel just showing Megan]
:Megan: It's not just you! Farmers developed a less-bitter cultivar like 15 years ago.*
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>npr.org/773457633

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line. Megan is holding her arm away from her.]
:Megan: Now the whole world is having this revelation, one person at a time. It's like a real Mandela effect. We secretly switched to the parallel universe where Brussels sprouts taste good.
:Cueball: ''Cool.''

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line. Ponytail is holding up one finger.]
:Ponytail: Also, licorice is good now.
:Cueball: Whoa, really?
:Megan: This is a trap.
:Ponytail: And those silica gel packets that say "Do not eat"? '''''Delicious.'''''
:Cueball: ''I knew it.''

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

Talk:2239: Data Error

2019-12-10T15:46:46Z

108.162.245.202:

Randall's comics are usually relevant to recent events on or near the day comics are posted. I was wondering if this Data Error comic might be referencing some recent event, some data error at NASA or something. Does anyone know what it might be in reference to? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.40|108.162.219.40]] 21:13, 9 December 2019 (UTC) ... Sorry, forgot to sign in. Saibot84 21:14, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

: I'm not aware of anything in the news. However, this is not the first time Randall has commented on research publication in a comic, so I suspect it's just another in that series. It seems obvious that he feels the first option is the appropriate choice, and the second option is the joke. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:22, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

I think the stickwoman is not "excited" but sarcastic, although you can't be sure in text. It is a joke based on the discrepancy in capabilities between real scientists and fictional mad scientists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.119|108.162.238.119]] 22:23, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

:I agree, Megan is being a smart-ass [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.202|108.162.245.202]] 15:46, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

:For start, "mad scientists" are usually more like mad engineers ... you can't get world domination by researching something and writing paper about it, you need to USE that research, usually by building something. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:10, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
::Are you suggesting scientists can't build things? I don't actually know, since I'm an engineer! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 23:43, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

What is a data error in general? Explain me a term :) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.74|172.69.22.74]] 02:39, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

:The discovery that the data you used was sampled below the Nyquist frequency pretty much kills your thesis until you can get data that was properly acquired. All your results will be contaminated with artifacts produced by the sampling rate, rather than by variations in the quantity that you imagined you were observing. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 12:37, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

2239: Data Error

2019-12-10T15:42:26Z

108.162.245.202:

{{comic
| number = 2239
| date = December 9, 2019
| title = Data Error
| image = data_error.png
| titletext = Cyanobacteria wiped out nearly all life on Earth once before, and they can do it again!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by some <s>anomolous</s> ''perfectly normal'' algae. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] is frustrated that a data error invalidates her research, which was ready for publication. [[Black Hat]] suggests two options: redo her analysis and share the correct results, trying to extract some value from the research; or, as our classic [[classhole]] says, she should destroy the evidence, build a superweapon and dominate the world. She seems excited about this idea (and very aware it isn't a truly thoughtful idea), and proclaims that people should fear her algae, which would probably be her superweapon. She then feigns to remember her first research was incorrect because of the data error, and continues her rant about fearing her normal algae.

In fact, destroying the evidence, hiding the error and publishing the wrong results as if they were right is what a dishonest scientist would do in such a situation. This is what a lot of readers would expect such a dishonest character as Black Hat to suggest in panels two and three. However, the unexpected turn in mid of last panel changes leaves {{w|scientific misconduct}} to go to pure supervillain. It appears [[Megan]] is being a wise-ass, knowing full well her algae won't threaten Earth, especially considering it turned out to be NORMAL algae.

The title text refers to the {{w|Great Oxidation Event}}, when prokaryotic photosynthetic organisms built up oxygen in Earth's atmosphere for the first time and most organisms, which weren't adapted to oxygen, went extinct. That suggests that algae may be somehow dangerous - although {{w|cyanobacteria}}, which are colloquially referred to as "blue-green algae", are not considered to be true algae by many scientists, who restrict the term to eukaryotes.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Black Hat and Megan stand facing each other.]
:Megan: I can't believe this data error invalidates a year and a half of my research.
:Megan: I was about to publish.

[:Black Hat and Megan stand facing each other. Black Hat has his hands raised slightly]
:Black Hat: Don't panic. You have two options.
:Megan: Yeah?

:[Closeup shot of Black Hat holding one hand up.]
:Black Hat: 1) Redo your analysis and share whatever results you can, whether positive or negative. It's disappointing, but these things happen.

:[Zoom out on Black Hat and Megan. Black Hat has closed his fist. Megan holds her arms up in the air.]
:Black Hat: 2) Destroy the evidence. Use your materials and research methods to build a superweapon. Conquer Earth and rule with an iron fist.
:Megan: '''''Tremble before my anomalously productive algae!'''''
:Megan: Except the anomaly was an artifact.
:Megan: '''''Tremble before my normal algae!'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

2239: Data Error

2019-12-10T15:40:21Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2239
| date = December 9, 2019
| title = Data Error
| image = data_error.png
| titletext = Cyanobacteria wiped out nearly all life on Earth once before, and they can do it again!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by some <s>anomolous</s> ''perfectly normal'' algae. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] is frustrated that a data error invalidates her research, which was ready for publication. [[Black Hat]] suggests two options: redo her analysis and share the correct results, trying to extract some value from the research; or, as our classic [[classhole]] says, she should destroy the evidence, build a superweapon and dominate the world. She seems excited about this idea (and very aware it isn't a truly thoughtful idea), and proclaims that people should fear her algae, which would probably be her superweapon. She then feigns to remember her first research was incorrect because of the data error, knowing all along they are merely normal algae.

