explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2840: Earth Layers

2023-10-17T15:18:05Z

141.101.98.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2840
| date = October 11, 2023
| title = Earth Layers
| image = earth_layers_2x.png
| imagesize = 585x627px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Earth's magnetic field is primarily generated by currents in the liquid outer core, though some geophysicists argue that an unexplained mismatch with models suggests that the Kinder toy contains a magnet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A 50/50 BLEND OF LITHOSPHERE AND CRUST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Like this? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic reimagines the internal structure of the earth, mixing the real geological layers of the planet with fictional ones. Some of the fictional layers are appropriated from the layers of other objects that have cross-sectional diagrams, such as the layers of a piece of fruit, an eyeball, an item of confectionery or a building.

{| class="wikitable"
! Layer
! scope="col"| Explanation
|-
! scope="row"| Lithosphere/Crust (50/50 Blend)
| A “50/50 blend” is a common description of clothing, such as a t-shirt made of equal parts cotton and polyester. Wearing multiple items of clothing over one another is commonly referred to as 'layering'.

The {{w|lithosphere}} is any outermost rocky layer of a planet. On Earth it consists of the {{w|Earth's crust|crust}} and any parts of the upper mantle (see below) that do not convect. To say they are two distinct layers that could be blended together is rather nonsensical.

The upper limit of a planet's lithosphere is usually taken as where it meets the hydrosphere/atmosphere (wherever either may be present, otherwise the vacuum of space) but may or may not include the rock-derived {{w|pedosphere}} (for Earth, especially) or distinct overburden of loose {{w|regolith}}. All of these overlaid layers would typically be far too thin to be reliably distinct in the depiction of this Earth-like planet, and the diagram depicts the surface details only as a 'painted on' blue/greens/browns/etc to distinguish ocean areas and land heights with vertical depths/elevations that are already effectively insignificant at the scale of this diagram, before even considering the such relatively narrow layers of interface material.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Upper mantle}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Deep mantle
| A pseudo-correct layer of the earth's structure. There is a layer called the {{w|lower mantle}}, which could be what Randall refers to.
|-
! scope="row"| Filler
| This suggests there is space in the earth that was empty, so the creator(s) added some filler to fill up the extra space.
|-
! scope="row"| Vitreous humor
|Vitreous humor ({{w|vitreous body}}) is the transparent gel inside the eye, located between the lens and the retina.
|-
! scope="row"| Mechanical/HVAC layer
| {{w|HVAC}} is an abbreviation for 'Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning' - the system used to heat or cool a building. Tall buildings may have a dedicated "HVAC floor" or "{{w|mechanical floor}}" between regular floors, like an extra layer.
|-
! scope="row"| Guacamole
| {{w|Guacamole}} is a dip or sauce made from avocados. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/guacamole Originating from ancient Mexico], it often includes onions, tomatoes and spices. Notably, guacamole is a major component of seven layer dip, and is shown here to be the seventh layer (from the surface).
|-
! scope="row"| Cytoplasm
|{{w|Cytoplasm}} is the "flesh" of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells; a jelly-like substance that fills all the otherwise empty space within the cell.
|-
! scope="row"| Cork
|Due to the proximity of the cork layer and the insulation layer, this may possibly be referencing {{w|Cork (material)|cork}}-lined walls, which are used today mostly for high quality soundproofing, but have [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27135713 a considerable history]. Another potential reference could be the fact that baseballs (another spherical shape) have a layer of cork in them (though it is usually in the center). Finally, the cork is a real layer of tissue in many woody plants, part of the bark. This comic was posted the day after Birkenstock Holding plc was listed on the New York Stock Exchange; Birkenstock sandals include a layer of cork.
|-
! scope="row"| Insulation
|Possibly a reference to the {{w|building insulation}} installed in the walls and ceilings of buildings. Technical fabrics used to make clothing also often include an insulation layer, combined with, for example, a waterproof/water-resistant membrane and an inner contact layer.
|-
! scope="row"| Seeds
|Part of a fruit which often appear in a distinct layer within, or sometimes on the surface of, the flesh.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Pith}}
|Part of a tree trunk or the thick spongy layer of the skin of a citrus fruit. Notably, this layer is below Seeds, which implies the seeds are outside of the pith. Although rare, some fruits do, in fact, have their seeds on the outside of their skin, such as {{w|Cashews}}. However, this is not present in any well-known citrus plants, or, if there are citrus plants like this, they are not discovered yet, let alone well-documented.
|-
! scope="row"| Nougat
|{{w|Nougat}} is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, whipped egg whites and, sometimes, chopped candied fruit. It often appears as layers within confectionary items (such as Snickers, Double Decker and Mars) and, notably in relation to the comic, it constitutes the second-innermost layer of {{w|Mozartkugel}}n, a spherical confection.
Geography teachers sometimes hand confectionery like this to their students to give them an idea what "concentrically layered structure" means. Most of the time it turns out that this is their least concern, while at the same time a general consensus emerges that this is one of the best ideas said teacher has had in a long time. This layer is possibly an allusion to that practice.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Outer core}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Inner core}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Secret core
| Likely references secret compartments that may be hidden in the hardest to find recesses of other objects or structures, for the purposes of concealing precious items or closely-guarded secrets. Could also be interpreted as a section of the core that only certain people, such as Randall, are aware of. In the context of "inner core, outer core, secret core" may also be a riff on Leonard Cohen's ''Hallelujah'', à la [[2583: Chorded Keyboard]].
|-
! scope="row"| Kinder toy capsule
| A {{w|Kinder (brand)|Kinder}} toy is a reference to a chocolate egg-shaped confection by the Kinder brand, the {{w|Kinder Surprise}}, a chocolate shell with a plastic 'yolk' capsule in the center. Though that is loose within a void, unlike this 'Earth model', it closely matches this philosophy despite (or because of) being a {{w|Kinder_Surprise#United_States|banned food item}} in the United States, due to a 1938 FDA rule prohibiting a "non-nutritive object" (the plastic egg 'yolk' containing the toy) to be encased inside of an edible item (the outer chocolate layer) unless it has a specific function related to the edible part. It is widely believed that this is because the 'yolk' can be a choking hazard, despite the fact that you'd have to be swallowing a chicken egg-sized confectionery in a single mouthful for that to happen accidentally, or deliberately try to consume the plastic capsule whole. The toys within, however, may contain small pieces that can pose a choking hazard, especially in the toys that are packed as components, requiring some assembly, in order to fit into the capsule. Rules about small components (in toys for young children) and the inclusion of non-food contents within food-items have been used to prohibit this product within the US. To specifically overcome the latter regulations, the {{w|Kinder Joy}} was developed; an egg-shaped packaging containing the chocolate treat in one half and the toy separately within the other.

Randall's punchline of the comic is that there may indeed be a hidden toy at the center of the Earth.
|}

The '''Title Text''' alludes to how kids like to guess what toy might be inside their Kinder treat. In this case, "some geophysicists" can do more than guess; they can infer that the Kinder toy core has a magnet (a popular type of toy) because it would explain a mysterious "mismatch" of current {{w|Magnetohydrodynamics|magnetohydrodynamic}} models not fully explaining observable phenomena. In this scenario, Earth's {{w|Earth's magnetic field|geomagnetic field}} is amusingly explained to be generated both by currents in the liquid outer core as well as the Kinder Toy Capule core.

The text refers to a single Kinder toy, which is presumed to be huge, scaled to the size of the Earth's core, and to contain a proportionally-sized magnet.

As a thought experiment though, if we assume that the "Kinder Toy Capsule" actually contains multiple normal-sized Kinder Eggs, there would be approximately 50 sextillion of them. Here's the math:
* The radius of the earth is 6371 km
* If the diagram is to scale then measurement of it gives the Kinder Toy Capsule a radius of about 900 km.
* This gives the Kinder Toy Capsule a volume of just over 3 billion km3.
* Assuming a real Kinder Egg has a volume of 60 cm3, and a packing density of 63.5%, the Kinder Toy Capsule could contain 5×1022 (50 sextillion) actual Kinder Eggs.
* (Current magnetohydrodynamics models of the Earth's core fail to contemplate the contribution of 50 sextillion Kinder Toy Capsules.)

==Transcript==
:[Header/Title]
:The layers of the Earth

:[Cutaway diagram of the Earth, a sphere with abstract sea/land/elevation surface, except for a slice removed (quarter-arc in three axes) to make visible a number of roughly equally-sized 'strata'/shells, all the way down to the intact smallest sphere. From surface downwards, these are:]
:Lithosphere/crust (50/50 blend)
:Upper mantle
:Deep mantle
:Filler
:Vitreous humor
:Mechanical/HVAC layer
:Guacamole
:Cytoplasm
:Cork
:Insulation
:Seeds
:Pith
:Nougat
:Outer core
:Inner core
:Secret core
:[The central sphere:]
:Kinder toy capsule

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Food]]

2840: Earth Layers

2023-10-13T08:54:52Z

141.101.98.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2840
| date = October 11, 2023
| title = Earth Layers
| image = earth_layers_2x.png
| imagesize = 585x627px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Earth's magnetic field is primarily generated by currents in the liquid outer core, though some geophysicists argue that an unexplained mismatch with models suggests that the Kinder toy contains a magnet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A 50/50 BLEND OF LITHOSPHERE AND CRUST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Like this? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic reimagines the internal structure of the earth, mixing the real geological layers of the planet with fictional ones. Some of the fictional layers are appropriated from the layers of other objects that have cross-sectional diagrams, such as the layers of a piece of fruit, an eyeball, an item of confectionary or a building.

