explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2572: Alien Observers

2022-01-25T15:27:31Z

141.101.104.14:

{{comic
| number = 2572
| date = January 24, 2022
| title = Alien Observers
| image = alien_observers.png
| titletext = ALERT: Human 910-25J-1Q38 has created a Youtube channel. Increase erratic jerkiness of flying by 30% until safely out of range.
}}
*This was the seventh comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLURRY MARTIAN SPACECRAFT- What does they mean by did they not just upgrade, and I know I know. Seems weird to say of one person buying a camera. What about all others? Also, what's 910-25J-1Q38, a phone number? Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
There is speculation by many people that there could be some form of extraterrestrial life observing us, hovering around in various flying vehicles, or perhaps using some form of giant telescope. These claims are often backed up by blurry pictures which claim to be of alien vehicles. In this comic, the joke is that the aliens are deliberately making sure that all sightings are made unverifiable. However, with [[1235:_Settled|most people now carrying a camera with them all the time]], a sighting that would be unverifiable just by eyewitness testimony could now be captured by a smartphone camera.

This means that in order for the aliens to keep creating unverifiable sightings for humans, they must keep track of what camera capabilities each human has, leading to different distance restrictions for each human, as seen in the diagram. The effective range of each person's camera is depicted as a circular (or spherical) envelope around themselves, two on the cross-sectional diagram and at least one located off beyond the image edge.

There is also an apparently flat ground-hugging 'no fly zone' connecting two of these areas. This may be part of a general prohibition against landing (and/or causing verifiable ground effects, such as {{w|crop circles}}) or it could be there to show that the capability of a self-focussing camera is greatly enhanced when it also has ground-features to autofocus upon rather than a subject surrounded by nothing but sky.

The comic attempts to explain away the issue already discussed in prior comics, such as [[718: The Flake Equation]] and [[1235: Settled]], in which the phenomenon of UFO sightings/reports is still left not resolved (either way) despite what modern technology should suggest is possible. It appears that the reason for this is that the {{tvtropes|SufficientlyAdvancedAlien|sufficiently advanced aliens}} actually make more than enough observations of the human race to continuously determine how to stay just on the side of plausible deniability in any interactions that they still seem to wish to make.

The attitude of the aliens also mirrors that of some humans, when they learn that another of their fellow humans has just started using the very latest phone (often at great expense) despite having changed to their now-old phone, not that long ago, when ''it'' was amongst the most advanced on the market.

In the title text, the aliens note that one particular human now has a YouTube account, meaning they are likely to record video instead of attempting to capture still images. This means that the alien craft used to create the sighting must behave as erratically as possible, in order to avoid being identified. This relates to the often wildly oscillating (as well as blurry) films and videos of 'UFOs' that have been taken by the impromptu human observer, beyond the limit of their ability to hold their fully-zoomed camera steady. Although here it is explained away as the flying saucers ''actually'' moving in an improbably jerky manner to prevent detailed recording of their craft. Further briefings of the sort depicted would doubtless accompany upgrades in optical/digital-stability features or the purchase of a camera tripod.

The name for the one buying the phone begins with "Human 38XT11". This seems likely to be a reference to {{w|THX 1138}}. This was the title of {{w|George Lucas}}' first film, which is also {{w|THX_1138#Etymology_and_references|referenced}} in the original {{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars}} film. The name contains the number in reverse as well as the letters if human could be written as H.

==Transcript==
:[Three aliens are looking at a screen. They each have six tentacles, of which four are used as legs, and the other two can be used as arms. They also have a small mouth and two eye stalks with a large eye at the end of each. The eyes has large eyelashes all the way around. One of the aliens is standing to the left of the screen, indicating it by raising one of its tentacles. The other two aliens stand to the right of the screen looking at the picture. The screen's image depicts a cross-sectional diagram showing two humans in a rough landscape. There is a shaded area above each of the humans and the terrain. The shaded area's boundary consists of arcs of differing sizes centered upon each human. To the left of the first human there is also a small straight area over the ground. To the left of this towards the edge of the screen, what appears to be an arc with a very large radius that begins and rises high up compared to the other two arcs, around a point beyond the on-screen image's edge. The rightmost human's zone has a dashed region between concentric radii of different sizes indicating that this zone has been revised further out than before. Four flying-saucer like spaceships are shown in the air close to, but above, the shaded areas. One high near the left curve, one over the flat area, one near the intersection between the two small arcs and one over the middle of the right arc.]
:Left Alien: Human 38XT11-B-C54  just bought a new phone with a 10x zoom, so we have to expand our restricted flight zone by 1,800 meters to keep our ship blurry.
:Right Alien: Seriously? Didn't they '''''just''''' upgrade?
:Left Alien: I know, I know...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The hardest part of being an alien observing Earth is keeping track of what cameras everyone has.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aliens]]

