explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1623: 2016 Conversation Guide

2016-08-20T19:59:11Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1623
| date = December 30, 2015
| title = 2016 Conversation Guide
| image = 2016_conversation_guide.png
| titletext = The real loser in an argument about the meaning of the word 'hoverboard' is anyone who leaves that argument on foot.
}}

==Explanation==
As each year turns (or other milestone dates, perhaps set out in popular fiction) it is common enough to remember that what is now the present was once considered ''the future!''

This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], published just prior to the start of the {{w|New Year}}, 2016, aims to clarify a number of the things one might have expected by now. (Another New Year comic followed on New Year's Day: [[1624: 2016]], making it two in a row with titles beginning with 2016...)

The classic target of personal futurology is the ability to levitate or fly, to varying degrees. "Where's my {{w|jet pack}}?" is one of the [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IWantMyJetPack memes] addressed here, and has actually been developed in a somewhat workable fashions and {{w|Astronaut propulsion unit|analogues}}, but is dismissed as being too personally dangerous to have a {{w|The_Jetsons|Jetson}}-like ubiquity. Similarly, various forms of {{w|Flying_car_(aircraft)|flying car}} have had varying {{w|AVE_Mizar|degrees}} of {{w|Moller_M400_Skycar|success}}, but here are ignored to point out that the regular {{w|helicopter}} is as close as most of us would ever get to this technology. The {{w|Hoverboard|levitating Hoverboard}} has been popularised by the {{w|Back_to_the_Future_Part_II|Back To The Future franchise}} of films, with several attempts to fully emulate such a device with air-blast or magnetic levitation, but the ''term'' Hoverboard has ended up being applied to a {{w|Segway}}-like {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board|personal transport system}} that has at least become a mass-produced device (albeit with a number of {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board#Safety|safety concerns}}). This is of course a reference to the game [[1608: Hoverboard]] where it is shown how a real hoverboard should work.

The very concept of the hoverboard, in particular, is predicted to be reduced mostly to arguments between opposing camps of opinions; and then, in the title-text, the conclusion that giving up and resorting to old-fashioned walking is inferior to ''any'' of the possible alternatives.

A much bigger challenge in levitation is the 'sky city', with various forms from fiction (e.g. {{w|Bespin}}, {{w|Mortal Engines Quartet}}). In reality, this seems highly unlikely to ever come to pass when there is perfectly good ground to lay the buildings down upon, due to the sheer mass. It might be considered more reasonable to build a {{w|Space:_1999|settlement of some kind}} on the Moon. The basic {{w|Apollo_program|engineering}} {{w|International Space Station|exists}}, but the comic blames financial pressures for it not yet having come into existence. Arguably political pressures, or perhaps the lack of them, are also a factor.

From the fields of automation, the {{w|Autonomous car|self-driving car}} has had a lot of recent development put into it, with many and varied prototypes being tried out, and may actually end up featuring in our immediate future, even if not in 2016. Google has built a very good prototype but it needs improvement. Meanwhile, the long-held science-fantasy aim to create a {{w|Robby the Robot|robot that can do odd tasks}} has been {{w|Roomba|limited}} or {{w|Ask.com|differently implemented}}. The ''fully'' [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Omnicapable omnicapable] version is probably almost as far out of reach as it always was considered to be. "Jeeves" as a less than superb robot butler presumably refers to the early search site "Ask Jeeves," and may be a reference to the robot of that name that can be "built" by characters in the popular {{w|Massively multiplayer online role-playing game}} {{w|World of Warcraft}}. "Jeeves" as the stereotyped butler name goes back to P.G. Wodehouse in 1915.

Self-driving cars has become a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd and they were mentioned again already in the title text of [[1625: Substitutions 2]] just two comics after this one.

==Transcript==
:[A chart with three columns of text with only one entry to the left - which is written in the middle of the panel. Then there is one line going right from this text but soon it splits into seven lines going either up (3), almost straight (2) or down (2) ending in arrows that points to the next column with seven entries for different possible future inventions. From each of these entries a horizontal arrow continues to the last column at the right with seven more entries commenting on these inventions.]