{| class="wikitable"
! Layer
! scope="col"| Explanation
|-
! scope="row"| Lithosphere/Crust (50/50 Blend)
| The {{w|lithosphere}} is any outermost rocky layer of a planet. On Earth it consists of the {{w|Earth's crust|crust}} and any parts of the upper mantle (see below) that do not convect. To say they are two distinct layers that could be blended together is rather nonsensical.
The upper limit of a planet's lithosphere is usually taken as where it meets the hydrosphere/atmosphere (wherever either may be present, otherwise the vacuum of space) but may or may not include the rock-derived {{w|pedosphere}} (for Earth, especially) or distinct overburden of loose {{w|regolith}}. All of these overlaid layers would typically be far too thin to be reliably distinct in the depiction of this Earth-like planet, and the diagram depicts the surface details only as a 'painted on' blue/greens/browns/etc to distinguish ocean areas and land heights with vertical depths/elevations that are already effectively insignificant at the scale of this diagram, before even considering the such relatively narrow layers of interface material.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Upper mantle}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Deep mantle
| A pseudo-correct layer of the earth's structure. There is a layer called the {{w|lower mantle}}, which could be what Randall refers to.
|-
! scope="row"| Filler
| This suggests there is space in the earth that was empty, so the creator(s) added some filler to fill up the extra space.
|-
! scope="row"| Vitreous humor
|Vitreous humor ({{w|vitreous body}}) is the transparent gel inside the eye, located between the lens and the retina.
|-
! scope="row"| Mechanical/HVAC layer
| {{w|HVAC}} is an abbreviation for 'Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning' - the system used to heat or cool a building. Tall buildings may have a dedicated "HVAC floor" or "{{w|mechanical floor}}" between regular floors, like an extra layer.
|-
! scope="row"| Guacamole
| {{w|Guacamole}} is a dip or sauce made from avocados. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/guacamole Originating from ancient Mexico], it often includes onions, tomatoes and spices. Notably, guacamole is a major component of seven layer dip, and is shown here to be the seventh layer (from the surface).
|-
! scope="row"| Cytoplasm
|{{w|Cytoplasm}} is the "flesh" of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells; a jelly-like substance that fills all the otherwise empty space within the cell.
|-
! scope="row"| Cork
|Due to the proximity of the cork layer and the insulation layer, this may possibly be referencing {{w|Cork (material)|cork}}-lined walls, which are used today mostly for high quality soundproofing, but have [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27135713 a considerable history]. Another potential reference could be the fact that baseballs (another spherical shape) have a layer of cork in them (though it is usually in the center). Finally, the cork is a real layer of tissue in many woody plants, part of the bark. This comic was posted the day after Birkenstock Holding plc was listed on the New York Stock Exchange; Birkenstock sandals include a layer of cork.
|-
! scope="row"| Insulation
|Possibly a reference to the {{w|building insulation}} installed in the walls and ceilings of buildings. Technical fabrics used to make clothing also often include an insulation layer, combined with, for example, a waterproof/water-resistant membrane and an inner contact later.
|-
! scope="row"| Seeds
|Part of a fruit.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Pith}}
|Part of a tree trunk or the thick spongy layer of the skin of a citrus fruit. Notably, this layer is below Seeds, which implies the seeds are outside of the pith. Although rare, some fruits do, in fact, have their seeds on the outside of their skin, such as {{w|Cashews}}. However, this is not present in any well-known citrus plants, or, if there are citrus plants like this, they are not discovered yet, let alone well-documented.
|-
! scope="row"| Nougat
|{{w|Nougat}} is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, whipped egg whites and, sometimes, chopped candied fruit. It often appears as layers within confectionary items (such as Snickers, Double Decker and Mars) and, notably in relation to the comic, it constitutes the second-innermost layer of {{w|Mozartkugel}}n, a spherical confection.
Geography teachers sometimes hand confectionery like this to their students to give them an idea what "concentrically layered structure" means. Most of the time it turns out that this is their least concern, while at the same time a general consensus emerges that this is one of the best ideas said teacher has had in a long time. This layer is possibly an allusion to that practice.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Outer core}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Inner core}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Secret core
| Likely references secret compartments that may be hidden in the hardest to find recesses of other objects or structures, for the purposes of concealing precious items or closely-guarded secrets. Could also be interpreted as a section of the core that only certain people, such as Randall, are aware of. In the context of "inner core, outer core, secret core" may also be a riff on Leonard Cohen's ''Hallelujah'', a la [[2583: Chorded Keyboard]].
|-
! scope="row"| Kinder toy capsule
| A {{w|Kinder (brand)|Kinder}} toy is a reference to a chocolate egg-shaped confection by the Kinder brand, the {{w|Kinder Surprise}}, a chocolate shell with a plastic 'yolk' capsule in the center. Though that is loose within a void, unlike this 'Earth model', it closely matches this philosophy despite (or because of) being a {{w|Kinder_Surprise#United_States|banned food item}} in the United States, due to a 1938 FDA rule prohibiting a "non-nutritive object" (the plastic egg 'yolk' containing the toy) to be encased inside of an edible item (the outer chocolate layer) unless it has a specific function related to the edible part. It is widely believed that this is because the 'yolk' can be a choking hazard, despite the fact that you'd have to be swallowing a chicken egg-sized confectionery in a single mouthful for that to happen accidentally, or deliberately try to consume the plastic capsule whole. The toys within, however, may contain small pieces that can pose a choking hazard, especially in the toys that are packed as components, requiring some assembly, in order to fit into the capsule. Rules about small components (in toys for young children) and the inclusion of non-food contents within food-items have been used to prohibit this product within the US. To specifically overcome the latter regulations, the {{w|Kinder Joy}} was developed; an egg-shaped packaging containing the chocolate treat in one half and the toy separately within the other.

Randall's punchline of the comic is that there may indeed be a hidden toy at the center of the Earth. The title text explains that due to the {{w|Earth's magnetic field|geomagnetic field}} not behaving as scientific models suggest it should, some geophysicists argue that the hidden toy is – or at least contains – some additional form of magnet which impacts the accepted {{w|Magnetohydrodynamics|magnetohydrodynamic}} effect. A more plausible explanation is that their model is wrong because they've based it on Randall's diagram full of spurious layers!
|}

Since the radius of the earth is 6371 km, this gives the Kinder Toy Capsule having a radius of about 900 km (from measurements of the diagram). This gives the Kinder Toy Capsule a volume of just over 3 billion km3. Assuming a real Kinder Egg has a volume of 60 cm3, and a packing density of 63.5%, the Kinder Toy Capsule could contain 5x1022 (50 sextillion) actual Kinder Eggs. Current mathematical models of the magnetohydrodynamics of the Earth's core do not include the potentially significant contribution of 50 sextillion Kinder Toy Capsules,{{citation needed}} a glaring oversight in a well developed field.

==Transcript==
:[Header/Title]
:The layers of the Earth

:[Cutaway diagram of the Earth, a sphere with abstract sea/land/elevation surface, except for a slice removed (quarter-arc in three axes) to make visible a number of roughly equally-sized 'strata'/shells, all the way down to the intact smallest sphere. From surface downwards, these are:]
:Lithosphere/crust (50/50 blend)
:Upper mantle
:Deep mantle
:Filler
:Vitreous humor
:Mechanical/HVAC layer
:Guacamole
:Cytoplasm
:Cork
:Insulation
:Seeds
:Pith
:Nougat
:Outer core
:Inner core
:Secret core
:[The central sphere:]
:Kinder toy capsule

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Food]]

2840: Earth Layers

2023-10-13T08:54:28Z

141.101.98.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2840
| date = October 11, 2023
| title = Earth Layers
| image = earth_layers_2x.png
| imagesize = 585x627px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Earth's magnetic field is primarily generated by currents in the liquid outer core, though some geophysicists argue that an unexplained mismatch with models suggests that the Kinder toy contains a magnet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A 50/50 BLEND OF LITHOSPHERE AND CRUST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Like this? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic reimagines the internal structure of the earth, mixing the real geological layers of the planet with fictional ones. Some of the fictional layers are appropriated from the layers of other objects that have cross-sectional diagrams, such as the layers of a piece of fruit, an eyeball, an item of confectionary or a building.

{| class="wikitable"
! Layer
! scope="col"| Explanation
|-
! scope="row"| Lithosphere/Crust (50/50 Blend)
| The {{w|lithosphere}} is any outermost rocky layer of a planet. On Earth it consists of the {{w|Earth's crust|crust}} and any parts of the upper mantle (see below) that do not convect. To say they are two distinct layers that could be blended together is rather nonsensical.
The upper limit of a planet's lithosphere is usually taken as where it meets the hydrosphere/atmosphere (wherever either may be present, otherwise the vacuum of space) but may or may not include the rock-derived {{w|pedosphere}} (for Earth, especially) or distinct overburden of loose {{w|regolith}}. All of these overlaid layers would typically be far too thin to be reliably distinct in the depiction of this Earth-like planet, and the diagram depicts the surface details only as a 'painted on' blue/greens/browns/etc to distinguish ocean areas and land heights with vertical depths/elevations that are already effectively insignificant at the scale of this diagram, before even considering the such relatively narrow layers of interface material.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Upper mantle}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Deep mantle
| A pseudo-correct layer of the earth's structure. There is a layer called the {{w|lower mantle}}, which could be what Randall refers to.
|-
! scope="row"| Filler
| This suggests there is space in the earth that was empty, so the creator(s) added some filler to fill up the extra space.
|-
! scope="row"| Vitreous humor
|Vitreous humor ({{w|vitreous body}}) is the transparent gel inside the eye, located between the lens and the retina.
|-
! scope="row"| Mechanical/HVAC layer
| {{w|HVAC}} is an abbreviation for 'Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning' - the system used to heat or cool a building. Tall buildings may have a dedicated "HVAC floor" or "{{w|mechanical floor}}" between regular floors, like an extra layer.
|-
! scope="row"| Guacamole
| {{w|Guacamole}} is a dip or sauce made from avocados. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/guacamole Originating from ancient Mexico], it often includes onions, tomatoes and spices. Notably, guacamole is a major component of seven layer dip, and is shown here to be the seventh layer (from the surface).
|-
! scope="row"| Cytoplasm
|{{w|Cytoplasm}} is the "flesh" of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells; a jelly-like substance that fills all the otherwise empty space within the cell.
|-
! scope="row"| Cork
|Due to the proximity of the cork layer and the insulation layer, this may possibly be referencing {{w|Cork (material)|cork}}-lined walls, which are used today mostly for high quality soundproofing, but have [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27135713 a considerable history]. Another potential reference could be the fact that baseballs (another spherical shape) have a layer of cork in them (though it is usually in the center). Finally, the cork is a real layer of tissue in many woody plants, part of the bark. This comic was posted the day after Birkenstock Holding plc was listed on the New York Stock Exchange; Birkenstock sandals include a layer of cork.
|-
! scope="row"| Insulation
|Probably a reference to the {{w|building insulation}} installed in the walls and ceilings of buildings. Technical fabrics used to make clothing also often include an insulation layer, combined with, for example, a waterproof/water-resistant membrane and an inner contact later.
|-
! scope="row"| Seeds
|Part of a fruit.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Pith}}
|Part of a tree trunk or the thick spongy layer of the skin of a citrus fruit. Notably, this layer is below Seeds, which implies the seeds are outside of the pith. Although rare, some fruits do, in fact, have their seeds on the outside of their skin, such as {{w|Cashews}}. However, this is not present in any well-known citrus plants, or, if there are citrus plants like this, they are not discovered yet, let alone well-documented.
|-
! scope="row"| Nougat
|{{w|Nougat}} is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, whipped egg whites and, sometimes, chopped candied fruit. It often appears as layers within confectionary items (such as Snickers, Double Decker and Mars) and, notably in relation to the comic, it constitutes the second-innermost layer of {{w|Mozartkugel}}n, a spherical confection.
Geography teachers sometimes hand confectionery like this to their students to give them an idea what "concentrically layered structure" means. Most of the time it turns out that this is their least concern, while at the same time a general consensus emerges that this is one of the best ideas said teacher has had in a long time. This layer is possibly an allusion to that practice.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Outer core}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Inner core}}
| An actual layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Secret core
| Likely references secret compartments that may be hidden in the hardest to find recesses of other objects or structures, for the purposes of concealing precious items or closely-guarded secrets. Could also be interpreted as a section of the core that only certain people, such as Randall, are aware of. In the context of "inner core, outer core, secret core" may also be a riff on Leonard Cohen's ''Hallelujah'', a la [[2583: Chorded Keyboard]].
|-
! scope="row"| Kinder toy capsule
| A {{w|Kinder (brand)|Kinder}} toy is a reference to a chocolate egg-shaped confection by the Kinder brand, the {{w|Kinder Surprise}}, a chocolate shell with a plastic 'yolk' capsule in the center. Though that is loose within a void, unlike this 'Earth model', it closely matches this philosophy despite (or because of) being a {{w|Kinder_Surprise#United_States|banned food item}} in the United States, due to a 1938 FDA rule prohibiting a "non-nutritive object" (the plastic egg 'yolk' containing the toy) to be encased inside of an edible item (the outer chocolate layer) unless it has a specific function related to the edible part. It is widely believed that this is because the 'yolk' can be a choking hazard, despite the fact that you'd have to be swallowing a chicken egg-sized confectionery in a single mouthful for that to happen accidentally, or deliberately try to consume the plastic capsule whole. The toys within, however, may contain small pieces that can pose a choking hazard, especially in the toys that are packed as components, requiring some assembly, in order to fit into the capsule. Rules about small components (in toys for young children) and the inclusion of non-food contents within food-items have been used to prohibit this product within the US. To specifically overcome the latter regulations, the {{w|Kinder Joy}} was developed; an egg-shaped packaging containing the chocolate treat in one half and the toy separately within the other.