Talk:2562: Formatting Meeting

2022-01-02T22:17:52Z

141.101.104.14:

I downloaded and ran theusaf's bot from its website to make this page. Not sure how to give page creation permission to [[User:Baffo32RunningTheusafBOT]]. When you run the bot you notice that Theusaf's username is "the usa f". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.45|172.70.110.45]] 16:02, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
:The bot should be back up. The hosting service has some maintenance, which turned it off. [[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 01:25, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

shouldn't it be ISO, not iso? actually, the whole title text is lowercase-d when I feel like it shouldn't be [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 16:59, 31 December 2021 (UTC)Bumpf
: you're probably right. as a geek, one uses lowercase 'iso' all the time in computer date code where it is usually lowercase. e.g. i type `date --iso=seconds` every day into my linux terminal; it outputs 8601 format. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.167|172.70.114.167]] 19:23, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Speaking as a European, we'd often read 2/3/22 as "2nd March 2022" (same order as the numbers), not "March 2, 2022", though obviously we'd understand both expressions. Also, the suggestion that the thousands/decimal punctuation is reversed in the EU is wrong, as this does not apply to all countries of the EU. For example, Ireland uses the same as the US (and the same as the UK, though that is no longer part of the EU and might eventually give up decimalisation altogether on account of fractions being more wholesome...) [[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 18:47, 31 December 2021 (UTC)
:You mean the 12-times-tables, that I was thoroughly taught when I was young, might (literally) gain currency once more? That'll be interesting! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 16:42, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Another comic which references ISO-8601 is: https://xkcd.com/1179/ [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 21:27, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

It's been more than 20 years since in 'casual' date writing I started prefering "D/Mmm/YYYY" format (today is 31/Dec/2021, for me right now, tomorrow is 1/Jan/2022) when I had a totally free hand. A combination of indicating to US colleagues in my multinational company of that time that I wasn't writing trying to write Jan/1/2022 (not that it would matter in that particular case!) and doing my bit to support the upcoming Y2K-compatability issues that other people were gradually getting to know about. Though for coded dates, YYYYMMDD[.hh[mm[ss[...]]]] always worked best for me. It numerically sorts (it will even when YYYY eventually becomes YYYYY!) and can be given arbitrary sub-day specification - at least until float-rounding errors start to creep in. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.43|172.70.90.43]] 22:25, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Around year 2000 there was short time when people were writing the years properly. Afterwards, the laziness won again and people started using just two digits again ... sigh ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:19, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Is localization spelled localisation in countries that use English? [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 01:59, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
:It is. Obviously that excludes the US and any other past colonials who picked up the wrong habit along the way. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 02:18, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

:Actually, the -ise/-ize distinction only came in in UK English quite recently and some UK publishers still use -ize endings. I was told both endings were OK at school in the UK in the sixties.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.68|172.70.86.68]] 09:46, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

::I treat the Oxford Spelling with the respect I give the Oxford Comma. None. (My own '70s education drummed that into me, and it's not going to change easily.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.71|172.70.90.71]] 11:56, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Anyone who doesn't use ISO-8601 dates should be shot on sight. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 10:24, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

I got the impression that slashes as separators mark us-notation and dashes EU notation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.139|162.158.88.139]] 11:36, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
:The UK complicated this notation (don't we always!). We typically use 'European' ordering (or maybe they use ours?) but also slashes (whichever side of the Atlantic that started). This makes it not so easy to just assume dd-mm-yyyy and mm/dd/yyyy differentiate by separator used. Not sure how to rewrite "In Europe, the usual order is day/month/year - although the slash is rarely used as the separator" in light of this. Are we 'rare' in Europe, or no longer to be considered that at all and therefore not even discussed? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 16:38, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
::We use the same notations as you in France (and it's very rare when our two countries do the same thing), so I'm not sure the "rarely used as a separator" is correct. [[User:Cochonou|Cochonou]] ([[User talk:Cochonou|talk]]) 17:32, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
:In France we mainly use slashes, with DD/MM/(YY)YY, so yeah not at all and we're always really confused with USian dates, even more because it's not reflected in our language (January the 2nd of 2022 => 2 janvier 2022). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.233|108.162.229.233]] 19:16, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