In fact, destroying the evidence, hiding the error and publishing the wrong results as if they were right is what a dishonest scientist would do in such a situation. This is what a lot of readers would expect such a dishonest character as Black Hat to suggest in panels two and three. However, the unexpected turn in mid of last panel changes leaves {{w|scientific misconduct}} to go to pure supervillain. It appears [[Megan]] is being a wise-ass, knowing full well her algae won't threaten Earth, especially considering it turned out to be NORMAL algae.

The title text refers to the {{w|Great Oxidation Event}}, when prokaryotic photosynthetic organisms built up oxygen in Earth's atmosphere for the first time and most organisms, which weren't adapted to oxygen, went extinct. That suggests that algae may be somehow dangerous - although {{w|cyanobacteria}}, which are colloquially referred to as "blue-green algae", are not considered to be true algae by many scientists, who restrict the term to eukaryotes.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Black Hat and Megan stand facing each other.]
:Megan: I can't believe this data error invalidates a year and a half of my research.
:Megan: I was about to publish.

[:Black Hat and Megan stand facing each other. Black Hat has his hands raised slightly]
:Black Hat: Don't panic. You have two options.
:Megan: Yeah?

:[Closeup shot of Black Hat holding one hand up.]
:Black Hat: 1) Redo your analysis and share whatever results you can, whether positive or negative. It's disappointing, but these things happen.

:[Zoom out on Black Hat and Megan. Black Hat has closed his fist. Megan holds her arms up in the air.]
:Black Hat: 2) Destroy the evidence. Use your materials and research methods to build a superweapon. Conquer Earth and rule with an iron fist.
:Megan: '''''Tremble before my anomalously productive algae!'''''
:Megan: Except the anomaly was an artifact.
:Megan: '''''Tremble before my normal algae!'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2116: .NORM Normal File Format

2019-02-28T00:00:43Z

108.162.245.202: Disagreement with point in article.

Oh man, I don’t know whether to laugh or passive aggressively link people this comic. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:55, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:''Mumbles about special places in hell for people that deserve links of this comic'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.90|162.158.90.90]] 08:11, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
::link it to them? send it in a weird data format, including notification bar of a phone, etc.--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:34, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
:::I think [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Flag this] needs to be here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 12:52, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
:::: I will take a photo of the comic on my screen with my phone, send that to my PC, print it out onto paper, take a photo of that (on a wooden table), embed THAT photo into an Excel sheet comment, take a photo of THAT and embed into a Word Document, and send to my customers. They would find nothing untoward about this, based on how they send me error reports...[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 14:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

At the moment I'm seeing " https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 " as the title text [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.82|108.162.216.82]] 17:36, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:That’s because the comic is a link, and clicking on it will take you there. The title text is correct, though. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:40, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:: You prankster Randall. On mobile, we can only see the link **in text** as the title text. Am I to believe this, as another example of human mangling of information into an unreadable form, is an accident? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 19:01, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Reminds me of [https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Web_0_0x2e_1 Web 0.1 at TheDailyWTF].[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.113|162.158.79.113]] 19:01, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Why the bloody hell is everyone censoring me???[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.202|108.162.245.202]] 21:47, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:From the revision history, the only things that look like they could be interpreted as being censored are the "JEWISH SHILL" thing from the (no longer present) "incomplete" tag, which is hate speech, and the "SOON THE TRUTH WILL BE REVEALED" thing that briefly replaced all of the actual content, which is vandalism. Both are considered unacceptable. See also [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1357:_Free_Speech xkcd #1357] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.22|162.158.214.22]] 03:53, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
::This person seems to have trouble posting their edits (probably unfamiliar with the simultaneous revision merging features which appear when two people edit at the same time) & hence isn't properly submitting their edits in the first place. I too see no evidence of anything but the instances you listed. I think they are ignorant of the proper steps & paranoid enough to believe there's a conspiracy to remove their comments, going on. (Note to user at 108.162.245.202 : Any edits ''or'' censorship show up in each page's edit history (just like Wikipedia). It's pretty easy to see everything that's been written ''or'' removed. Aside from the incidents noted by 162.158.214.22, you haven't had ''anything'' removed; You're not completing the edit process to begin with.)
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm on my phone but can someone please work this link into the explanation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_art thanks
:Done. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.173|108.162.246.173]] 01:20, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

The "share" functionality on mobile systems may serve as a rather catch-all protocol. On PC not many apps have this in mind.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.148|172.68.141.148]] 02:43, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Could someone do a short explanation of what absentee precincts are? A (quick) google search could not answer that question to me, and I think for many who do not deal with the topic whichever absentee precincts refer to will have the same question... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:07, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

I love .NORM files, they compress so well: https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1683:_Digital_Data [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 17:42, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Is this really all that common? Am I the only one who came to explainxkcd because I only half got the joke? Sure, a photo of a screen with data is useless and stupid, but why make a comic about it? This has never happened to me. [[User:Jqavins|Jqavins]] ([[User talk:Jqavins|talk]]) 13:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:It is really all that common. So common, in fact, that the original XKCD comic links to [https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 this]. That is on a government scale. Yes, it’s annoying. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:13, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

One possible legitimate use of this is when you don't trust the recipient from taking your hard work and not giving you credit for it. For an example when one of my previous employers laid me off because of 'financial reasons', there was a possibility that he might continue to send me projects as an independent contractor because he was under staffed. If he had sent me any projects, I was seriously considering sending him a screenshot of the Excel documents showing the work I completed for him to review and only after I get paid, I would submit the work to the web server because I did not trust him taking my work and uploading it himself without paying me for it.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.162|162.158.122.162]] 21:18, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

The title text is not proposing vector JPEG, but vector JPEG *artifacts*; that is to say, converting the artifacts inherent in JPEG into vector form to be included in the SVG.