Randall's punchline of the comic is that there may indeed be a hidden toy at the center of the Earth. The title text explains that due to the {{w|Earth's magnetic field|geomagnetic field}} not behaving as scientific models suggest it should, some geophysicists argue that the hidden toy is – or at least contains – some additional form of magnet which impacts the accepted {{w|Magnetohydrodynamics|magnetohydrodynamic}} effect. A more plausible explanation is that their model is wrong because they've based it on Randall's diagram full of spurious layers!
|}

Since the radius of the earth is 6371 km, this gives the Kinder Toy Capsule having a radius of about 900 km (from measurements of the diagram). This gives the Kinder Toy Capsule a volume of just over 3 billion km3. Assuming a real Kinder Egg has a volume of 60 cm3, and a packing density of 63.5%, the Kinder Toy Capsule could contain 5x1022 (50 sextillion) actual Kinder Eggs. Current mathematical models of the magnetohydrodynamics of the Earth's core do not include the potentially significant contribution of 50 sextillion Kinder Toy Capsules,{{citation needed}} a glaring oversight in a well developed field.

==Transcript==
:[Header/Title]
:The layers of the Earth

:[Cutaway diagram of the Earth, a sphere with abstract sea/land/elevation surface, except for a slice removed (quarter-arc in three axes) to make visible a number of roughly equally-sized 'strata'/shells, all the way down to the intact smallest sphere. From surface downwards, these are:]
:Lithosphere/crust (50/50 blend)
:Upper mantle
:Deep mantle
:Filler
:Vitreous humor
:Mechanical/HVAC layer
:Guacamole
:Cytoplasm
:Cork
:Insulation
:Seeds
:Pith
:Nougat
:Outer core
:Inner core
:Secret core
:[The central sphere:]
:Kinder toy capsule

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:1588: Hardware Reductionism

2015-10-13T08:43:57Z

141.101.98.188:

Is "TRIATHOLON" just a typo, or does it have a special comic value? {{unsigned ip|141.101.106.77}}
:At this moment of creation it exists in a limbo in which it is both a typo and a joke, but now that it is has been released for viewers to take measures, the function will soon collapse into just one of the possible states. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.197|162.158.34.197]] 13:03, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
::It's clearly a spelling mistake (not a typo). See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Triathalon, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/athelete. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.149|173.245.50.149]] 13:19, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
:I'm going with the theory it's a joke around the philosophical [[wikipedia:Holon (philosophy)|Holon]]. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 17:53, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

I don't think this is just parodying left-brain right-brain myths. Rather, it's parodying neural reductionism of all kinds—the currently widespread myth that our selves are determined genetically by brain structure alone, minimizing the role of culture and the way experience rewires the brain. In particular, the part about "phones like yours" makes me think of "women are from venus"–style myths (where, say, a slight correlation is found between gender and size of spacial processing module, etc, and pop-sci media reports it as WOMEN ARE INHERENTLY BAD AT SPATIAL REASONING).
[[User:Leoboiko|Leoboiko]] ([[User talk:Leoboiko|talk]]) 13:25, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
:Seems plausible. Care to add? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.104|108.162.216.104]] 13:39, 9 October 2015 (UTC

This is a real good, thorough and solid explanation. I'm impressed, well done! [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 01:35, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Or it could be a riff on the current "Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow" model, which considers the brain as having two distinct (Type 1 and Type 2) types of thinking, often described as two separate actors in the brain, in spite of the fact that they probably overlap a lot in the sections of the brain used.
[[User:Blackbearnh|Blackbearnh]] ([[User talk:Blackbearnh|talk]]) 14:16, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

How about the typo of "coment" in the comment about the typo in the comic... {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.91}}
:"Coment" may be a typo (error when typing) or a misspelling (when you don't know the correct spelling). "Triatholon" can only be a misspelling, because the comic is not typed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.149|173.245.50.149]] 18:12, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
:: “ "Triatholon" can only be a misspelling, because the comic is not typed.”
:: You can make a mistake when handwriting. It's not a typo, but neither is it a misspelling.
:: [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.78|173.245.49.78]] 21:55, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

Might the two cores' difficulty handling three events be meant as a parallel to the functional brain study result showing humans multitask only two things, with one frontal lobe handling each task (and the introduction of a third task results in timesharing rather than parallel processing of all three)?
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.139|173.245.50.139]] 22:15, 9 October 2015 (UTC)
:It could, but the three events in a triathlon don't involve multitasking - the events run in serial, not in parallel. I'm thinking about noting this in the text somewhere, but haven't though what to say about it yet - it seems peripheral. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 00:25, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
::In that case, you should put it in an extremely offset side-bar. Like, you know, in everyone's peripheral vision.... (...I'll get my coat.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 08:43, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually believed the phone explanation. It sounds more plausible that several marketing claims. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 18:29, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1584: Moments of Inspiration

2015-09-30T15:15:24Z

141.101.98.188:

Needs to explain who Lise Meitner is - I'd never heard of her, she's not on a level with the others in public consciousness. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.43}}
: Using Marie Skłodowska Curie (instead of Lise Meitner) would be more understandable - both of them made groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity research and Ms Curie is definitely more famous than Ms Meitner. But the author probably did not want to join everyone else in using Ms Curie as "the only one token lady scientist" - as discussed in [[896: Marie Curie]], where Lise Meitner (as well as Emmy Noether) is mentioned.--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.77|141.101.106.77]] 07:52, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Never let it be said that XKCD doesn't educate! (I think it's a good thing to have used Lise as the example. If everyone knows just about Marie Curie but few people know Lise Meitner, having read the comic they now know ''two'' influential women in physics, twice as many as before! Compare and contrast others such as Florence Nightingale and Rosalind Franklin. Ada Lovelace and Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley.) Also, can anyone think of an observation that Marie could have made that wasn't what she did anyway, i.e. the ability of an electrometer to measure radiation, or that pitchblende is more radioactive than uranium.
::: Reading the {{w|Steve_Shirley|wiki article about Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley}}, I suspect that being woman in man-dominated field was her only notable accomplishment. Not comparable with {{w|Ada Lovelace|Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace}}, who was at worst second programmer ever and discovered first computer bug. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:45, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
:::: But I assume you'd probably not heard of her, before just now, so it works as the example I was trying to give as a comparison to the fame of Lord Byron's daughter. I was actually tempted to use {{w|Joan Clarke}}, but doubtless everyone here has seen {{w|The Imitation Game}} if they didn't know about her already. And then there's {{w|Grace Hopper}}, if you want to talk about the ''term'' "computer bug". (Meanwhile {{w|Sophie Wilson}} is probably also probably just too niche, and British, to be worth a mention if you didn't think Steve was good enough.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 15:15, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Anyway, who do you think {{w|Meitnerium|element 109}} was named after? ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 10:05, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Does anyone know who "John and Mildred" might be?
--[[User:Lou Crazy|Lou Crazy]] ([[User talk:Lou Crazy|talk]]) 09:13, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
:May Mildred be [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Lager Mildred Lager]? An "american pioneer of natural foods and health food", but there's no mention of "John" in this article. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.217|162.158.114.217]] 11:19, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
::I doubt it since Mildred Larger was born after Darwin's death. I was wondering too who they might be, but I'm coming up empty. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 12:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
I'd like to point out that Newton really was inspired by watching apple fall, that isn't a myth. The myth is that he was actually hit by the apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton#Apple_incident [[User:KingSupernova|KingSupernova]] ([[User talk:KingSupernova|talk]]) 12:17, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

according to the german wikipedia, today's the tenth birthday of xkcd. i wonder if there's a connection between that and this strip's title... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.157|162.158.114.157]] 14:43, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1583: NASA Press Conference

2015-09-30T14:52:22Z

141.101.98.188: Tyops

I think the alt image text refers to the Elon Musk's idea of Mars colonization with nuclear bombs
[[User:This that|This that]] ([[User talk:This that|talk]]) 10:00, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:Yep! I suppose that too.--[[User:Complynx|Complynx]] ([[User talk:Complynx|talk]]) 10:33, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:Um, Musk didn't suggest colonizing with nuclear bombs. (Lots of Little Boy bombs on Mars running around with their moms and dads?) He said nuking the poles would be a fast way to get Mars warmer and more Earth-like so it could be colonized with people. - Equinox [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.178|108.162.238.178]] 14:10, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::And we realize he was throwing it out there as a terrible hypothetically quick way of making Mars habitable. He is not olanning on doing that in any way. He is lookibg at making it habitable, but he does say it will take quite a long time to make it happen. Many, many years with biodomes. I know this doesn't change what is saidnin the comic, but let's all realize he's not planning on actually doing it. {{unsigned|Sean timmons}}
:::And let us ALSO keep in mind that even if Elon Musk wanted to and was planning on going through with it, he would not be able to acquire nuclear weapons. Say what you want about the government's excessive reliance on federal contractors, but we still keep NORAD in-house. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 21:20, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this could be linked somewhere: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:27, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

the star wars thing should be explained. i realise that the possibility of anyone who doesn't already know caring at all is pretty small, but this ''is'' explain xkcd after all. (https://youtu.be/g6PDcBhODqo?t=93 scene?)--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.34|141.101.98.34]] 11:52, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
: Yeah, but what were they really trying to accomplish? I've never questioned this before. I feel so alone and incomplete.... [[User:Puck0687|Puck0687]] ([[User talk:Puck0687|talk]]) 15:37, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
: I have the feeling it was just someone trying to cause trouble. They saw Luke and Obi Wan, knew that they weren't regulars there and decided to pick a fight with a n00b. Kind of like YouTube comments. Obi Wan slicing off Ponda Baba's arm was the equivalent of a presumed n00b on the YouTube comments making a "your mom" burn. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.134|173.245.55.134]] 15:49, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Is there something in the books that explains that? [[User:NotLock|NotLock]] ([[User talk:NotLock|talk]]) 16:18, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Yeah, Obi Wan showing off that he was a Jedi knight (when he just showed in the last scene that he also has mind control powers) was a dick move, and the opposite of keeping a low profile in a city under Stormtrooper control. But he had to do it, or else the audience wouldn't have known that a lightsaber was a deadly weapon until the duel with Darth Vader. So, yeah, it's a good question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.189|108.162.237.189]] 18:36, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::: Could Ben do a "This isn't the fight you're trying to pick" on both the two 'gentlemen'? ''And'' possibly anybody else currently interested in whether these two were easy pickings or not? The stormtroopers are perhaps easy to sway (indoctrinated to follow orders, so if you can tweak ''just'' the right bit... perhaps even make 'em think it was their commanding officer that told them it wasn't those droids, over their comsets) but this is a pair of bruisers, probably the resident 'noob testers', ''maybe'' even given this task by someone even more fearsome who likes to keep his hands clean.
::: It's not a low-profile approach, whipping out the blade, but it's not a stormtrooper-friendly bar and it conversely probably kept things quiet enough for long enough to start the process of getting off-world, compared to a brawl that spills out into the street. Instead, it was quick and surgical and could have been mistaken for some other act of seemingly random violence with an energy weapon, a bit like when Han shot Greedo (first!), over in the side-booth.
::: Word would spread, but details would be lost in the retelling (perhaps a general mind-force attempt by Ben to cloud the issue in the minds of all the witnesses; easy to do when everyone's already readily in a "I was never there, I never saw anything" mindset to start with, when they were doubtless prepared to turn a blind eye to a barside-assault upon Luke) and, besides which, there ''are'' no Jedi left. Something else must have happened, and they were deliberately not paying attention, right?
::: Or it could be a cock-up in the script, but as it's not the Prequel Trilogy, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 14:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