The discussion of currency seems way too much for something that isn't actually part of the comic. I believe it would be better in trivia, if part of the article at all. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 13:36, 1 January 2022 (UTC)
-- concur with that. Its also annoying as on the east of the atlantic, I'd be writing 10^5 as 100,000 not 100.000

In Sweden we use ISO-8601 (YYYY-MM-DD, 2022-03-02), but it is also common to use YY-MM-DD (22-03-02) or YYMMDD (220302). And the bastard D/M-YY (3/2-22). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.14|141.101.104.14]] 22:17, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2560: Confounding Variables

2021-12-30T12:04:05Z

141.101.104.14:

This is the earliest in the day that I can recall a comic being published in a long time. It's not even noon ET yet. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:39, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

This explanation will not be complete until someone explains the title text. I assume controlling for the residual will lead to a null result, but I don't know statistics well enough to know. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.171|172.70.110.171]] 17:10, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

"Stats are a farce and the truth is unknowable." She jests, but... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.25|172.70.178.25]] 18:31, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
:Many people have made similar observations over the centuries [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 16:31, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
:: Stats provide answers, ''but not questions'' - that's what my professor used to say [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.14|141.101.104.14]] 12:04, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

"([https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2560:_Confounding_Variables&diff=prev&oldid=223220 Why was the word "remit" used and why was it linked to Mythbusters? Both were unnecessarily confusing.])"... Well, "remit" ≈ "purpose" as I used it (Wiktionary, Noun section, item 1: "(chiefly Britain) Terms of reference; set of responsibilities; scope. quotations" - seeing that it's apparently British, and the <s>remit</s> scope of most of the verb forms, I now understand your confusion). And the suggestion was that this was not a (bad/offputting?) Statistics course but a course that "mythbusted" a range of subjects, somewhat like [[Every Major's Terrible]], that we catch just as Statistics in particular gets a page or so of short shrift about. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 23:01, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1585: Similarities

2021-12-20T22:11:50Z

141.101.104.14:

;Origins

I've heard 50 Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, but don't know how The Martian came to be. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.115|108.162.216.115]] 05:56, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

-- Still missing from the explanation is what kind of brand ''The Martian'' is about... -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 08:18, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:NASA? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.238|108.162.229.238]] 08:22, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:A Mars bar? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 09:09, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:I'm going with NASA. --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 09:30, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:The Martian has a feel a lot like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and other Mars stories. [[User:Jv|Jv]] ([[User talk:Jv|talk]]) 18:37, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:Maybe duct tape

: It is Twilight fan-fiction. The original version is still availble for free. They just renamed the characters and removed references to Christian being a sparkling vampire and published it as a new book.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.115.22|162.158.115.22]] 08:43, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
::Allegedly removed by the author, first from the fan fiction sites and then her personal site just prior to publication! And you're right, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/02/11/the-most-scandalous-part-of-fifty-shades-of-grey-isnt-the-sex-and-bondage/ the original is 89% similar to the published trilogy]. Names have been changed to protect the author from legal battles, and [http://www.avclub.com/article/holy-crow-fifty-shades-grey-crazy-similar-its-twil-215185 crucial changes from "holy cow" to "holy crap"] were also made.
::[http://www.literarykiss.com/2012/10/communication-in-fifty-shades-of-trey.html I even found a few graphs about its literary horror and crap references, for people like me who are easily amused. Unfortunately it's so bizarre I'm feeling the effects of Poe's law here. Is it really that bad, or is this some parody? I'll never read the books to find out. --[[User:Fedora-tionOfPlanets|Fedora-tionOfPlanets]] ([[User talk:Fedora-tionOfPlanets|talk]]) 11:28, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