:It's 2016 - Where's my...

::Flying car --> They're called "helicopters"

::Jetpack --> Turns out people are huge wimps about crashing

::Moon colony --> No one has put up the cash

::Self-driving car --> Coming surprisingly soon

::Floating sky city --> Turns out cities are heavy

::Hoverboard --> This question is now ambiguous thanks to a new scooter thing
:::::: (and will lead to an argument about the meaning of "hoverboard"
:::::: which is way less interesting than either kind of hoverboard)

::Robot butler --> He was called "Jeeves" and he wasn't that great

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]

1683: Digital Data

2016-05-20T11:53:51Z

141.101.98.67:

{{comic
| number = 1683
| date = May 20, 2016
| title = Digital Data
| image = digital_data.png
| titletext = â€&oelig;If you can read this, congratulationsâ€”the archive youâ€™re you're using still knows about the mouseover textâ€!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial draft.}}
{{w|Digital information}}, strictly speaking, does not degrade. While physical media themselves (such as books, or hard drives) may degrade as the universe continues, information, by itself, does not decay over time, and can be copied indefinitely with no changes. [This could be phrased much better.]

However, in this comic, [[Randall]] points out that while information itself doesn't degrade, things that are on the internet are often degraded through copying, because the copy is not 1:1. In addition, as technology advances the method to save or call the information changes and the medium to view it changes, occasionally causing misinterpreted information. (This is also demonstrated with the title text.) As the frames continue, they gain the appearance of images which have been screenshotted repeatedly, with a resulting loss of quality due to compression of the original resolution and jpeg artifacting. In the last frame, this is taken to an extreme, as the frame appears to have been very sloppily screenshotted off of at least two different smartphones (not the same device that uses the bottom frame in the third panel as the top border in panel four), and the final image is covered both with a watermark from an unregistered screenshot program, as well as references to at least two different web site, {{w|9GAG}} (bottom right image) and {{w|tumblr}} in the web address bottom left.

"9gag" is a humor website often accused of rehosting other sites' funny content without attribution and adding their own watermark to the image or video.



The title text contains seemingly garbage characters, which typically result from data being interpreted according to a character encoding different from the one used to encode it. In this case, the characters are the result of encoding the string <tt>“If you can read this, congratulations—the archive you’re you're using still knows about the mouseover text”!</tt> using UTF-8, then interpreting the resulting bytes as Windows-1252, both of which are quite commonly used. This shows that degradation of digital data through conversions isn't restricted to images. Furthermore, as screen navigation moves away from mouses toward touch, voice recognition, and modes still to be implemented, mouseover text will itself become anachronistic.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a White Hat are walking, Cueball holds both hands in front of him palms up.]
:Cueball: The great thing about digital data is that it never degrades.

:[They walk on in the next panel which is slightly pixelated, as if it is a screen shot of the actual image.]
:Cueball: Hard drives fail, of course, but their bits can be copied forever without loss.

:[They continue walking in the third panel which is now clearly pixelated, the white is slightly discolored, and it contains part of the interface of some program, probably supposed to be a screen shot from a smartphone. At the bottom there are three blue buttons and one gray. the first is a blue "<" indicating back in a browser. Then a grayed out ">" that is not active. And then three more standard buttons in blue to the right of those two.]
:Cueball: Film degrades, paint cracks, but a copy of a century-old data file is identical to the original.