I think the "is it ruined" line of questions in the third panel is treating Mars as a smartphone, considering Mars to be damaged because it "got wet" and asking if Mars will be okay after it "dries out". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.42|108.162.216.42]] 18:14, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::actually, I think it refers to a mars bar. If that gets (too) wet, it's not really edible anymore... {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.105.180}}

Could we maybe include a few examples of ill-informed questions from previous press conferences? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.129}}
:: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2771075/First-Russian-woman-International-Space-Station-gets-angry-pre-flight-press-conference-asked-hair-make-up.html Here] is an example. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 14:04, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

So apparently no one thought moss and cockroaches was a good idea? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.225|162.158.38.225]] 14:21, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1583: NASA Press Conference

2015-09-30T14:47:50Z

141.101.98.188:

I think the alt image text refers to the Elon Musk's idea of Mars colonization with nuclear bombs
[[User:This that|This that]] ([[User talk:This that|talk]]) 10:00, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:Yep! I suppose that too.--[[User:Complynx|Complynx]] ([[User talk:Complynx|talk]]) 10:33, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:Um, Musk didn't suggest colonizing with nuclear bombs. (Lots of Little Boy bombs on Mars running around with their moms and dads?) He said nuking the poles would be a fast way to get Mars warmer and more Earth-like so it could be colonized with people. - Equinox [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.178|108.162.238.178]] 14:10, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::And we realize he was throwing it out there as a terrible hypothetically quick way of making Mars habitable. He is not olanning on doing that in any way. He is lookibg at making it habitable, but he does say it will take quite a long time to make it happen. Many, many years with biodomes. I know this doesn't change what is saidnin the comic, but let's all realize he's not planning on actually doing it. {{unsigned|Sean timmons}}
:::And let us ALSO keep in mind that even if Elon Musk wanted to and was planning on going through with it, he would not be able to acquire nuclear weapons. Say what you want about the government's excessive reliance on federal contractors, but we still keep NORAD in-house. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 21:20, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this could be linked somewhere: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:27, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

the star wars thing should be explained. i realise that the possibility of anyone who doesn't already know caring at all is pretty small, but this ''is'' explain xkcd after all. (https://youtu.be/g6PDcBhODqo?t=93 scene?)--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.34|141.101.98.34]] 11:52, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
: Yeah, but what were they really trying to accomplish? I've never questioned this before. I feel so alone and incomplete.... [[User:Puck0687|Puck0687]] ([[User talk:Puck0687|talk]]) 15:37, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
: I have the feeling it was just someone trying to cause trouble. They saw Luke and Obi Wan, knew that they weren't regulars there and decided to pick a fight with a n00b. Kind of like YouTube comments. Obi Wan slicing off Ponda Baba's arm was the equivalent of a presumed n00b on the YouTube comments making a "your mom" burn. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.134|173.245.55.134]] 15:49, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Is there something in the books that explains that? [[User:NotLock|NotLock]] ([[User talk:NotLock|talk]]) 16:18, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Yeah, Obi Wan showing off that he was a Jedi knight (when he just showed in the last scene that he also has mind control powers) was a dick move, and the opposite of keeping a low profile in a city under Stormtrooper control. But he had to do it, or else the audience wouldn't have known that a lightsaber was a deadly weapon until the duel with Darth Vader. So, yeah, it's a good question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.189|108.162.237.189]] 18:36, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::: Could Ben do a "This isn't the fight you're trying to pick" on both the two 'gentlemen'? ''And'' possibly anybody else currently interested in whether these two were easy pickings or not? The stormtroopers are perhaps easy to sway (indoctrinated to follow orders, so if you can tweak ''just'' the right bit, perhaps even make 'em think it was their commanding officer that told them it wasn't those droids, over their comsets ...) but this is a pair of bruisers, probably the resident 'noob testers', ''maybe'' even given this task by someone even more fearsome who likes to keep his hands clean.
::: It's not a low-profile approach, whipping out the blade, but it's not a stormtrooper-friendly bar and it conversely probably kept things quiet enough for long enough to start the process of getting off-world, compared to a brawl that spills out into the street. Instead, it was quick and surgical and could have been mistaken for some other act of seemingly random violence with an energy weapon, a bit like when Han shot Greebo (first!), over in the side-booth.
::: Word would spread, but details would be lost in the retelling (perhaps a general mind-force attempt by Ben to cloud the issue in the minds of all the witnesses; easy to do when everyone's already readily in a "I was never there, I never saw anything" mindset to start with, when they were doubtless prepared to turn a blind eye to a barside-assault upon Luke) and, besides which, there ''are'' no Jedi left. Something else must have happened, and they were deliberately not paying attention, right?
::: Or it could be a cock-up in the script, but as it's not the prequel trilogy, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 14:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

I think the "is it ruined" line of questions in the third panel is treating Mars as a smartphone, considering Mars to be damaged because it "got wet" and asking if Mars will be okay after it "dries out". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.42|108.162.216.42]] 18:14, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
::actually, I think it refers to a mars bar. If that gets (too) wet, it's not really edible anymore... {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.105.180}}

Could we maybe include a few examples of ill-informed questions from previous press conferences? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.129}}
:: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2771075/First-Russian-woman-International-Space-Station-gets-angry-pre-flight-press-conference-asked-hair-make-up.html Here] is an example. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 14:04, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

So apparently no one thought moss and cockroaches was a good idea? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.225|162.158.38.225]] 14:21, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1584: Moments of Inspiration

2015-09-30T10:05:32Z

141.101.98.188:

Talk:1572: xkcd Survey

2015-09-03T07:51:59Z

141.101.98.188: /* I think we shouldn't force the reader to go to Wikipedia */

Mildly interesting to note that the ordering of most of the checkbox/radiobutton lists randomise each time the survery is loaded. Also, there is at least one other comic where Randall comments about not having figured out HTML imagemaps. Anyone remember which? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:52, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:It was in one of his "under the logo" news bars, about him starting What If, iirc --[[User:Aescula|Aescula]] ([[User talk:Aescula|talk]]) 11:28, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
I wonder how many people, on reading 'Type "cat" here:', typed '"cat" here:'? I know I did... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 11:58, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Guilty...--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:08, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: Me too... However you could have typed '"cat" here:', as well... (/edit: I wonder how many different entries the survey's result will reveal) (/edit2: I did not read properly... sorry. I typed '"cat"' not '"cat" here:' -.-)[[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:27, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: I typed meow -[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.86|141.101.105.86]] 12:41, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
Not sure if it was just me, but the comic wasn't a link at all! The cursor changed into a No cursor for me everytime I mouseover'd the comic. I went to survey using the "Bonus Link!" below the comic page. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:01, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Never mind, this was probably due to the WebComics reader extension that I have in my browser. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:03, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
From hearing people on reddit comment about not being able to completely fill the text box (not just the visual box) with the error "Answer too long", it's caused by a 10k character limit. Presumably by Google Docs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.192|108.162.249.192]] 13:18, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

Can we get a note on the title text? Something about the [[1493]]-like vacuousness of "Big Data for a Big Planet". Also, I added a defn for "revergent"; future researchers, anyone who knows that one is probably a fern biologist. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 20:51, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
==Validation==
The validation choices are interesting.
* "Enter a number between 1 and 100" rejects numbers outside this range (e.g. -1) but also reject valid responses (e.g. π).
* "Enter your age" and "Enter the number of $SIBLING" accept invalid responses such as -1. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 13:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:I (with ''fairly'' honest intention) tried to give non-numeric answers to the two Think Of A Number questions and my the age one (honestly, I had to actually think about that one, for a moment) and found them restricted to numbers only. So obviously Randall's not ''so'' subversive as to allow free text. (BTW, I've ''only'' driven 'stick shift', though an old friend of mine has just gotten an automatic, I think for the first time, which said was rather posh of him.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 15:55, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
I used an HTML inspector tool to create a unique response to one of the radio button questions. The form claimed to submit successfully; it should be obvious in the results if it worked. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

==Identification==
"it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses"
Then why send those informations to Google ? I find the idea of thee survey interesting but why Google doc ? There are other options like Lime Survey. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 13:37, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: Given the stated intention to make the collected dataset available publicly, there's no information-security reason to prefer another survey tool over Google. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 14:21, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Technically Google could de-anonymize the data if you're logged in or otherwise identifiable when submitting the survey. When Randall publishes the data set it can be completely anonymized. Not that I care if Google knows I claim to consider myself half-cat, half-person. [[User:Jestempies|Jestempies]] ([[User talk:Jestempies|talk]]) 21:15, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

==Not a transcript==
This is mildly interesting, but it is not a transcript. Transcripts are meant mainly for blind people and search engines. Different letter sizes and a frame are not needed. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 12:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:{| style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid;"
|| Introducing '''THE XKCD SURVEY''' A search for weird correlations Note: This survey is anonymous, but all responses will be posted publicly so people can play with the data. '''Click here to''' '''take the survey''' Or click here, or here. The whole comic is a link, because I still haven't gotten the hang of HTML imagemaps. 
|}
::The transcript is not only for blind people. And an enhanced layout doesn't harm them but instead it would help them. A speech synthesizer would tell them something like "headline" or "small text at bottom" so that the impaired people would get a much better feeling of the comic. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:12, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I wonder how many people included "battery, horse, staple, correct" in the five random words box.
:I typed ');drop table survey; -- at the end of the random characters text box. I must have been the first person to think of that because the survey was still working. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 13:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I wish it was funny. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.148|108.162.241.148]] 16:20, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

== Tables Vs Bulleted List ==

The list of questions and possible responses has been added to the explanation by myself and xhfz, in different formats. I went for a wikitable, xhfz used a bulleted list. Rather than just overwrite each other, I think we need to have a discussion on which is the best choice. The reasons I believe a wikitable is the best option:
:*Far better expandability, in anticipation of survey results
:*More structured and neater presentation
In general I tend to lean towards tables, but it is probably a constructive discussion to have for the wiki as a whole. I would be interested to hear opinions of bulleted list vs tables in these types of situation.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

If we have a table we need colspan instead of rowspan. On the other hand a table is very difficult to maintain. In addition, the table didn't have space for explanations (another column, maybe). [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:If you used colspan, questions like "How many of these 20 words do you know" would be excessively wide. Perhaps a combination of colspan and rowspan, or simply a single cell with the responses listed as comma seperated list. As far as adding a column for explanations, its pretty trivial. What I'm getting at is that perhaps the format of a table would need to be optimised, but that is entirely feasible.
:I agree with you as far as tables being more intimidating to edit and maintain, but once set up they aren't that bad.
:Bulleted lists (to me at least) look messy, and tend to lack a coherent structure. As more information is added, sub-levels and sub-sub-levels are added without much thought as to the overall intent. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

By colspan I mean this:
{| class="wikitable"
!Question
!Possible Answers
|-
|colspan="2"|When you think about stuff on the internet, where do you picture it being physically located? Even if you know it's not really how things work, is there a place you imagine websites and social media posts sitting before you look at them? If so, where is it?
|-
|
|''Multi-line text box''
|-
|colspan="2"|Which of these words do you know the meaning of?
|-
|
|Slickle
|-
|
|Rife
|-
|
|Soliloquy
|-
|
|Fination
|-
|
|Stipple
|-
|
|Peristeronic
|-
|
|Modicum
|-
|
|Trephony
|-
|
|Tribution
|-
|colspan="2"|Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too?
|-
|
|Yes
|-
|
|No
|-
|
|I did the throwing out thing, but didn't talk to everyone about it
|-
|
|No, but I'm totally doing that now
|}
[[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 14:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

: Yeah, if someone just did that, that would be great. [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 18:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