I believe Ponytail is not terrified by suggested title. That's more like she thinksthat Cueball will almost certainly read it and dares him to say otherwise. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.53|141.101.80.53]] 11:46, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
: I agree; the ''tell'' is italicized, and that emphasis indicates she's using an American idiom to indicate her enthusiasm for the idea. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.143|108.162.219.143]] 12:11, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: To clarify: in English (American?) slang there are two ways to use "tell me you didn't/wouldn't X".
:A) "(''please/AUGH'') tell me you didn't X" can be translated as "I am horrified to think you did/would-do X, please reassure me you didn't/wouldn't do it:" (usually preceded by a pleading "please" or some exclamation of horror): "please tell me you didn't cross the streams", "ARGH! Please tell me you didn't tell Blackhatguy my email-address, living address and greatest fear!"
:B) (smugly/challenging) "tell my you didn't/wouldn't X" would be translated as "I know you well enough to be 99% sure that you actually _did_/_would_ do X, and I really enjoy your blushing right now because you realise I caught you red-handed, but you cannot lie about it to deny me": "Oh dear Randall, tell me you wouldn't watch a debate between the reanimated corpses of Feynman and Einstein. *Randall blushes in guilty admission* Haha I knew you would"
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.193|162.158.90.193]] 12:31, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

:I agree, that was my reading of it too. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.141|108.162.221.141]] 12:48, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: I also agree that she thinks it's a great book idea, I made the change. Not sure how I like the wording I jsed so please edit. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 12:53, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Considering the timing, I wouldn't be surprised if Randall did indeed saw the movie, but had the comics ready in advance and after the movie only added the title and published it. So the part about him not liking the movie based on comics is unfounded. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:47, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

:It also seems like pure speculation. Is Randall's opinion on Fifty Shades of Grey even known? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.114|108.162.216.114]] 15:08, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Is the sojourner used to communicate in the movie? It seems like it is just kept around to beetle around the hah module and the Lander is used for comms. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.180|141.101.98.180]]IB

As you've given me a spoiler for the film, I've added a spoiler warning [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 16:52, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Curiously, in Italian the third book of the series (fifty shades freed) has been actually translated as "Fifty Shades of Red". --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.23.193|162.158.23.193]] 13:22, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Is it of any relevance that "red" is a common safe-word for bdsm?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.79|141.101.80.79]] 15:29, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

: My first thought was that it's a reference to menstruation. And isn't there an infamous tampon scene in the book/movie? [[User:PhantomLimbic|PhantomLimbic]] ([[User talk:PhantomLimbic|talk]]) 10:50, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
::The tampon scene is only in the book. I think most people can understand the decision to leave it out of the movie ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Just saw The Martian today, and it is really great. Now I think I have to put the book on my x-mas wish list ;-) (and of course a pet mars rover) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

So "The Martian" could be more validly compared to "John Dies At The End"? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.52|173.245.54.52]] 21:18, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Why are there no references to the London Fire Brigade's "Fifty Shades of Red" campaign? See here: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/558213/Fifty-Shades-of-Red-London-Fire-Brigade-tweets-funny-callouts --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.58|172.68.34.58]] 05:01, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Isn't there a new mars rover Perseverance? [[User:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)]] ([[User talk:Sarah the Pie(yes, the food)|talk]]) 21:57, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

2553: Incident Report

2021-12-13T12:43:16Z

141.101.104.14: Grammar fix

{{comic
| number = 2553
| date = December 10, 2021
| title = Incident Report
| image = incident_report.png
| titletext = Increasing-precision timestamps are the Jaws theme of incident reports.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OVERLY-PRECISE TEMPORAL SHARK. At approximately 14:29:26.6 EDT the shark initiated an acceleration, shortly thereafter mouth aperture increased from 0 to 100%. According to CCTV footage the first tooth touched victim 1 at 14:29:30.45 ± 1/29.997th of a second, at 14:29:30.49 blood, at 14:29:30.52 the title text emerged shortly followed by the second {{citation needed}} joke. Christopher Nolan then entered the first {{citation needed}} joke at 14:31:12.99 as part of the 4K remastering of Tenet. Do NOT delete this tag too late, or else the birthday firework jugglers may never exist.}}

An {{w|incident report}} describes the sequence of events when something goes wrong, including the lead-up as well as the aftermath. This usually involves describing at what time related events happen. In this comic, a report at a {{w|nuclear power plant}} on the day of the comic's publishing starts with particularly vague timestamps (that a package of fireworks arrived "roughly 18 hours prior" to it), then uses approximate minute-level precision ("14:00" and "14:20", which could reasonably be five minutes off in either direction), then minute-level precision ("14:28"), then second-level precision ("14:29:22" and "14:29:26").