Talk:2116: .NORM Normal File Format

2019-02-25T21:47:45Z

108.162.245.202:

2112: Night Shift

2019-02-17T23:40:43Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */ typo fix

{{comic
| number = 2112
| date = February 15, 2019
| title = Night Shift
| image = night_shift.png
| titletext = Help, I set my white balance wrong and suddenly everyone is screaming at each other about whether they've been to Colorado.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORED SCREAMING RESIDENT OF COLORADO (YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO COLORADO). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many electronic devices have settings to adjust display color and intensity. "{{w|Night Shift (software)|Night shift}}," or similar modes make the display less blue. This may be useful in the evening, since blue light interfere more with becoming sleepy. This comic re-imagines such a mode as influencing the content of messages to encourage sleepiness—or, at least, to dampen [[386: Duty Calls|the emotional response that might keep someone up too late at night]].

In the title text, the reverse has occurred. By setting his {{w|Color balance|white balance}} incorrectly, the opinions that Randall is reading are more intense, even about "simple" things as having visited Colorado or not. This is probably a play on {{w|white supremacy}}, {{w|angry white male}}, or similar areas where violent expression of ones views and abuse of the views of others are prevalent.

This strip then references the fact that on the internet, very few people answer in the singulars of 'Yes' or 'No' or another equally short and definable answer. This may be because there is little perceived value in such a short but factual answer, when you have the opportunity to voice your opinion, sometimes at length. Also in many cultures indirect expression is the norm; a short direct answer is considered less acceptable, especially in the negative.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Comments with peoples' profile pictures in front of them are shown in white comment boxes on a gray background.]
: Cueball: The Atlantic Ocean is big
:: Ponytail: The Pacific is even bigger
:: Cueball With Full Body Profile Picture (WFBPP): They're both very big

: Megan: A lot of people have TVs
:: Hairbun: Some people don't
:: Megan: Yeah, that's true

: Cueball: 24 isn't a prime number
:: Cueball WFBPP: Neither is 25

: Hairbun: Have you ever been to Colorado?
:: Megan: No
:: Cueball WFBPP: No
:: Cueball: Yeah
:: Ponytail: No

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My phone has a night shift mode to help me sleep, but instead of reducing the intensity of blue light, it reduces the intensity of opinions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2112: Night Shift

2019-02-17T23:39:23Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */ fix typo in wikilink

{{comic
| number = 2112
| date = February 15, 2019
| title = Night Shift
| image = night_shift.png
| titletext = Help, I set my white balance wrong and suddenly everyone is screaming at each other about whether they've been to Colorado.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORED SCREAMING RESIDENT OF COLORADO (YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO COLORADO). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many electronic devices have settings to adjust display color and intensity. "{{w|Night Shift (software)|Night shift}}," or similar modes make the display less blue. This may be useful in the evening, since blue light interfere more with becoming sleepy. This comic re-imagines such a mode as influencing the content of messages to encourage sleepiness—or, at least, to dampen [[386: Duty Calls|the emotional response that might keep someone up too late at night]].

In the title text, the reverse has occurred. By setting his {{w|Color balance|white balance}} incorrectly, the opinions that Randall is reading are more intense, even about "simple" things as having visited Colorado or not. This is probably a play on {{w|White supremacy}}, {{w|angry white male}}, or similar areas where violent expression of ones views and abuse of the views of others are prevalent.

This strip then references the fact that on the internet, very few people answer in the singulars of 'Yes' or 'No' or another equally short and definable answer. This may be because there is little perceived value in such a short but factual answer, when you have the opportunity to voice your opinion, sometimes at length. Also in many cultures indirect expression is the norm; a short direct answer is considered less acceptable, especially in the negative.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Comments with peoples' profile pictures in front of them are shown in white comment boxes on a gray background.]
: Cueball: The Atlantic Ocean is big
:: Ponytail: The Pacific is even bigger
:: Cueball With Full Body Profile Picture (WFBPP): They're both very big

: Megan: A lot of people have TVs
:: Hairbun: Some people don't
:: Megan: Yeah, that's true

: Cueball: 24 isn't a prime number
:: Cueball WFBPP: Neither is 25

: Hairbun: Have you ever been to Colorado?
:: Megan: No
:: Cueball WFBPP: No
:: Cueball: Yeah
:: Ponytail: No

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My phone has a night shift mode to help me sleep, but instead of reducing the intensity of blue light, it reduces the intensity of opinions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2112: Night Shift

2019-02-17T23:36:20Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */ Note that the value for direct, brief answers is a cultural thing

{{comic
| number = 2112
| date = February 15, 2019
| title = Night Shift
| image = night_shift.png
| titletext = Help, I set my white balance wrong and suddenly everyone is screaming at each other about whether they've been to Colorado.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORED SCREAMING RESIDENT OF COLORADO (YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO COLORADO). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many electronic devices have settings to adjust display color and intensity. "((w|Night Shift (software)|Night shift}}," or similar modes make the display less blue. This may be useful in the evening, since blue light interfere more with becoming sleepy. This comic re-imagines such a mode as influencing the content of messages to encourage sleepiness—or, at least, to dampen [[386: Duty Calls|the emotional response that might keep someone up too late at night]].