:[Still walking, now Cueball holds out both arms to the sides, and finally White Hat replies. This panel is heavily pixelated and discolored, it contains a clear watermark (although difficult to read all letters in the end of the first word) and even more 'frame' elements, and text above the image at the bottom (where the last letter is obscured by the frame of the image). There is also an internet address at the bottom left, but is is not readable except for the .com ending. In this panel it is clear that it is a screen shot from a smart phone. The frame around the image obscure the very top of Cueball's text and the half of the last letter in White Hat's reply.]
:Cueball: If humanity has a permanent record, we are the first generation in it.
:White Hat: Amazing

:Watermark: Screenshot r02[?]
:Watermark: Unregistered~

:Top border: Verizon LTE '''4:45 PM'''
:Bottom text: 9GAG
:Internet address at the bottom: [?????].tumblr.com

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]

1665: City Talk Pages

2016-04-28T15:58:52Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */ Explanation of mining section is unnecessarily detailed. If this is a meta joke, feel free to revert my edit!

{{comic
| number = 1665
| date = April 8, 2016
| title = City Talk Pages
| image = city talk pages.png
| titletext = "I don't think the Lakeshore Air Crash Museum really belongs under 'Tourist Attractions.' It's not a museum--it's just an area near the Lake Festival Laser Show where a lot of planes have crashed.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic makes fun of Wikipedia talk pages. On Wikipedia, every article has a place to discuss the content of the page, called a "{{w|Help:Using talk pages|talk page}}". In this case, the comic talks about the talk page of an article about a city. While some of the topics are quite normal for such a page (e.g. the quality of the images) others are not (e.g. too many murders and mine disasters in the city). The topics discussed suggest that the city has many problems and is a bad place to live in or visit.

The topics show a common problem at Wikipedia's talk pages: People often use them as a place to talk about the ''subject'' of the article, but it is for talking about the ''article'' itself. Someone at the top of the talk page is suggesting a better name for the city.

The article repeatedly refers to "the murders", suggesting that the city might be well-known for them. It seems that the editors cannot agree on how notable "the murders" are. "Not that notable" refers to Wikipedia's general criteria for including information in articles. Material which is not noteworthy should be removed; however, different editors often disagree about what is notable, resulting in conflicting edits as text is inserted and then removed (an "edit war"). Someone replies that "all cities have murders". While true, many cities in low-crime countries would not have a series of them so well-known that when someone talks about "the murders" any reader could be expected to know what they are talking about, making this sound like an attempt to make the city sound nicer than it is. "I think the murderer is reverting my edits" suggests the murders are being committed by ''one person'' who is influencing how they are shown on WIkipedia - perhaps trying to prevent Wikipedia from publishing evidence of them or possibly publicise them by adding ''more'' information about them. This raises the possibility that the discussion of the murder visible in the infobox picture may have been ''initiated by the murderer''.

The {{w|WP:Infobox|infobox}} is a short fact sheet that many articles in the (English) Wikipedia have; it generally includes an image illustrating the subject of the article. The question of which picture is best for the infobox (because this image is so prominent) can cause edit wars. It emerges that the photograph of the city has a murder in it. Instead of forwarding the picture to law enforcement, someone uses the image editing software Photoshop to erase the murder so the picture will be less objectionable. It appears that murders are so common in the city that any random photograph of the city has a chance of showing a murder, to the point where a second photo proposed as a replacement for the infobox picture is found to show ''another'' murder.

{{w|Voltaire}} was a French Enlightenment writer. As a prominent and very opinionated intellectual, [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire#Misattributed he gets a lot of quotes falsely attributed to him]; most famously, he did not actually say "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (that was {{w|Evelyn Beatrice Hall}}).

It seems that the people who are editing the article are getting desperate to find a non-bleak picture of the city. When a non-bleak picture is added, it turns out to be from the 2016 Disney film {{w|Zootopia}}. The fictional city which is the setting and title of the film has a distinctive [http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/4/43/Zootopia_City_Full.jpg look] which is far from bleak, but is not a picture of the city. (Zootopia is called Zootropolis in many European countries for trademark reasons.)

The city apparently is a mining city and there have been some mining disasters. An editor is complaining that this section is too long, but another editor points out that this is because there have been so many mining disasters that a large section is needed to cover the topic.

{{w|1982 Secession}} refers to Key West, Florida seceding from the United States in 1982 to form the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic Conch Republic].