==Missing questions==
Something notably missing which would have greatly helped later analysis was a question about where someone is - Country and/or State. Some of the questions and answers will be differently understood because of that (eg meaning if 'sandwich') --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 14:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:I think that is the whole point though, to provide a data set that actively attempts to ''prevent'' the obvious simple analysis. There are plenty of statistics on how people from place A are more likely to do thing B. What I want to know is "How many people who would class a taco as a sandwich and can drive stick shift are able to juggle?". Also, is it true that most people think they are above average drivers? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:09, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

== Subsections were added for ease of editing ==

You can delete the subsections later. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:30, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Ok, I agree on that. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

== I think we shouldn't force the reader to go to Wikipedia ==

I added explanations in "Activities" and twice they were deleted. Why? [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572:_xkcd_Survey&diff=prev&oldid=100879] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572%3A_xkcd_Survey&diff=100921&oldid=100920] [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:39, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:Personally, I think those activities are so easily understood, that adding an "explanation" is not necessary. I think wiki links are sufficient, so that if somehow people don't know what the activities are, they can go look. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:45, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

::I know 20,000 words in [http://testyourvocab.com testyourvocab.com]. I also know soliloquy, modicum, amiable and salient. I had never heard of dunk, sheet bend, bowline, or stick shift, but I know the meaning of manual transmission without going to Wikipedia. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:47, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:::For the record, it wasn't me who deleted the explanations. The fact that Randall included those words in his survey without any explanation shows that they are fairly common words. In the context of the question, the meaning becomes clearer (Tie a sheet bend or bowline = its very likely those are knots), and if people still don't know, they can click on the wiki link. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:::From a different perspective, I ''understand'' a number of the words and terms, even though they aren't the ones I'd use, locally. i.e. gas/petrol, stick-shift/gears, cell phone/mobile phone, soda/pop (and where would cordial, to be diluted with water, sit in that list of drinks..? either way, I chose "fruit juice" so maybe that covers it). Also I think I would call an "open-faced sandwich" a {{w|Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord|'Smorgasbord'}}, but that seems to be a childhood misunderstanding of what the scandinavian term actually represents (the whole buffet, not any individual item bread-and-topping construct that you end up with on your platter). "Condiments" obviously means something differently, too. For me that's the likes of salt, pepper and vinegar - along with other chopped herbs at a push - but from context it sounds like it includes dips such as mayonnaise, and/or sauces like ketchup/brown/tartar. A different world, truly! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 17:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
::::It's a poorly worded question to which people in some countries would answer the opposite of that intended because of the way the question is worded. Very few cars run on gas (a friend's van runs on LPG), but many use petrol or diesel. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 05:55, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
:::::Fellow Brits? No, IP of the latter appears to be Arizona (or at least the ISP, in Phoenix). Strange. Anyway, thanks to copious imports of 'Merkin TV and film, it'd be obvious to most(/all?) people I know that gas(olene) would be the common word in the US for the fuel that I'd call petrol(eum). Or so I was under the impression of, until now. Of course there is ''actual'' gas (modern LPG or [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155585362099248762/ wartime contingencies]) but so far liquid hydrocarbons seem to still be king, inclusive of DERV. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 07:51, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

== Can we access the results now? ==

Are the contents available at a known URL? I use Google Docs but have never done a survey before...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.24|141.101.105.24]] 06:03, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1558: Vet

2015-08-04T15:26:17Z

141.101.98.188: Undo revision 99068 by 199.27.130.186 (talk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4Rl4VrMp8 [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 11:20, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

"There is something wrong with my dog" and "The Migratory Bird Treaty act" is really messed up. Roomba might be produced in US, but a dog is not a bird so Megan must be really confused. Except for just a few species, birds can fly and the last Roomba that flown got help from its owner into a wall for being a walking hazard. Or could Megan mean that among the dirt is feathers (from pillows maybe) that got stuck in the wheels and therefor ascends directly from birds and dinosaurs. [[User:Aquaplanet|Aquaplanet]] ([[User talk:Aquaplanet|talk]]) 13:06, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:That whoosh sound was the joke going way over your head. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.141|173.245.54.141]] 14:39, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:{{w|Bird_Dog_(song)|Bird dog}}..? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 06:32, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

It looks to me like this is a vet at a big-box pet supply store; that would explain the lack of a separate waiting room. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:02, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

:I was going to say that maybe it's just a returns counter or complaint department. Are there actually vets at Petsmart-or-others that operate like this? Vet being a desk that you just queue up for? [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 19:36, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

The pet of the second customer fits into the carrier, because it apparently is HALF-dog (head and a pair of legs). {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.99}}

"...Perhaps he has another small dog in there..." Actually, he may have arrived by bus or car, with the dog inside the carrier during the ride (for safety and convenience) but walking into the clinic with the dog on a leash because, hey! carrying even a smallish dog inside its carrier is a lot more work than getting the dog to carry himself, while carrying the much lighter carrier in the other hand. [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 01:38, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Reading the explanation about dog being too big, I got another idea: the second person is going to complain about the dog not fitting in the carrier (because it grown, likely) and would want the vet to do something with the dog to fix it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:43, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

;Add discussion of what would really happen when she released it into the wild

Would it be able to move on the ground outdoors?

Start trying to vacuum up the dirt under it and just dig itself into a hole?

Get stuck due to inability to move on a surface that isn't horizontal?

Eventually, it's going to "die" because the batteries run out, but what happens until then.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.56.215|162.158.56.215]] 13:29, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Well, if it finds a mate to reproduce with, and quickly enough to raise the young Roombairns to maturity before it does expire... Evolution! Maybe the race of Roombae will develop to inhabit an unused ecological niche, and proliferate! Or, because there rarely ''are'' unused ecological niches, become an aggressive 'invader', causing the decline or even extinction of the existing wildlife in that footprint.
:As the Roombakind's main ability is moving dirt, I predict that it will be the two major large-scale creatures who move dirt who may be effected. The beaver, and humanity.
:Good luck, Homo North Americanus! Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water. But maybe by the time they develop the means to do so (perhaps by cooperatively forming "Roombacraft", coming together in a group and selectively reversing their airflow to create a cushion of air to first cross the Panama Canal and the gaps between the ice sheets over the top of the Arctic, whilst some tilt to provide thrust, and perhaps even ultiamtely the oceans themselves....), humanity in Europe, Asia, Australasia and elsewhere will have found a developing natural predator of this potential planetary scourge.
:And then we can but only hope that this natural predator, whatever it might be, does not itself evolve to become an even worse threat to humanity's existence!
:...You will of course find my logic to be faultless, throughout this entire speculation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:36, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:: "Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water."
:: May not be a problem much longer ...
:: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/24/travel/trans-siberian-road/
:: --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 10:53, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

;Order of explanation
Actually, what I was going to write was that I think the explanation needs some shuffling. Currently it's "What a Rhoomba is; Other comics mentioning Rhoombas; The details of the comic (in the light of the knowledge of Rhoombas); The details of the title-text." To be consistent to the general form, it seems like it needs to be "The details of the comic (albeit without over-assumption of pre-knowledge concerning Roombas); What a Rhoomba is; (And add why it wouldn't survive 'in the wild', if you wish.); Explain the title-text; Conclude with the links to the other comics." Or similar. But that'd need a hefty re-write for forward/backward references. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:46, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Releasing appliances into the wild:'''
The idea of releasing a Roomba into the wild reminds me of a (barely remembered) story I read back when I was 8 or 9 (1977 or 78) about some (intelligent) household appliances that had been forgotten or abandoned and they travelled to find their owner or something like that. There was a self-propelled vacuum cleaner (which was how they all travelled, the toaster and others rode on the top of the vacuum). I think a car battery was wired up for power. Anyone here have ANY idea what I'm talking about? I'm curious to know the story, now that I've remembered some of it. The only other detail that comes to mind was that the vacuum would run over its own cord when it was anxious or depressed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.134|173.245.56.134]] 00:11, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Migratory Bird Act'''

The Migratory Bird Act reference may have been inspired by http://www.loweringthebar.net/2015/04/chillin-with-a-owl-followup.html where, among other things, it is pointed out that not all listed birds are migratory. Randall may be taking this point to the extreme. What If question 96 came from the author of Lowering the Bar, so the degree of separation between the two is definitely one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.31|108.162.225.31]] 08:18, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

'''Releasing appliances into the wild:'''

The Brave Little Toaster

(The above by an unsigned poster, who wiped the entire Comments at the same time.)
(Note to the unsigned poster @199.27.130.186: Don't treat it as an "delete everything you're not replying to" forum reply. If your error wasn't accidentally selecting all before typing your reply.) (Actually, it's nice to see someone who ''does'' clean up their replies, but ''this is not the place to do that''.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 15:26, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1558: Vet

2015-08-04T15:22:42Z

141.101.98.188: Undo revision 99069 by 199.27.130.186 (talk)

'''Releasing appliances into the wild:'''

The Brave Little Toaster

Talk:1559: Driving

2015-08-04T00:33:02Z

141.101.98.188:

They're probably in California, seeing as that's the only place self-driving cars are actually on the road. [[User:Wmss|Wmss]] ([[User talk:Wmss|talk]]) 09:46, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

If there are self-driving cars, what about self-filling cars? So these cars are able to make long distances without the driver's interaction. Maybe he is sleeping. [[User:GeorgDerReisende|GeorgDerReisende]] ([[User talk:GeorgDerReisende|talk]]) 10:47, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Should've used hitchBOT instead of a rock. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.82|108.162.216.82]] 12:46, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Could this have been a semi-tribute? Showing how some malicious people will abuse technology that is programmed to be too trusting? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.138|108.162.216.138]] 20:56, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

I disagree with the part of the explanation that claims that the comic must take place in the continental US. The title text doesn't specify "exactly two" border crossings; it merely implies that there is more than one. That could be anywhere in mainland (or attached-to-the-mainland-by-bridge) North America, north of the Darien Gap, except for most of Canada (from most of the population centers of Ontario, Google Maps wants to route through Michigan, for a total of three border crossings). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.149|108.162.221.149]] 14:18, 3 August 2015 (UTC)
:Correct. It "implies" more than one, but doesn't require it. Only that there be at least one. So they could be in Canada. Essentially anywhere on the continent (or an island connected by bridge to the mainland (e.g., Florida Keys)) north of the Darien Gap but outside Alaska. - Equinox [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.172|108.162.238.172]] 23:15, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

It is likely that the car's owner can locate it via the Internet, via an app and location logic provided by the car's manufacturer. E.g., OnStar. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.157}}

"At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where these cars could be used privately." That is not true, as there are no restrictions on vehicle use on private property. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.7|108.162.212.7]] 16:35, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

The only US state that both borders Canada and permits self-driving cards is Michigan. Assuming that the logic in self-driving cars prevents them from driving on streets where they are not legal, the conversation would have to take place in that state (but then again, wouldn't the car know that it is not allowed to drive in Alaska?) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.64|162.158.92.64]] 19:38, 3 August 2015 (UTC)
:Maybe it's exactly a matter of what knowledge the car has. It ''could'' be linked up to something proprietry, or possibly a Cortana information-engine, to control a virtual "GPS fence", based on current legal and possibly licence-based limits. I'll bet it can be reprogrammed to ignore/extend such limits, though. (Which is why I'm dubious about the idea of 'hard limiting' flying drones from entering restricted airspace. A little hardware/software/firmware hacking should be simple enough for anyone who needs to get around such limits.)
:I can also imagine the following conversation: "How far does your car's self-driving system let you go on automatic?" "I'll ask her..."(/Alaska...) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 00:33, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1558: Vet

2015-08-01T16:46:36Z

141.101.98.188:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4Rl4VrMp8 [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 11:20, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

"There is something wrong with my dog" and "The Migratory Bird Treaty act" is really messed up. Roomba might be produced in US, but a dog is not a bird so Megan must be really confused. Except for just a few species, birds can fly and the last Roomba that flown got help from its owner into a wall for being a walking hazard. Or could Megan mean that among the dirt is feathers (from pillows maybe) that got stuck in the wheels and therefor ascends directly from birds and dinosaurs. [[User:Aquaplanet|Aquaplanet]] ([[User talk:Aquaplanet|talk]]) 13:06, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:That whoosh sound was the joke going way over your head. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.141|173.245.54.141]] 14:39, 31 July 2015 (UTC)
:{{w|Bird_Dog_(song)|Bird dog}}..? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 06:32, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

It looks to me like this is a vet at a big-box pet supply store; that would explain the lack of a separate waiting room. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:02, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

:I was going to say that maybe it's just a returns counter or complaint department. Are there actually vets at Petsmart-or-others that operate like this? Vet being a desk that you just queue up for? [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 19:36, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

The pet of the second customer fits into the carrier, because it apparently is HALF-dog (head and a pair of legs). {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.99}}

"...Perhaps he has another small dog in there..." Actually, he may have arrived by bus or car, with the dog inside the carrier during the ride (for safety and convenience) but walking into the clinic with the dog on a leash because, hey! carrying even a smallish dog inside its carrier is a lot more work than getting the dog to carry himself, while carrying the much lighter carrier in the other hand. [[User:NoniMausa|NoniMausa]] ([[User talk:NoniMausa|talk]]) 01:38, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Reading the explanation about dog being too big, I got another idea: the second person is going to complain about the dog not fitting in the carrier (because it grown, likely) and would want the vet to do something with the dog to fix it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:43, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

;Add discussion of what would really happen when she released it into the wild

Would it be able to move on the ground outdoors?