In the title text, the reverse has occurred. By setting his {{w|Color balance|white balance}} incorrectly, the opinions that Randall is reading are more intense, even about "simple" things as having visited Colorado or not. This is probably a play on {{w|White supremacy}}, {{w|angry white male}}, or similar areas where violent expression of ones views and abuse of the views of others are prevalent.

This strip then references the fact that on the internet, very few people answer in the singulars of 'Yes' or 'No' or another equally short and definable answer. This may be because there is little perceived value in such a short but factual answer, when you have the opportunity to voice your opinion, sometimes at length. Also in many cultures indirect expression is the norm; a short direct answer is considered less acceptable, especially in the negative.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Comments with peoples' profile pictures in front of them are shown in white comment boxes on a gray background.]
: Cueball: The Atlantic Ocean is big
:: Ponytail: The Pacific is even bigger
:: Cueball With Full Body Profile Picture (WFBPP): They're both very big

: Megan: A lot of people have TVs
:: Hairbun: Some people don't
:: Megan: Yeah, that's true

: Cueball: 24 isn't a prime number
:: Cueball WFBPP: Neither is 25

: Hairbun: Have you ever been to Colorado?
:: Megan: No
:: Cueball WFBPP: No
:: Cueball: Yeah
:: Ponytail: No

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My phone has a night shift mode to help me sleep, but instead of reducing the intensity of blue light, it reduces the intensity of opinions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2112: Night Shift

2019-02-17T23:28:32Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */ Wikilink night shift. Simplify. Add in angry white male, etc. to White balance

{{comic
| number = 2112
| date = February 15, 2019
| title = Night Shift
| image = night_shift.png
| titletext = Help, I set my white balance wrong and suddenly everyone is screaming at each other about whether they've been to Colorado.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORED SCREAMING RESIDENT OF COLORADO (YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO COLORADO). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many electronic devices have settings to adjust display color and intensity. "((w|Night Shift (software)|Night shift}}," or similar modes make the display less blue. This may be useful in the evening, since blue light interfere more with becoming sleepy. This comic re-imagines such a mode as influencing the content of messages to encourage sleepiness—or, at least, to dampen [[386: Duty Calls|the emotional response that might keep someone up too late at night]].

In the title text, the reverse has occurred. By setting his {{w|Color balance|white balance}} incorrectly, the opinions that Randall is reading are more intense, even about "simple" things as having visited Colorado or not. This is probably a play on {{w|White supremacy}}, {{w|angry white male}}, or similar areas where violent expression of ones views and abuse of the views of others are prevalent.

This strip then references the fact that on the internet, very few people answer in the singulars of 'Yes' or 'No' or another equally short and definable answer. This may be because there is little perceived value in such a short but factual answer, when you have the opportunity to voice your opinion, sometimes at length.

In short, on the internet, we probably talk too much and don't cut to the chase enough.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Comments with peoples' profile pictures in front of them are shown in white comment boxes on a gray background.]
: Cueball: The Atlantic Ocean is big
:: Ponytail: The Pacific is even bigger
:: Cueball With Full Body Profile Picture (WFBPP): They're both very big

: Megan: A lot of people have TVs
:: Hairbun: Some people don't
:: Megan: Yeah, that's true

: Cueball: 24 isn't a prime number
:: Cueball WFBPP: Neither is 25

: Hairbun: Have you ever been to Colorado?
:: Megan: No
:: Cueball WFBPP: No
:: Cueball: Yeah
:: Ponytail: No

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My phone has a night shift mode to help me sleep, but instead of reducing the intensity of blue light, it reduces the intensity of opinions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

2109: Invisible Formatting

2019-02-10T17:44:22Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */ The behavior described does NOT happen in Microsoft Word, so doesn't match what many people would experience.

{{comic
| number = 2109
| date = February 8, 2019
| title = Invisible Formatting
| image = invisible_formatting.png
| titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.
}}

==Explanation==
In some word processor programs, when''' '''highlighting''' '''text,''' '''whether''' '''by''' '''manually''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''or''' '''by''' '''double-clicking''' '''on''' '''a''' '''passage,''' '''it''' '''is''' '''easy''' '''to''' '''mistakenly''' '''highlight''' '''an''' '''unnecessary''' '''portion''' '''which''' '''has''' '''no''' '''visible''' '''effects''' '''when''' '''italicized''' '''or''' '''boldfaced.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold,''' '''the''' '''italicized,''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions,''' '''particularly''' '''if''' '''the''' '''text''' '''cursor''' '''does''' '''not''' '''reflect''' '''formatting''' '''when''' '''hovering''' '''over''' '''formatted''' '''characters.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.