A known problem on Wikipedia is "coatracking", where people use articles to promote topics that are not strictly the subject of the article (perhaps by writing far more about them than is necessary, when they could just be mentioned in passing). Here, it emerges that the article on a city expresses a dubious opinion on condom use. This is against several Wikipedia policies: it would be irrelevant to the article and sounds like an editor's attempt to publicise their views.

{{w|Andrew Lloyd Webber}} is an English composer famous for writing ''The {{w|Phantom Of The Opera}}''. Webber is also known for writing the music for ''{{w|Starlight Express}}'', a rock opera about anthropomorphized trains, which is probably another factor in the train station joke. Meanwhile, {{w|Frank Lloyd Wright}}, who shares his middle name and last initial, was an American architect, who designed more than 1,000 structures. As it turns out it was the composer who was responsible for the train station, and as a result the station roof has collapsed.

In the comic ''Webber'' is spelled ''Weber''. This could be a mistake by [[Randall]], (but then it is likely to be corrected later...) More likely Randall did this for the sake of realism as this is what can be expected by people writing in a talk page on Wikipedia, where errors are not necessarily corrected as they would be in the main article.

It is complained that the article is promoting the "Lake Festival Laser Show" too much. In the alt text, it emerges that the laser show is so impressive that it has caused a number of aeroplanes to crash. This probably refers to the fact that laser pointers should not be aimed at aircrafts, as they can be distracting to the pilots. The article has been promoting this area of crashed planes as the "Lakeshore Air Crash Museum", despite it not having any educational purpose.

==Examples==
*{{w|Talk:Key West, Florida#What's with the Chicken photo}} questions the relevance of free range chickens.
*{{w|Talk:Rio de Janeiro#Oh, there's no crime in Rio?}} suggests crime incidence in Rio has been suppressed to promote tourism.
*{{w|Talk:Kirkcaldy}} discusses naming.
*{{w|Talk:Isfahan}} has many naming proposals.
*{{w|Talk:Chattanooga, Tennessee}} has disputes over crime and notability of residents.
*{{w|Talk:Muara Bungo}} indicates someone ''repeatedly'' tried to delete the second-largest city in Jambi, Sumatra.
*{{w|Talk:Arvada, Colorado}} held a heated argument considerably longer than the article, concerning the existence of a scandal in the police department. A year later, one editor deemed the issue unimportant and removed it entirely.
*{{w|Talk:Sutton-in-Ashfield}} discusses the cultural significance of town landmarks.
*{{w|Talk:Abergele}} has residents arguing over who should be included.
*{{w|Talk:Tucson, Arizona}}:
** ''I heard you can get Chicago-style deep dish pizza even in Tucson! Is this true? If so, it probably should be added to the article.''
** ''Um...I heard this place is kinda dangerous.''
** ''Shouldn't the headline-indicated shooting be included?''
** ''Why are there three photos showing snow in the vicinity of Tucson? I know snow is an event for us, but I think other Wikipedians know what it looks like.''

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel: ]
:I love reading the Wikipedia talk pages for articles on individual cites

:[A list of contents for a Wikipedia talk page regarding an article about a city. Except for the header and the square brackets, which are written in black text, the rest is in a blue font.]
:::Contents [Hide]