This suggests that the ''clock'' time is really a proxy for the ''amount'' of time before one specific moment where everything falls apart, and when seconds start appearing, it implies that the recollection is within a few minutes of the disaster. Normally the increased level of precision reflects close monitoring capabilities of the affected systems, reviewing monitoring equipment, such as surveillance camera and microphone recordings, and/or detailed analysis by incident investigators. It may have been sufficient for the resulting inquiry to merely note the prior arrival of the original package, and possibly then read off (whatever remains of) the signing-in logs for the approximate times each member of staff arrives on the scene. At some point, though, the investigation will refer to fully timestamped security recordings, perhaps even eventually frame-by-frame with particular interest in exactly which things touched exactly what other things, in sequence, in order to hopefully learn all the necessary lessons about the incident.

Synchronization of events is important in [https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process/Pages/default.aspx incident investigations], so often systems are required to take input from common, relatively precise time references, such as {{w|GPS_disciplined_oscillator|GPS}}, {{w|WWV_(radio_station)|WWV broadcast}}, or cellular telephone systems. For example, an aircraft crash needs {{w|Airport_surveillance_radar|radar}} positioning data synced with [https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap3_section_4.html voice communications] and {{w|Flight_recorder|flight recorder data}}. Lack of correlation between these is a potential source of conspiracy theories, for example one of the {{w|United Airlines Flight 93#Crash 9-11|hijacked planes}} crashed into Pennsylvania either at 10:03 or 10:06 depending on two different information sources.

In many situations, incident reports are anonymized as shown to protect the identities of those people involved in the incidents. This is often done to prevent unnecessary blaming of certain individuals, particularly when it hasn't yet been determined whether the incident was negligence or just an accident.

Examples of real-life incident reports with second-level precision timestamps showing the increasing precision around critical moments include:
* [https://spaceflightnow.com/challenger/timeline/ Explosion] of the Space Shuttle Challenger
* [https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/chernobyl-accident-appendix-1-sequence-of-events.aspx Chernobyl explosion]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island Accident]

The report shown cuts off before reaching the actual incident, leaving it to the reader to imagine what happened next. If the birthday cake has lit candles, one possible sequence of events is that a dropped or badly thrown juggling pin could have hit one of them and then rolled over to the fireworks package, thus igniting the package. This would have caused the fireworks to go off underneath the reactor control's console.

Although the comic refers to {{w|Juggling club|juggling "pins"}}, jugglers commonly call those props "clubs." It is possible Randall is confusing the {{w|Bowling pin|similarly shaped objects}} in 10-pin bowling to juggling clubs. "Pins" are another name for a component of Uranium Carbide type {{w|Nuclear fuel#Uranium carbide|nuclear fuel rods}}, which are involved in the safe control of the nuclear reaction within a nuclear power plant. No sane reactor staff would juggle these complex, heavy and expensive pieces of equipment.{{citation needed}}

The title text refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4 theme music] from the 1975 film ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'', which has come to represent impending danger. Movies use music to create the correct emotional tone; suspenseful music indicates that something bad is about to happen. The ''Jaws'' theme is well known for the increasing tempo during its intro, which might be paralleled here to the increasingly precise timestamps of the report.

9603120071 is an actual accession number for an [https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=9603120071 incident] at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 1996. Four slightly contaminated stray kittens were found, cleaned, and adopted. No clock times were mentioned in the report.

Real-world nuclear power stations have strictly regulated control rooms which would prevent the simultaneous presence of fireworks, juggling and birthday celebrations.{{Citation needed}} There is no East Valley nuclear power plant, but there are two reactor units at the nuclear power plant in Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Facility: East Valley Nuclear Plant
:Date: 12/10/2021
:Report ID: 9603120071
:Event description: Roughly '''18 hours''' prior to the incident, an Amazon package containing fireworks was mistakenly delivered to the reactor control room and left under the console.
:The next day, at approximately '''14:00''', Technician A arrived at the facility with a bag containing four juggling pins. At '''14:20''', Technician A entered the control room, and joined Technician B at the console.
:At '''14:28''', Technician C exited the elevator and approached the control room holding a birthday cake intended for Technician B.
:At '''14:29:22''', Technician A said "Hey [Technician B], check out this cool trick I learned" while taking out the juggling pins. Technician B turned to look just as, at '''14:29:26''', Technician C entered holding the cake.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You know things are about to get bad when the incident report starts including seconds in the timestamps.