In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.

If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].

Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:
*Exporting to plain text files. If for example a {{w|markdown}} style is used, there will be characters in the output that do not make sense.
*Scraping, data mining, and linguistics processing by computer algorithms. Often (although not always) these algorithms are written based on samples of training or testing text that may not have spurious formatting present, and may misprocess something when encountering the spurious formatting.
*Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.
**By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.
*Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.
*A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.
*If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.
*Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document above some maximum file size threshold.
*It can be later revealed that Randall considered to format parts of the text in bold. As the title text tells it is really important to Randall to control all information he publishes. Real-world examples are governments changing the impact of reports for political reasons. Attempted tampering of this kind can be revealed by bold spaces. Another example would be a casual and short one-sentence reply e.g. to a romantic interest, which one takes one hour to formulate to sound as natural as possible.

Randall’s background in {{w|computer programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.

Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer], however even with this on it would be difficult to spot a bolded space (which looks like a bolded dot – now visible but so small it's still hard to tell if it's bold or not). In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes, separate from the characters themselves, around the characters. For example, a bolded space would look something like "[BOLD≻&ensp;≺BOLD]".

In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he facetiously suggests is better somehow.

==Transcript==

:[A text editor, with some options. They are superscript in one section, bold, italic and underscore in another section and alignments in the third section. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]
:Text: ...ere, but would not have to mo...
:Action: Select

:[The cursor is on the "bold" option and the selected word is bolded.]
:Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...
:Action: Click

:[The cursor is next to the "to". No text is highlighted.]
:Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...
:Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.

:[The word "not" is now highlighted in blue again, but the following space is not.]
:Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...
:Action: Select

:[The cursor is on the "bold" option and the selected word is not bolded.]
:Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...
:Action: Click

:[The cursor and the blue highlighting are gone. The space after "not" has a dashed box around it, and an arrow points to it.]
:Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...
:Arrow: Hidden bold space

:[Caption below the panels:]
:When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]

1866: Russell's Teapot

2017-07-21T05:48:58Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1866
| date = July 21, 2017
| title = Russell's Teapot
| image = Russells_Teapot.png
| titletext = Unfortunately, NASA regulations state that Bertrand Russell-related payloads can only be launched within launch vehicles which do not launch themselves.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete| }}
Russell's teapot is a philosophical argument that reflects on the difficulty of trying to prove a negative. It involves a hypothetical teapot orbiting a heavenly body, whose existence hasn't been proven. It is very often used in atheistic arguments.

[[Cueball]] is trying to settle the teapot argument by actually launching a teapot into space via a crowdfunding campaign.

The title-text refers to Russell's paradox, which asks "Does the set of all sets that do not contain themselves, contain itself?" which leads to a contradiction.

==Transcript==

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:670: Spinal Tap Amps

2017-05-23T18:41:38Z

108.162.245.202: Left-handed hammers once actually existed!

Specifically, it's $166.66 recurring per unit of loud. [[User:Thokling|Thokling]] ([[User talk:Thokling|talk]]) 22:49, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

I vote we start using "units of loud" instead of "decibels" {{unsigned ip|149.152.191.2}}
:Aye! [[User:BK201|BK201]] ([[User talk:BK201|talk]]) 16:52, 12 December 2013 (UTC)BK201

I read somewhere that the amps used to have settings up to 10, but then people found ways to turn the knob past 10. It became culturally known as the 11 setting. In response, manufacturers made amps that went to 11, and this predated the movie. The movie just greatly increased the popularity of the idea. Can't find it anymore though. Maybe it was only urban legend [[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 17:14, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
:Most likely something to do with the fact that guitarists were still lighting up in the national grid into the 1980's. Check out the health and safety at music festivals act 198011.
:OK most musicians die of heart attacks or cerebral haemorrhage but there is an history of electrical malfunctions at music gigs.
[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 01:17, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
:: Is it possible this story is a bit like the stories of the left-handed hammer that newbies on construction sites get sent to retrieve? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 04:33, 10 March 2016 (UTC)
:::Replying to 108.162.249.155. I actually own a real right-handed hammer that I bought in a Miami Home Depot shortly after Hurricane Andrew. At the time, they were also stocking some left-handed versions of the same hammer. And, yes, before you ask, there was a difference—in the way the grip was moulded.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.202|108.162.245.202]] 18:41, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

1804: Video Content

2017-02-27T22:06:13Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1804
| date = February 27, 2017
| title = Video Content
| image = video_content.png
| titletext = "So, like, sexy news videos?" "No, people have tried that--it's still just video content. We need to actually inform people THROUGH making out. I would call it 'Mouth Content,' but I think that's already the title of a Neil Cicierega album."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|work in progress.}}
This comic appears to be a commentary about the declining publishing industry and their unsuccessful attempts at regaining an audience.

News media has evolved dramatically as the world entered the information era. Newspapers, which were at one point the most widely distributed and consumed form of media, have rapidly been eclipsed by new technologies such as television, Internet, and streaming video. Subscriptions to paper-based media have been drastically declining to the point where many publishers are on the verge of shutting down. While publishers are making an effort to move their content to newer, more popular forms of media, in many cases they are still clearly behind the times.