:1 Origin of city's name?
::1.1 Idea for a better name
::1.2 Not how Wikipedia works
:2 Too much promotion of the lake festival
:3 Should we mention the murders?
::3.1 Not that notable
::3.2 All cites have murders
:4 Quote verification: Even if Voltaire did visit (unlikely), why would he get so angry about our restaurants?
:5 Discuss: New picture
::5.1 Current one looks awfully bleak
::5.2 Gray sky
::5.3 What about this
::5.4 Also bleak
::5.5 Maybe this place just looks that way
::5.6 Found a better picture, more colorful
::5.7 That's a shot from Disney's ''Zootopia''
:6 "Mining disasters" section too long
::6.1 Not really Wikipedia's fault
::6.2 Why is this town so bad at mining?
:7 Infobox picture: I just realized you can see a murder happening in the background
::7.1 This city is terrible
::7.2 Photoshopped out murder
::7.3 Can someone just take a better picture
::7.4 Okay, uploaded a new picture
::7.5 Wait, never mind, I just noticed there's a murder in this one, too
:8 1982 secession still in effect?
:9 I think the murderer is reverting my edits
:10 Why does this article take '''''any''''' position on correct condom use, let alone such a weird and ambiguous one?
:11 Train station "Designed by Andrew Lloyd Weber"?
::11.1 They probably mean Frank Lloyd Wright
::11.2 I thought so too, but it's apparently not a mistake
::11.3 Didn't know he did architecture
::11.4 Roof collapse

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

1576: I Could Care Less

2015-09-11T14:59:17Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less" and its idiomatic meaning in American English{{Citation_needed}} as an expression of indifference. Many people{{Citation_needed}} argue that this use is incorrect and the phrase should be "I couldn't care less," which is the standard form in British English. This is the opinion expressed, for example, by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes": <blockquote>Like I could care less 
That means you do care 
At least a little</blockquote>
However, linguists point out that the strict application of logic to an idiom is inappropriate: many expressions seem on the surface to mean the opposite of the meaning they are used to convey (e.g. "head over heels"), and they defend "I could care less" on those grounds {{Citation_needed}}. The psychologist Steven Pinker argues in ''The Language Instinct'' that the phrase is sarcastic (cf. "Big deal!"), while linguist John Lawler explains it as a "Negative Polarity Item," a phrase that is practically only used in negated form, allowing the explicit negation to be omitted (a pattern often found in French) [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/giveadamn.html].

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

The title text refers to another word often used in ways some consider incorrect: "literally" (see [[725: Literally]]). The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that 'literally' or 'figuratively,' the speaker could or couldn't care less. Further, it implies that Munroe considers the argument over whether literally may be properly used to mean 'figuratively' is petty in the same way.

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

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

:Megan: I dunno.

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

1576: I Could Care Less

2015-09-11T14:55:43Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */

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

==Explanation==
This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less" and its idiomatic meaning in American English{{Citation_needed}} as an expression of indifference. Many people{{Citation_needed}} argue that this use is incorrect and the phrase should be "I couldn't care less," which is the standard form in British English. This is the opinion expressed, for example, by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes": <blockquote>Like I could care less 
That means you do care 
At least a little</blockquote>
However, linguists point out that the strict application of logic to an idiom is inappropriate: many expressions seem on the surface to mean the opposite of the meaning they are used to convey (e.g. "head over heels"), and they defend "I could care less" on those grounds {{Citation_needed}}. The psychologist Steven Pinker argues in ''The Language Instinct'' that the phrase is sarcastic (cf. "Big deal!"), while linguist John Lawler explains it as a "Negative Polarity Item," a phrase that is practically only used in negated form, allowing the explicit negation to be omitted (a pattern often found in French) [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/giveadamn.html].

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

The title text refers to another word often used in ways some consider incorrect: "literally" (see [[725: Literally]]). The sentence is also ambiguous, as it may mean that literally or figuratively, the speaker could or couldn't care less.

The adding of *literally* in the title text serves two purposes. First, it emphasizes that there is no sarcastic connotations in the sentence implying that there *are* other things which the speaker cares less about. Second, it plays into the debate about whether 'literally' can be properly used to mean something like 'figuratively,' as it is often informally used. Munroe is suggesting that that debate, too, is petty.

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

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

:Megan: I dunno.