Start trying to vacuum up the dirt under it and just dig itself into a hole?

Get stuck due to inability to move on a surface that isn't horizontal?

Eventually, it's going to "die" because the batteries run out, but what happens until then.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.56.215|162.158.56.215]] 13:29, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

:Well, if it finds a mate to reproduce with, and quickly enough to raise the young Roombairns to maturity before it does expire... Evolution! Maybe the race of Roombae will develop to inhabit an unused ecological niche, and proliferate! Or, because there rarely ''are'' unused ecological niches, become an aggressive 'invader', causing the decline or even extinction of the existing wildlife in that footprint.
:As the Roombakind's main ability is moving dirt, I predict that it will be the two major large-scale creatures who move dirt who may be effected. The beaver, and humanity.
:Good luck, Homo North Americanus! Unluckily for you (but luckily for us, across the ocean) the Roombae are currently not well suited for travel over or through water. But maybe by the time they develop the means to do so (perhaps by cooperatively forming "Roombacraft", coming together in a group and selectively reversing their airflow to create a cushion of air to first cross the Panama Canal and the gaps between the ice sheets over the top of the Arctic, whilst some tilt to provide thrust, and perhaps even ultiamtely the oceans themselves....), humanity in Europe, Asia, Australasia and elsewhere will have found a developing natural predator of this potential planetary scourge.
:And then we can but only hope that this natural predator, whatever it might be, does not itself evolve to become an even worse threat to humanity's existence!
:...You will of course find my logic to be faultless, throughout this entire speculation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:36, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

== Order of explanation ==
Actually, what I was going to write was that I think the explanation needs some shuffling. Currently it's "What a Rhoomba is; Other comics mentioning Rhoombas; The details of the comic (in the light of the knowledge of Rhoombas); The details of the title-text." To be consistent to the general form, it seems like it needs to be "The details of the comic (albeit without over-assumption of pre-knowledge concerning Roombas); What a Rhoomba is; (And add why it wouldn't survive 'in the wild', if you wish.); Explain the title-text; Conclude with the links to the other comics." Or similar. But that'd need a hefty re-write for forward/backward references. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 16:46, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1558: Vet

2015-08-01T16:36:39Z

141.101.98.188: /* Add discussion of what would really happen when she released it into the wild */

Talk:1558: Vet

2015-08-01T06:32:09Z

141.101.98.188:

Talk:1557: Ozymandias

2015-08-01T06:14:55Z

141.101.98.188:

Look upon this comment and despair! {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.164}}
: The fact that the true author of this comment may never be known is reason enough to despair.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.66|173.245.55.66]] 14:35, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
: An unrelated but interesting piece of trivia about Ozymandias: "Ozymandias" is the Greek name of the pharaoh Ramesses II, one of the most famous of the Egyptian pharaohs, who built many monuments that still stand today. So the poem, which has a ruler whose monument has crumbled and who is implied to be nearly forgotten, is in fact completely inaccurate! [[User:JoeNotCharles|JoeNotCharles]] ([[User talk:JoeNotCharles|talk]]) 15:23, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
:: Perhaps the Ozymandias King of Kings from the poem is not the same one as Ozymandias the pharaoh? So he's doubly forgotten, because he has a more famous [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/namefellow namefellow]! [[User:Leoboiko|Leoboiko]] ([[User talk:Leoboiko|talk]])

So... [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Planepacked Planepacked]? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.145|173.245.50.145]] 05:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

The page seems to give a description, but not an explanation of the joke. I still don't get it! Why has Ozymandias been singled out for this treatment? Is there some way in which recursion is particularly appropriate or inappropriate in this case, or has it just been selected arbitrarily? Is the whole joke that recursion is inherently funny? Normally when recursion is used in XKCD it's making a larger point, or cleverly riffing on something in particular. This isn't just Describe XKCD, so I'd love to see an explanation of this comic. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.47|141.101.99.47]] 09:35, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:The poem Ozymandias, like the statue of the king,can be thought of as a pinnacle of achievement for its civilizarion- in this case, English civilization. So it is entirely possible that one day, after the fall of this civilization, the poem will fill the same role for it that the statue filled for Ozymandias' (fictional) civilization. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 15:33, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:May it be that Ozymandias is chosen because of Smith’s poem, where at last London has vanished, suggesting that Shelley’s poem is the last remains of British civilization? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.193|162.158.91.193]] 10:04, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:I think Ozymandias was chosen because its opening is particularly famous. Even people who don't know much about poetry are often passingly familiar with it, and there's something funny about playing with well-known classics. And yes, I do believe the joke is that infinite recursion is inherently funny. There's a long tradition of these recursion-jokes among computer scientists and math people (like the "GNU" acronym, or recursive index references), with precedents in xkcd itself. [[User:Leoboiko|Leoboiko]] ([[User talk:Leoboiko|talk]])

In Germany, we have a childrens’ song „Ein Mops kam in die Küche“, which translates as follows (there are slightly different versions, though):

A pug came into the kitchen / and stole an egg from the chef. / Then the chef took his knife / and mashed the pug. // Then many pugs came / to his grave / and set a memorial for him, / where these words were written: // “A pug came into the kitchen …”

Maybe something similar exists in English? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.193|162.158.91.193]] 10:04, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:We have:

: This is the song that doesn't end, / Yes, it goes on and on, my friend, / Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, / And they'll continue singing it / Forever, just because [repeat] :''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 12:34, 29 July 2015 (UTC)''

:There's also:
::I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves,
::I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes...[repeat] {{unsigned ip|197.234.243.249}}

:: In Dutch: "Het was nacht, stikdonkere nacht. Veertig rovers zaten rond een vuur. De roverhoofdman stond op een zei: "Het was nacht, stikdonkere nacht... " "
:: Which translates to something along the lines of: "It was night, a pitchblack night. 40 robbers sat round a fire, their leader stood up and said: "It was night, a pitchblack night..." "
:: Sometimes the fire is replaced by the shadow of a dandelion. "..Forty robbers sat in the shadow of a Dandelion, their Chief stood up and said: "It was a dark night, forty robbers sat in the shadow of a dandelion", etc. -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.67|141.101.104.67]] 13:01, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

::: The version I learned is: It was a dark and stormy night / and the good ship Marigold sailed the stormy seas. / The captain staggered down the steps / and said, "Mate, tell us a story!" / and the mate began, / "It was a dark and story night... --[[User:Mflansburg|Mflansburg]] ([[User talk:Mflansburg|talk]]) 15:44, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:I've heard a very long infinitely recursive song in English, which is a variant of "The Bear Went Over the Mountain". The standard lyrics are:

:: The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see / And all that he could see, and all that he could see / Was the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain, and that's what he could see.

: Well, the infinite variant goes:

:: The bear went over the mountain the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see / And all that he could see, and all that he could see / Was a valley in the mountain, a valley in the mountain, a valley in the mountain, and that's what he could see
:: The bear went over the mountain the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see / And all that he could see, and all that he could see / Was a lake in the valley, a lake in the valley, a lake in the valley, and that's what he could see
:: ... a sailboat on the lake ...
:: ... a man in the sailbot ...
:: ... pants on the man ...
:: ... a pocket in the pants ...
:: ... a nickel in the pocket ...
:: ... a beaver on the nickel ... (Note: I just realized this line only works in Canada, where the five cent coin has a picture of a beaver on it.)
:: ... a hair on the beaver ...
:: ... a flea on the hair ...
:: ... cells in the flea ...
:: ... a prisoner in the cells ...
:: ... pants on the prisoner ...
:: ... a pocket in the pants ...
:: etc.

: I prefer a slightly shorter version which goes from "a pocket in the pants" to "a dime in the pocket", then "a sailboat on the dime" (which again only works in Canada), and back to "a man in the sailboat". [[User:JoeNotCharles|JoeNotCharles]] ([[User talk:JoeNotCharles|talk]]) 15:14, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:: I thought everyone (American) knew the song (needs music notation) "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea?" One version finally ends with "There's a germ on the flea on the hair on the speck on the spot on the wart on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea." But kids make up all sorts of variations. Or they used to. [[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 10:00, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

: There's also [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.30|108.162.215.30]] 20:28, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

:: Yon Yonson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yon_Yonson
:: Mighty mighty - https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070602235838AA6qSzz {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.30}}

::
Note that the recursion doesn't necessary be infinite. The list of travelers who met each other can have fixed length, for example 10. Imagining that the list is infinite is the joke. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:06, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
: I think that might be the point actually, the idea is that with each time someone tells the poem to someone else, it grows by one, for each traveler from an antique land has been told by by a different traveler from an antique land[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.39|108.162.219.39]] 01:08, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

Should we mention {{w|quines}}, which occur when lists like this end after two iterations, as "Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say/'Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say'!" {{unsigned|FourViolas}}

: That's not exactly a quine - a quine is a set of instructions which, when followed, recreates the instructions. If you take MC Quine's quote and write it out, you get just, "Yo, I'm MC Quine and I'm here to say", which doesn't contain the second repetition. To be a quine, you need to find some way that taking just the quoted part will automatically expand to the full statement plus the quote.