The comic illustrates one such example with Cueball suggesting presenting news stories as videos rather than text. This is presented and received as a clever new idea that would appeal to young people based on the fact that they like watching YouTube videos. However, apparently no one in the comic has realized that television news programs have been filling such a niche for decades and that young people are just as disinterested. In fact, video based news is often considered annoying, especially if autoplaying or if there is no text based alternative. In reality, this idea is not at all original and likely to be doomed to fail from the start. As with many similar attempts, the new "ideas" that publishers are trying to adopt are merely cramming news content into things young people like, without really understanding why they like it and without considering whether news would be a good fit.

In the caption, Randall suggests it would be pointless to argue with newspaper publishers about their ideas. Presumably Randall believes publishers who fall for those ideas are already out of touch with the new generation, and would not be able to understand why those ideas lack merit. Instead, he suggests taking the trend to a ridiculous extreme, by telling publishers that young people like making out. Suppose publishers follow the same pattern and try to cram news into this as well, they would end up creating some form of news program centered around making out. The results may turn out completely laughable or highly entertaining. If the former, it could serve as a wake-up call to publishers that they need to reconsider their approach. If the latter, then it could actually become a trend and unexpectedly reinvigorate the industry.

The title text describes the group discussing this idea. Ironically, part of this discussion is to dismiss the concept of "sexy news videos" (the straightforward combination of "video news presentation" and "making out") by pointing out that it's already been tried, an objection that applies even more clearly and obviously to the idea of presenting news in video form. The title text also dismisses the proposed name Mouth Content as possibly the title of a Neil Cicierega album, probably a reference to his recently-released Mouth Moods, as well as his prior albums Mouth Sounds and Mouth Silence.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[From left to right: Hairy, Cueball, Megan and Hairbun sit around a conference table.]
:Cueball: Research shows young people like YouTube, so we should present news stories as videos instead of text!
:Megan: Good idea!
:Hairbun: They'll love that!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Instead of arguing with newspapers about this, we should just tell them how much young people like making out and see what happens.

{{comic discussion}}

570: New Car

2017-02-21T23:11:45Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 570
| date = April 17, 2009
| title = New Car
| image = new_car.png
| titletext = Somewhere out there is a company that has actually figured out how to enlarge penises, and it's helpless to reach potential customers.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is sitting in a nice sports , and his (Cueball-like) friend asks when he got it. It turns out it was bought as a prize supposed to be delivered to the 100,000,000th visitor to his company's website. But the user did not react to the notice on the page about the prize, '''even though it was flashing'''.

A well-known type of Internet scam tries to trick the reader into thinking that they've won a prize, often in the form of an annoying flashy ad banner (e.g. "'''You're our 100,000,000th visitor!!! Click [[Special:Random|here]] to claim a FREE Ferrari!'''"). A typical {{w|clickbait}}.

Cueball actually really did have a fancy to give out, but the winner didn't claim it, believing it to be a scam. It is a bit like {{w|The Boy Who Cried Wolf|the boy who cried wolf}} — given enough lies, the truth will eventually look like a lie.

The title text refers to another type of scam, advertising fake "{{w|Penis enlargement|male enhancement}}" drugs. [[Randall]] suggests that if such a drug really did exist, it would be very difficult to advertise effectively, since most people would assume it was a scam. Additionally there may be implied a relation (intersection) between people having sports s and people needing penis enlargements: Big s to compensate feelings of inferiority.

==Transcript==
:[A Cueball-like guy is standing behind, a sports car where Cueball sits turned toward him.]
:Friend: When'd you get the car?

:[Zoom-in on Cueball in the car.]
:Cueball: It's the darndest thing. We bought it as a prize for the 100,000,000th visitor to our website.

:[Zoom-in on the friend.]
:Friend: And they didn't want it?
:Cueball (off-screen): Apparently.

:[Pan to where both the friend and Cueball in the car can be seen, but not the front of the car.]
:Friend: Maybe they didn't see the notice.
:Cueball: It was flashing and everything!
:Friend: How bizarre.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

595: Android Girlfriend

2017-01-11T00:21:09Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 595
| date = June 10, 2009
| title = Android Girlfriend
| image = android_girlfriend.png
| titletext = Programming the sexbots to enjoy sex seemed a sensible move at the time, but we didn't realize the consequences of their developing fetishes.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first (of two) comics in the [[:Category:Android|Android series]], which continued directly less than two weeks later in [[600: Android Boyfriend]].

[[Cueball]] shows off his new "android girlfriend" ([[Megan]]) to his Cueball-like friend, who asks if the android is a {{w|Gynoid#As_sexual_devices|sex bot}}. The {{w|android}} responds by pulling a cherry stem from the friend's drink and inserting it into her mouth. So far, the action appears to be an emulation of the party trick where someone puts a cherry stem into their mouth and ties it into a knot in order to suggest tongue dexterity that could be put to good use in kissing and {{w|oral sex}}.

However, instead of tying the cherry stem in a knot, the android activates an {{w|arc welder}} built into her mouth, which presumably reduces the stem to ashes. The friend proclaims that that trick is definitely not sexy. But then the android aggressively approaches him, reaching out and saying, "Remove your pants". The friend, not eager to experience close {{w|genital}} contact with the arc welder, sensibly, refuses. (Of course he may also not wish to take of his pants in front of his friend, at a {{w|party}} with drinks and presumably other people; or perhaps he do not wish to admit that he actually ''does'' find the arc welding act sexy...)