{{comic discussion}}

912: Manual Override

2015-03-24T08:59:41Z

141.101.104.14: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 912
| date = June 15, 2011
| title = Manual Override
| image = manual_override.png
| titletext = I think you mean 'GNU Info Override'.
}}

==Explanation==

There are two jokes in this comic. The first is that the pilot typed "man override" to manually override the plane's computer and steer the plane to safety, but instead he ends up opening the man page for "OVERRIDE". The second joke is making fun of a trend in documentation for Unix-like systems using the free {{w|GNU}} toolchain.

Historically, {{w|UNIX}} systems had a way to access descriptions of the available programs by using the "man" command (from "manual"). Typing "man [program name]" would output a concise, helpful text, called a "{{w|man page}}", describing the program's functionality, available command-line options, a list of related programs, etc. For some GNU-based systems, however, the output of "man [program name]" will be entirely too brief, mainly telling what the program does, then directing the user to invoke a GNU-specific information system ({{w|Info (Unix)|GNU Info}}). GNU Info pages can be quite useful, e.g. they often contain much more information than man pages, and are {{w|Hypertext|hypertextual}}, allowing quick navigation through a network of content-related Info pages; however, they often are much more complex to search through than simple man files, which take the form of single scrollable pages, one per program.

As such, the humour is predicated upon understanding the frustration which sometimes arises when GNU/Linux users seek out a man page, hoping for an easy, digestible read, only to find that the man page they opened merely redirects them to another, less accessible network of hypertext Info pages. This can be especially annoying when it interrupts a person's workflow; e.g. when what they wanted was to spend three seconds looking up the proper format of a particular command line function, and instead they end up redirected to a maze of detailed documentation. To add injury to the insult, sometimes the Info pages aren't actually ''installed,'' causing the "info" viewer to just render the same old "man" page that had the directions in the first place.

The title text provides a tongue-in-cheek correction to the comic's title, suggesting that rather than typing "man(ual) override", the user/pilot should type "info override" to search GNU Info instead.

==Transcript==
:[A plane is in a nosedive with smoke pouring from one wing. Text comes from someone reading in the cockpit.]
:"This is the emergency override system, which can be used to regain control of the aircraft.
:Complete instructions for activating this system are available as a GNU info page."

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Linux]]

912: Manual Override

2015-03-24T08:57:29Z

141.101.104.14: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 912
| date = June 15, 2011
| title = Manual Override
| image = manual_override.png
| titletext = I think you mean 'GNU Info Override'.
}}

==Explanation==

There are two jokes in this comic. The first is that the pilot typed "man override" to manually override the plane's computer and steer the plane to safety, but instead he ends up opening the man page for "OVERRIDE". The second joke is making fun of a trend in documentation for Unix-like systems using the free {{w|GNU}} toolchain.

Historically, {{w|UNIX}} systems had a way to access descriptions of the available programs by using the "man" command (from "manual"). Typing "man [program name]" would output a concise, helpful text, called a "{{w|man page}}", describing the program's functionality, available command-line options, a list of related programs, etc. For some GNU-based systems, however, the output of "man [program name]" will be entirely too brief, mainly telling what the program does, then directing the user to invoke a GNU-specific information system ({{w|Info (Unix)|GNU Info}}). GNU Info pages can be quite useful, e.g. they often contain much more information than man pages, and are {{w|Hypertext|hypertextual}}, allowing quick navigation through a network of content-related Info pages; however, they often are much more complex to search through than simple man files, which take the form of single scrollable pages, one per program.

As such, the humour is predicated upon understanding the frustration which sometimes arises when GNU/Linux users seek out a man page, hoping for an easy, digestible read, only to find that the man page they opened merely redirects them to another, less accessible network of hypertext Info pages. This can be especially annoying when it interrupts a person's workflow; e.g. when what they wanted was to spend three seconds looking up the proper format of a particular command line function, and instead they end up redirected to a maze of detailed documentation.

The title text provides a tongue-in-cheek correction to the comic's title, suggesting that rather than typing "man(ual) override", the user/pilot should type "info override" to search GNU Info instead.

==Transcript==
:[A plane is in a nosedive with smoke pouring from one wing. Text comes from someone reading in the cockpit.]
:"This is the emergency override system, which can be used to regain control of the aircraft.
:Complete instructions for activating this system are available as a GNU info page."

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Linux]]