: A closer example of a quine: "Q: Pete and Re-Pete were sitting on a bridge. Pete fell off. Who was left? A: Repeat." If you take the answer "repeat" as an instruction, you would repeat the joke, recreating it completely. [[User:JoeNotCharles|JoeNotCharles]] ([[User talk:JoeNotCharles|talk]]) 15:19, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

This reminds me of Theodor Storm's "Schimmelreiter" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rider_on_the_White_Horse "The Rider on the White Horse"]) which descends through three nested levels of narrators before it comes to the real story. --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) 13:56, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

One connection between recursion and Ozymandias is the phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" aka "Who watches the watchmen?" and the character in ''The Watchmen'' named Ozymandias. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.51|108.162.221.51]] 14:42, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Nested Shelleys? Maybe associaing Shelley with shells could be part of the joke? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.115|108.162.216.115]] 16:02, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

I keep trying to see 10, but I keep counting 11 syllables in each line with the exception of the last one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.210|108.162.210.210]] 16:48, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
:You have to read traveler as trav'ler. [[User:Uptonc|Uptonc]] ([[User talk:Uptonc|talk]]) 16:57, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
:: Well, that's just wrong... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.81|108.162.216.81]] 17:14, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
::: Um... No it's not. There are [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/traveler?s=t two ways to pronounce it] (trav-uh-ler and trav-ler), kind of like toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.196|108.162.219.196]] 18:11, 29 July 2015 (UTC)
::::And you can pronounce "dog" as "cat". Language is funny like that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.187|108.162.210.187]] 15:24, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
:::::Ok it's going to bug me otherwise, but, how? I mean, I figure it's probably one of those ghoti-fish things, but still. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 23:07, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
::::::There's certain British accents (and probably elsewhere, but let's start here as an example) where a person saying a word such as "film" can only seem to say it as if it is "fillum". A kind-of-1.5-syllable-at-most word for most people (close to the word "firm", but the tongue used differently), but distinctly two for others (who ''can'' say their "L"s, but 'disengage', rather than let the word flow). (Actually, there's also accents that would make "firm" sound like "firrum", because of their 'harder' "R"s, but that's superfluous to this explanation.) So if you have a problem getting "Traveller" down to the two-syllable "Travler", you may have a similar sort of acquired pronunciation. See also "vehicle" ("vee-hic-al", "vere-cal"), which I know is predominant in certain of the US states. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 06:14, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

I think everyone's looking far too hard for something obscure and clever. :) Ozymandias is in the poem described as the "king of kings", which makes him recursively kingly. Hence, the recursion joke. (I went ahead added that to the explanation, it's my first contribution here so hopefully I didn't bypass any explainxkcd wiki house rules) [[User:Orinthe|Orinthe]] ([[User talk:Orinthe|talk]]) 06:24, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

When my brother and I were very young, and stayed overnight at my grandparents, my grandfather would often tell us the following bedtime story, with great seriousness, and many dramatic pauses:

"We were all seated around the camp fire, when the Captain said, to his faithful servant: 'Antonio, Antonio, tell unto us a story.' And Antonio began: "We were all seated around the camp fire, when the Captain said, to his faithful servant: 'Antonio, Antonio, tell unto us a story.' And Antonio began: "We were all seated around the camp fire, when the Captain said, to his faithful servant: 'Antonio, Antonio, tell unto us a story...

By that time we were often asleep. {{unsigned|Matthew-e-hackman}}

There is a old Chinese story with recursion like this that goes like:
<pre>从前有座山 Once upon a time, there was a mountain.
山上有座庙 Upon that mountain, there was a temple.
庙里有个老和尚和小和尚 In the temple was an old monk and a young monk
老和尚讲了一个故事说 The old monk told a story, saying
从前有座山 Once upon a time, there was a mountain.
山上有座庙 Upon that mountain, there was a temple.
庙里有个老和尚和小和尚 In the temple was an old monk and a young monk
老和尚讲了一个故事说 The old monk told a story, saying
....</pre>

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.59|162.158.255.59]] 07:00, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Not that you need another example of recursion, but this brings back very distinct personal memories. Whilst my father actually used to read books to me, at bedtimes, on occasion (for whatever unfathomable reason, lost on the mists of time) he would sometimes tell me a freestyle story that started "Once upon a time, there was a little boy who said to his daddy 'Daddy, tell me a story!', and his daddy said, alright then. 'Once upon a time, there was a little boy who said to his daddy "Daddy, tell me a story!", and his daddy said, alright then. "Once upon a time, there was a little boy who said to his daddy 'Daddy, tell me a story!', and his daddy said, alright then. ..."'" But by that point (if not earlier, depending on how grumpy I was) I'd usually interupt him, so I suppose I never actually ''did'' find out what where this was might have been going. (And he forever asserted it ''was'' going somewhere.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 06:14, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

325: A-Minus-Minus

2015-06-20T21:52:02Z

141.101.98.188: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 325
| date = October 5, 2007
| title = A-Minus-Minus
| image = a-minus-minus.png
| titletext = You can do this one in every 30 times and still have 97% positive feedback.
}}
==Explanation==

[[Black Hat]] is trying to make the world a weirder place by shipping bobcats to his {{w|eBay}} buyers for reasons unknown. Ordinarily, negative feedback is used to warn future buyers about sellers that ship broken products or post misleading listings. In this case, the unfortunate buyer is leaving feedback warning future buyers that Black Hat ships bobcats instead of the actual products, though "would not buy again" seems to be a rather feeble response to the replacement. This appears to have been a continuing project, as [[Cueball]] receives random packages a year and a half later ([[576: Packages]]). Four years later, it is shown that you can blackmail Black Hat into not sending you a bobcat ([[837: Coupon Code]]). This comic is also referenced in [http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PBRQNTVGO7NH/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0544272994&nodeID=283155&store=books a popular Amazon review] for Randall Munroe's book, What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

Like the weak "would not buy again" comment is a play on the stock "would buy again" comment often found in positive eBay feedback, the title "A-Minus-Minus" is a play on the frequent comment "A++". That in turn, sometimes with varying numbers of pluses, seems to be an easy way people use to pad the end of an eBay comment field to the maximum 80 characters. It's also a reference to jokes in which exceptionally good schoolwork is graded with extra pluses after an A+ (and exceptionally bad work is graded with large numbers of minuses after an F). And finally, it's also a subtle reference to the {{w|Futurama}} episode {{w|A Big Piece of Garbage}}; at one point in that episode, one character, as an act of petty revenge, gives another "the worst grade imaginable": an A-minus-MINUS.

The title text is about a flaw in eBay's feedback system: You can intentionally do nasty things to your buyers and get ''very'' bad reviews, but still have overall high feedback scores as long as you don't do it too often. (See also [[937: TornadoGuard]], which shows a different flaw in the concept of averaging reviews—namely that five-star reviews for aesthetic qualities are weighted equally to one-star reviews for major functional deficits—and [[1098: Star Ratings]], which addresses the topic as well.) These reviews would be disregarded by future customers as well for their weirdness.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is packing a bobcat into a box; Megan stands beside him.]

:Megan: What are you doing?
:Black Hat: Making the world a weirder place.

:Bobcat: ''mrrowlll''
:[Black Hat has finished taping the package for shipping.]
:Black Hat: Starting with my eBay feedback page.

:[Bandaged person at a computer with assorted debris around the floor.]
:Screen: comments:
:Bandaged person typing: Instead of office chair package contained bobcat.
:Bandaged person typing: Would not buy again.

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

Talk:1508: Operating Systems

2015-04-07T14:23:27Z

141.101.98.188:

[something].js isn't that far off: https://github.com/runtimejs/runtime (Sometimes I feel like JavaScript is a cult...) :) [[User:Bb010g|Bb010g]] ([[User talk:Bb010g|talk]]) 06:07, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Typo in title text: ''singed'' should be ''signed''.[[User:Jezzaaaa|Jezzaaaa]] ([[User talk:Jezzaaaa|talk]]) 06:43, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

:That's not a typo. Singed means slightly burnt. It's implying a post-apocalyptic environment. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.126|108.162.219.126]] 07:10, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

:I know almost nothing about Richard Stallman, but he does sound like the kind of guy who might be giving out signed photos of himself. :-) --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 19:02, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" Could be a play of words on "Bloodborne", the game. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.14|108.162.212.14]] 09:01, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

[something].js is probably referring to Node.js or one of the many frameworks built on Node.JS (such as Google's Angular.js). Node.js isn't written in Javascript, but in c/c++ using Google's V8 JS engine and is a replacement for Apache (a web platform). My interpretation is that it's only a matter of time before someone builds an entire OS using Node.js principles.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.99|108.162.221.99]] 10:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" makes me think of blood-borne nanites more than anything. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.179|108.162.250.179]] 11:21, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Ditto here, "Blood Drone" implies, to me, an operating system for blood borne nanotech. [[User:Ioldanach|Ioldanach]] ([[User talk:Ioldanach|talk]]) 16:34, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

What if the ASI will be running on GNU/Hurd and 8 years after the war will seize Randal's house? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:35, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I cannot find any reliable source stating that iOS stands for "internet Operating System." To the contrary, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_OS Internet Operating Systems] seems like something different entirely. If anyone can find evidence to the contrary, please provide a link. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 14:57, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that iOS came from the iPhone Operating System conjunction based on what I read on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS Wikipedia]. I'm also inclined to support the idea that "Blood Drone" would be more likely to refer to blood-borne devices than to personal warfare devices, although with the timeline proximity to the Apocalypse, it is easy to see the reason for the other assumption. --[[User:Ancientt|Ancientt]] ([[User talk:Ancientt|talk]]) 16:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I fixed a teeny tiny typo. off changed to of. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 17:03, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Looks like he doesn't have much faith in the future of Android. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 18:55, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Could the GNU/Hurd reference also be a play on words, suggesting that the dominant "operating system" or activity of the survivors in their low-tech post-apocalyptic society will be "herd"ing animals, like gnus? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.118|173.245.52.118]] 20:58, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I added some trivia The title text begins by referring to a single survivor. The next two times, however, it refers to a group. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.204|199.27.128.204]] 00:18, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

:I disagree. First, it's referring to one of a group of survivors finding the photo. The next two times, it's simply referring to the group looking at the photo that the one survivor found—Randall skipped over the matter of having them all go to look at the photo, possibly because he felt it was unnecessary. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.40|199.27.133.40]] 00:56, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

I also think that the far future has to do with herds of (wild) gnus wandering the deserted land. They will take some time to return, during which there are no operating systems at Randall's house. In my view, gnu herds are what make the survivors come there with spears, to hunt them. I don't know if the survivors remember Stallman or any of his projects, I think they just read the strength of his beliefs from his facial expression, which is remarkably constant throughout the years. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.188|141.101.104.188]] 01:12, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

I mean i assume we are supposed to suspend disbelief on the end part, because after the destruction of most of the human race, who would be continuing to work on an operating system? [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 01:29, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

I think that "In this case it was ''free software''" should be changed to something like "In this case it was an operating system given up for dead that ultimately proved superior and enduring." [[User:Calion|Calion]] ([[User talk:Calion|talk]]) 01:32, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

I've changed the bits about Mac OS and Mac OS X to reflect a far more likely scenario. Besides the fact that I have a hard time seeing Randall adopting or abandoning an OS based on the current financial health of its producer, the timeline doesn't make sense. Apple's fortunes were far bleaker in 1995, when Randall began using Macs, than in 2001, when he stopped. Apple was in fact making a strong comeback at that time due to the success of the iMac and iPod. [[User:Calion|Calion]] ([[User talk:Calion|talk]]) 01:42, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

Is it correct to assume that all these OSs are used by Randall himself? The comic says that they are “running on his house”. It might be that he is not the one personally using every one of them. —[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.132|108.162.219.132]] 06:58, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

08:49, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
The coincident timeline of "no more Android" and the merger of iOS and OSX also probably indicates Randall will stop using Android should the Apple OS' merger happen"
- Vikrant
08:49, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

08:49, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
Further, the Stallman-singed-photo and "here is a man who believed..." reference might be a way of saying "OSs will come, and OSs will go, but the GNU/HURD will live on for ever"...
- Vikrant
08:49, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

I disagree with DOS "making a comeback"; this is OSes running ''in his house'' so '''he''' is running it ironically. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 14:23, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1497: New Products

2015-03-11T14:59:33Z

141.101.98.188:

Seems to me that the humor on the first two is based on engineers and programmers not understanding the general public's needs and wants. Also based on how engineers may find products "exciting" based on how novel the product's functionality is, not based on how useful that functionality is. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.150|108.162.215.150]] 07:02, 11 March 2015 (UTC)MW
:It seems to me to be a bash on various makes, remakes, re-remakes, /(re-){2,}remakes/ and sequels of sequels that become very successful. —[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.95|141.101.106.95]] 07:52, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
::It looks to me that it refers for example to the Oculus rift.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.125|173.245.53.125]] 08:22, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:::I took the point of the first category to be that if smart people (programmers and engineers being assumed to be smart) can't understand why anyone would want some stupid useless piece of crap, that it will be a huge success because stupid people outnumber smart people a hundred to one (ref: MS Windows), and the point of the second category to be that if it excites smart people, it'll fail in the marketplace because stupid people outnumber smart people a hundred to one. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.27|199.27.133.27]] 08:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I would be interested in a chart of examples of each category

Sean Malstrom talked about this. In general, Super Mario Bros, the Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, while classic, are actually nothing new... just having a high level of crasftmanship. Besides, people want familiar experiences. In a way, that makes sense. Meanwhile, hype tends to inflate expectations. The only game that ever fulfilled hype was Super Mario Bros. 3... still a classic. Then again, hype is a mere tactic used in getting people to buy poor games; great games do not need hype. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:31, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Reading those 'quotes', I'm minded of Bill Gates's statement on exactly how much memory we wouldn't need more than, the head of IBM far earlier predicting the need for perhaps five(? look it up) computers in the whole world, the century-old prediction that the number of cars in the world wouldn't exceed the (small number of) chauffeurs who could be trained, etc. Plus things like Microsoft's failed earlier attempts at Windows tablets (and OSes) that preceded the latest craze by a decade and then died, only for the recent mania (which might again be dying, but at least has a foothold). But is it worthwhile actually putting in loads of links to these kinds of things, to illustrate each issue? Probably not...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 14:59, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1495: Hard Reboot

2015-03-09T11:27:17Z

141.101.98.188:

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

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

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

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

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

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

:: When a reboot is least disruptive also depends on whether the machine is being used by users in other time zones. It really annonys me when I'm presented with "Server is down for scheduled maintenance", and the powers that be have decided that the best time to do that is in the middle of the day (for me). --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:42, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
:::Of course, if you tend to observe a [[28-Hour Day]] it gets tricky to schedule (on a daily basis, at least). Yes, I used to do somthing like that, a couple of decades ago. (And my mind/body still wants to do it! Hence why even 5:00am would be awkward for me. More often than is convenient, anyway.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 11:27, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

:My reaction to the solution (instead of using cron) was similar to when I see somebody emailing a photo by embedding it in a word document. I guess Randall did that on purpose! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.195|141.101.98.195]]

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

:This was my understanding of the statement as well. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.192|108.162.216.192]] 16:25, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

I think the ''"Why everything I have is broken"'' text refers to the fact that he has spent 10 hours troubleshooting the problem, then implements a hacky fix in 5 minutes which just makes the problem worse - hard rebooting a server every day is not likely to fix the problem and will probably make it worse, and the server will ultimately break. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.87|141.101.99.87]] 14:37, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

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

Thank you for the description! I was reading the 1-10 hours as the time it took for the system to crash, and the 5 minutes as the on-off time -- which obviously conflicted with the 24 hours text in the comic. This makes so much more sense now. =8o) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:42, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Should one of us ask [[Randall]] if he can tell us which bug this is (assuming it exists), or do the square brackets purposely ask that we should stifle our curiosity? Assuming it's an open-source project, this is an opportunity for readers to make a difference, rather than just humor (cf. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=71411&sid=b56036e3caa6b410cc34302852c7570f&p=2626767#p2626771|"Randallism"]). [[User:Chrstphrchvz|Chrstphrchvz]] ([[User talk:Chrstphrchvz|talk]]) 22:21, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
:I don't think it's a specific bug. It's just humour. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 01:26, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

::It might not only be humour. I can say we use the latter technique for a router. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 01:49, 7 March 2015 (UTC)
::It's xkcd, ''is never just humor''. :P By way, more than hackish, this is just a plain sloppy duck-tape solution.(I mean, at least use a cron job!) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.133|173.245.48.133]] 18:31, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

In the title text, it's THE kitchen timer, not A kitchen timer, so it may mean "the (light) timer from the kitchen"...[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.47|188.114.110.47]] 12:03, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

The way the letters are squished together and its general untidiness make the cartoon look rather old. I wondered if it was one Randall dug out that he had drawn a while ago. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.182|108.162.249.182]] 22:22, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:Danish

2015-02-23T17:15:30Z

141.101.98.188: Created page with "Random comment, possibly, but regarding the current "Personality-wise, she is to Black Hat as Megan is to Cueball." Surely better as "Personality-wise, she is to Megan as Blac..."

Random comment, possibly, but regarding the current "Personality-wise, she is to Black Hat as Megan is to Cueball."
Surely better as "Personality-wise, she is to Megan as Black Hat is to Cueball"? Or remove the "Personality-wise" bit to allow the implied "female counterpart" to shine out instead of implying each pairing ''differs'' in personality, whilst shares with the counterpart... Which they don't in the current order. IYSWIM... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 17:15, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1488: Flowcharts

2015-02-18T09:51:02Z

141.101.98.188:

A little bit more of 730? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.108|141.101.80.108]] 06:53, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
:More along the lines of 94, 210, 518, 627, 844, 845, and 1195, though I see similarities with 730. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 07:09, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
How should we do the transcript? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 07:09, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

I would just like to say that I find some of the linked spiral-images ''very'' disturbing. Although for some they'd be the same even ''without'' the spirals, admitedly. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 09:47, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1488: Flowcharts

2015-02-18T09:47:41Z

141.101.98.188:

A little bit more of 730? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.108|141.101.80.108]] 06:53, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
:More along the lines of 94, 210, 518, 627, 844, 845, and 1195, though I see similarities with 730. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 07:09, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
How should we do the transcript? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 07:09, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
I would just like to say that I find some of the linked spiral-images ''very'' disturbing. Although for some they'd be the same even ''without'' the spirals, admitedly. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 09:47, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

1488: Flowcharts

2015-02-18T09:39:12Z

141.101.98.188: /* List of Items in Flowchart */

{{comic
| number = 1488
| date = February 18, 2015
| title = Flowcharts
| image = flowcharts.png
| titletext = Whoa, and if you overlay a Fibonacci spiral on a golden spiral it matches up almost perfectly!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Improve the explanation, specifically on the point of the scatterplot, and finish the table please.}}
This comic is a flowchart style. Interestingly, the first option, "Do you like flowcharts?" loops back to itself until you choose NO. This is probably because the reader will keep choosing "yes" until they are annoyed and do not like flowcharts anymore.

After asking about flowcharts, the reader is asked whether they like line graphs. If they follow one line, it becomes a line graph where "Time" is the x-axis and "Your Happiness" is the y-axis, and shows that your happiness increases with time. If they follow the other line, they are asked "Charge a battery?" If the follow one line (probably "yes" but it's not marked) they are asked whether they are A/C or D/C (the only choice is A/C) and are led to a drawing of a battery.

If the reader follows the "no" line, they are asked if they like spirals. If they choose "no" they are told to take the path of least resistance. This part of the flowchart resembles an electric diagram, and the word "resistance" is a pun because resistance in electricity is an electrical quantity that measures how the device or material reduces the electric current flow through it. Thus, whether they choose "Yes" or "No", they arrive at "Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?" If they choose "yes" the line fades into a drawing of a golden spiral, and we see that the flowchart is structured around it. If they choose "no" they are asked if they are tired of flowcharts. If not, they are taken to the beginning to start over again. If they are tired, the line points to the "random" button on the xkcd website.

The title text and the faint image of a golden spiral parody the fact that the golden spiral is superimposed on nearly ''everything''. The golden spiral is a spiral that has the growth rate of the golden ratio, a number that has inspired both artists and mathematicians alike. However, people try to find the golden ratio in seemingly random objects, and they fall to confirmation bias when drawing a golden spiral on top that seemingly fits. The comic links to [http://xkcd.com/spiral/], where one can see exactly that- golden spirals Randall "found" in random photographs. The title text is funny because the mathematics of the famous Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio are actually one and the same- the limit of the ratios of each successive term in the sequence is equal to the golden ratio. So it matches up perfectly, not "almost" perfectly like the pictures in the mobile site link.

===List of Items in Flowchart===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Text
! Explanation
! Successor(s)
! Predeccessor
|-
| Start
| Start here
| Do you like flowcharts?
| Tired of flowcharts yet?
|-
| Do you like flowcharts?
| Asking whether or not the reader likes flow charts. Recursively returns to itself until the reader is annoyed enough to not like flowcharts and ''may'' establish the convention of "Yes" being down and "No" being sideways, unless otherwise indicated.
| Do you like flowcharts?, Do you like graphs?
| Start
|-
| Data or Axis?
| This item is duplicated. It is asking which type of graph you prefer
| Data, line, access
| Do you like graphs?
|-
| Line
| This forms a line on top of the axis of time and happiness. It is positive slope.
|
| Data or Axis?
|-
| Axis
| Leads to A choice
| Time or your happiness?, X or Y?
| Data or axis?
|-
| Time or your happiness?
| Choose between your time and your happiness. Presumably, choose whichever you value more.
| Time, Happiness
| Data or axis?
|-
| Time
| You value your time more than your happiness. This forms the horizontal axis for the line graph.
|
| Time or your happiness?
|-
| Your happiness
| You value your happiness more than your time. This forms the vertical axis for the line graph.
|
| Time or your happiness?
|-
| X or Y?
| Which axis do you prefer?
| X, Y
| Axis
|-
| X
| Forms the horizontal axis for the {{w|Scatterplot|scatterplot}}.
|
| X or Y?
|-
| Y
| Forms the vertical axis for the scatterplot.
|
| X or Y?
|-
| Data
| Leads to a scatterplot. May be a series of AC current symbols leading into one another
|
| Data or Axis?
|-
| Scatter plots?
| A scatter plot is made of not connected points in a graph. This is why there's no line to the second Data or axis option
| Help charge a battery?
| Do you like graphs?
|-
| Help charge a battery?
|
| Are you A/C or D/C?, Like Spirals?
| Asks whether you have knowledge in {{w|AC current}} or {{w|DC current}}. No output is given for DC,l even though that would be the prefered method of charging a battery.
| Positive or Negative Phase?
| Help charging a battery?
|-
| Positive or Negative Phase?
| This is useless, because both choices lead to the same result.
| Positive or negative DC terminal?
| Are you A/C or D/C?
|-
| Positive or negative DC terminal?
| This box looks like a {{w|Rectifier bridge}}, which is used to convert AC to DC, but two of the diodes point in the wrong direction, making this a loop directing both inputs to the top. The single output leads to a battery. Since the battery is not connected to the other side of the rectifier, no current can flow. In this way the battery can also be seen as an end-point in the flow chart.
| Battery
| Positive or negative phase?
|-
| Like Spirals?
| Well, do you?
| Take the path of least resistance?, Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
| Help charge a battery?
|-
| Take the path of least resistance?
| This one is a pun. If resistance is seen as electrical resistance, then the bottom output is correct. Alternatively, the (unlabelled) "No" exit technically sends you through ''more'' resistance, and a 'protective' diode, to the next decision box.
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
| Like Spirals?
|-
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|
| Yes, even though it's total BS., Tired of flowcharts yet?
| Like spirals?, Take the path of least resistance?
|-
| Yes, even though it's total BS.
| This option fades out to a golden spiral to which the flowchart is aligned.
|
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|-
| Tired of flowcharts yet?
| Are you?
| Yes, I want to look at something else, Start
| Do you like when people find the golden spiral in random images?
|-
| Yes, I want to look at something else
| This option leads to the random comic button. This decision ''literally'' breaks the fourth wall in travelling through the image's nominal boundary to point at a specific button to look at some other comic.
| Tired of Flowcharts yet?
| [http://c.xkcd.com/random/comic/ Random]
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}