The title text bounces a few implications around. Developing robots with the capacity to either learn or feel emotions is an ethical factor and practical consideration that is commonly explored in {{w|science fiction}}. Here, it's proposed that robots programmed for {{w|sex}} would have their emotions set to enjoy sex by default, but then use their capacity to learn to develop preferences on what kind of sex they want to have. This is potentially a psychological issue, mainly as to whether or not it would be considered "unhealthy", but more directly it's a customer satisfaction problem: what if a sexbot were to develop sexual {{w|fetishes}} that its owner finds unappealing?

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding his hand on Megan's shoulder, talks to his Cueball-like friend, who is holding a drink glass with a cherry.]
:Cueball: Check out my new android girlfriend.
:Friend: Is she a sex bot?

:[The android grabs the cherry out of the friend's drink glass.]
:Grab

:[Zoom in on the cherry as the stem is ripped off.]
:Plink

:[Zoom to the android who puts the stem in to its mouth.]
:Nom

:[The panel is dark gray except around the androids mouth where there is a bright flash and then a brighter cross going out from there. Both Cueball and his friend hold up there hand to protect they eyes.]
:Kzzzzt

:[The android takes a step away from Cueball and reaches toward the friends crotch. The friend holds up his hand protectively in front of him.]
:Friend: I don't think arc-welding a cherry stem counts as sexy.
:Android: Remove your pants.
:Friend: No.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Android]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Sex]]

1775: Things You Learn

2016-12-22T18:19:12Z

108.162.245.202: /* Explanation */ spelling

{{comic
| number = 1775
| date = December 21, 2016
| title = Things You Learn
| image = things_you_learn.png
| titletext = Guess who has two thumbs and spent the night in an ER after trying to rescue a kitten that ran under his car at a stoplight and climbed up into the engine compartment? And, thanks to antibiotics, will continue having two thumbs? THIS GUY. (P.S. kitten is safe!)
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Title text, fill table.}}
This graph shows various items of information plotted by two criteria: a horizontal "How Bad Is It If You Don't Know [THING]" axis and a vertical "How Easy It Is To Grow Up Without Learning [THING]" axis. Specifically, the vertical axis measures roughly how often you will run into problems if you are ignorant of the knowledge listed on the plot point. The horizontal axis measures how serious those problems are if they happen at all.

The title text describes an encounter Randall had the night before writing this comic where a cat climbed into the engine compartment of his car. (This comic was posted several hours late, possibly due to this very encounter.) It probably serves as an explanation for the seemingly out of place point on the graph about how serious cat bites are. The "two thumbs" is a reference to a well known type of jokes among English speakers. One of the most frequent forms is one person interrupting another mid-speech and asking "what has two thumbs and doesn't give a f*ck? THIS GUY!", before pointing to themselves with their thumbs. The idea is that you only direct the attention to your thumbs so that they can point back to you, though mentioning the thumbs was not actually required except as a topic change. Randall plays on an inversion of this joke as he might not have been able to make it at all without the intervention of the ER people. So here the "who has two thumbs", is not a deceiving distraction out of a boring conversation, and the thumbs are actually the focus of the phrase.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Ignorance is Bad !! Ignorance is Easy !! Information !! Comments
|-
| not bad || (very, very) easy || 100 digits of {{w|pi}} || Most people don't know more than a few digits of pi, and don't need to.
|-
| not bad || (very) easy || Lyrics to "{{w|We Didn't Start the Fire}}" || "We Didn't Start the Fire" is a 1989 hit song by Billy Joel. Its lyrics include brief, rapid-fire allusions to more than 100 headline events between 1949, the year of Joel's birth, and 1989. While the chorus is memorable, the verses of the song are just a list of people, events and random things from popular culture. The average person is somewhat more likely to know the lyrics to Billy Joel's 1989 hit song than 100 digits of pi, but not knowing them doesn't really have any serious consequences.
|-
| (very) bad || (very) easy || That cat bites are really serious and if bitten you need to wash the bite and call a doctor immediately || Most people assume that a cat bite is just a minor injury. In fact, it carries a fairly high risk of infection, which can be dangerous if not treated (by cleaning the bite to reduce the risk, and having a doctor examine the bite victim and apply additional treatments such as antibiotics if needed). At the same time, cat bites are quite rare, as cats default to their claws rather than their teeth when they need to attack something.
|-
| (very) bad || (very) easy || The red flags for an abusive relationship || It is fairly easy for someone to fall into a pattern of accepting abuse (particularly if the abuser is skilled at emotional manipulation) without realizing it, and the consequences can be mentally and physically devastating.
|-
| (very, very) bad || easy || The {{w|Stroke#Signs_and_symptoms|signs of a stroke}} || The symptoms of a {{w|stroke}} are somewhat variable, including facial drooping, arm weakness and slurred speech, depending on what areas of the brain are affected, and can be mistaken for other conditions. Identifying a stroke quickly and seeking treatment can make the difference between life and death, or between full recovery and permanent impairment.
|-
| bad || easy || Cough into your elbow, not your hand || Covering a cough with the inside of your elbow helps prevent spreading airborne germs and is generally recommended by medical organisations. Coughing into your hand deposits them onto your hand, where they are much more likely to be spread to another person (via handshake, food preparation, shared objects, etc)
|-
| not (too) bad || hard || How to ride a bike || Most children, especially in the United States[http://www.peopleforbikes.org/statistics/category/participation-statistics#youth], learn to ride a bike at a fairly young age. While this is a useful skill to know for both entertainment and transportation, it would generally not be terrible to not learn this skill.
|-
| not bad (at all) || hard || How to escape movie {{w|quicksand}} || Quicksand in movies is a common trope, and while its physics often differ from real quicksand, escaping from it is commonly done using similar methods (eg, not struggling, which increases the quicksand's viscosity). Knowing how to escape from quicksand is important if you sink into it, which is a situation most people are very unlikely to encounter.
|-
| not bad (at all) || (very) hard || Lyrics to "{{w|The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|12 Days of Christmas}}" || Hearing the same Christmas songs over and over each year makes it hard not to learn the lyrics over time. However, the consequences of not doing so are minimal; at most, ignorance of popular culture may leave your friends [[1769|a bit surprised and dismayed]].
|-
| not bad (at all) || (very, very) hard || {{w|Theme music|TV theme songs}} || Most children in developed countries grow up watching at least some television. Many of these television shows play the same theme song before the show starts, and many of these have catchy lyrics. Therefore, by repetition, most children will learn at least one of these growing up, and often many.
|-
| bad || hard || That you have to empty the dryer lint trap || A {{w|clothes dryer}} resembles a washing machine, it uses hot air to heat the clothes so that the water evaporates more quickly.

The dryer's air exhaust and air filter are getting gradually covered with lint (= a kind of dust composed mainly of fiber) and must be cleaned regularly. Failing to remove the lint can cause the dryer to stop working effectively, introduce lint back onto your clothes, or (in extreme cases) start a fire.
|-
| (very) bad || (very) hard || {{w|Stop, drop and roll}} || This is a technique to extinguish a fire on one's own clothing, and is frequently taught to children for safety. Not knowing it (or forgetting it in a panic when the situation arises) can result in severe burns that could have been avoided by following the recommendation.
|-
| (very) bad || (very) hard || That you have to pay taxes || Most residents of most countries are legally obligated to pay taxes to their government. Penalties for not doing so often include large fines, and possibly prison sentences. Fortunately, it is something that children hear about quite a bit so it is very difficult to grow up without learning that it must be done.
|-
|}

==Rankings==

100% not bad: not bad at all . . . 100%>not-badness≥50%: not bad . . . 50%>not-badness≥0%: not too bad

100% very bad: very, very bad . . . 100%>very badness≥50%: very bad . . . 50%>very badness>0%: bad

100% hard: very, very hard . . . 100%>hardness≥50%: very hard . . . 50%>hardness>0%: hard

100% easy: very, very easy . . . 100%>easiness≥50%: very easy . . . 50%>easiness≥0%: easy

==Transcript==
[A simple x and y graph, with the X labeled "how bad it is if you don't know {thing}", and you labeled "how easy it is to grow up without learning {thing}]

Points on graph from top to bottom on the left side of the x axis:

> 100 digits of pi
> Lyrics to ''We Didn't Start the Fire''
> How to ride a bike
> How to escape movie quicksand
> Lyrics to ''12 Days of Christmas''
> TV theme songs

Points on graph from top to bottom on the right side of the y axis:

> That cat bites are really serious and if bitten you should wash the bite and call a doctor immediately
> Red flags for an abusive relationship
> Signs for a stroke
> Cough into your elbow, not your hand
> That you have to empty the dryer lint trap
> Stop, drop, and roll
> That you have to pay taxes

{{comic discussion}}

1083: Writing Styles

2014-07-14T21:45:44Z

108.162.245.202: /* Transcript */ changed 1 to l.

{{comic
| number = 1083
| date = July 18, 2012
| title = Writing Styles
| image = writing_styles.png
| titletext = I liked the idea, suggested by h00k on bash.org, of a Twitter bot that messages prominent politicians to tell them when they've unnecessarily used sms-speak abbreviations despite having plenty of characters left.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is less about how teenagers write on the internet and more about how politicians write on the internet. The comic shows that a lot of politicians use "sms-speak", which involves substituting numbers for letters and shortening phrases to get a longer idea across in fewer characters. The practice began first with text messages, also known as SMS or Short Message Service which limited messages to 160 characters. Twitter has adopted the 140 character limit since its inception, which allowed any given tweet to be received as a text message with enough room for the user's Twitter handle (15 characters max).

The point of the comic is this, there is no reason for anyone, especially politicians, to use "sms-speak" in tweets unless they are reaching the 140 character limit. Additionally, Ron Paul followers tend to be younger, possibly due to his support for the legalization of marijuana.

Neither example given exceeds 60 characters. Indeed, extending the "sms-speak" to logical full character words and punctuation only uses slightly more than half the character limit:
*Ron Paul is the only candidate who offers us a real choice! (59 characters)
*its gettin l8 so ill b here 4 prob 2 more hrs tops (50 characters)
*It is getting late, so I will be here for probably two more hours, tops. (72 characters)

==Transcript==
:[This is a chart with the above two labeled columns. The rows will be represented below in the same format.]
:If you post: you sound like
:"Ron Paul is the only candidate who offers us a real choice!": A teenager
:"its gettin l8 so ill b here 4 prob 2 more hrs tops": A senator
:The internet has wound up in kind of a weird place.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Politics]]