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T19:55:21Z

141.101.98.67:

Apologies to the first editor, who made a snappier version of what I wrote. For the record, whilst fighting a dodgy internet connection I eventually ended up replacing the following...
Cueball is seen trying to explain the relative sizes of the earth and moon by comparing the earth to a basketball and the moon to what looks like a golf ball. This explanation is constantly thwarted by passerby interacting with the basketball while Cueball is explaining it.
For the title text, the answer is zero, since it is against basketball rules.
...with what I tried to keep short during my own writing from scratch. I also ommited several other concepts of my own thought: The fact that Blackhat must have used a very light-touch to ''only'' generate a megatsunami (albeit already unimaginably large, at Earthball's scale); The possibility of recursion (including something like the Men In Black 'cat collar' allusion); and that in the universe of the comic strip there is only ''one'' actual basketball (the Earthball itsself), although I like how we ''both'' had the idea that the basketballs upon Earthball would not have counted in a game of basketball with an Earthball-scaled hoop, due to quite obvious interpretations of the sport's regulations. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.67|141.101.98.67]] 05:11, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
:Oh yeah, and reversion is invited, if deemed preferable. As is amalgamation, and refinement and re-replacement by something even better, of course. As per the standard Wiki creed. Much as I am cringing at having upset the original contributor, I'm quite happy to be gazumped in turn. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.67|141.101.98.67]] 05:14, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
If you look at the third frame of the Blackhat sequence and compare it to the frames underneath, you can see that he didn't just touch the Earth or an ocean--he actually rotated it 90 degrees.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.115|108.162.221.115]] 09:38, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
:Well spotted! Edit that in! (Do it quickly with a pre-prepared edit. I kept getting hit by edit-conflicts, which I set about to resolve amicably without reversing anybody else's input; only to get hit by further edit-conflicts by the next person to come along and improve overlapping pieces, whom I also strived not to disregard.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.67|141.101.98.67]] 09:57, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
::No he didn't. the Earth always rotates from the first panel to the next. So that it is in a different position when Black Hat touches it, to where it was the panel before does not imply that he rotated the Earth. If anything he only rotated it a few degrees, as it had already rotated most of those 90 degree from panel 1 to panel 2 before Black Hat reaches the Earth. As far as I can see there has not been any change to include this yet. So that is good. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:41, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

I really love this comic. It is great fun. Thanks Randall, happy Earth day. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:42, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

... a tennis ball an average 7.2 metres away, while the Sun would be 26 metres across and 2.8 km away. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.165|108.162.250.165]] 13:25, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

It's 13:23 right now, but the clock of explainxkcd.com says it's 13:37. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 13:37, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

If we assume 9,000,000 basketballs sold every year ([http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=82227 bbs.ClutchFans.net]), one basketball lasts about 10,000 bounces ([http://www.sotruefacts.com/rule/770 SoTrueFacts.com]), and there's between 2,500 and 3,000 bounces per game ([http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_lifespan_of_a_basketball_in_bounces_in_National_Basketball_Association_play Answers.com]) we can extrapolate that on average a basketball doesn't live for more than a year, and the number of basketballs sold replace those which have lifed-out. Let's build in a 10% slush factor and say there 10m basketballs produced in the world last year. Let's further say that there's an extra 1m basketballs sold every year which don't get regular use and are in some kid's room and those have been accumulating for about ten years (different kids get basketballs every year which end up in their bedrooms). Dunking a basketball gives two points, and at 20 million basketballs, that gives 40 million points – and a safe bet you're going to make it to the playoffs that year. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:51, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Is it possible that the megatsunami is actually caused by the gravity of the scale Moon (it being way too close to the scale Earth)? This is a major problem that most children's books (or adult's books or websites) have. They scale the planets/moons/stars but not the distance. As the comment above, to get normal tides, the tennis ball should be 7.2m away at this scale. --[[User:Gravitron|Gravitron]] ([[User talk:Gravitron|talk]]) 14:06, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

I find it interesting that Randall makes the same mistake a lot of people make reguarding the distance between the earth and moon at that scale. I was watching Veritasium (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9D6xba9Og) on Youtube a while back and the guy there was asking people how far away a tennis ball sized moon would be from a basketball sized Earth. Most people made the distance way too small, very similar to how far away they appear in the comic. In reality they would be something like 10 times that distance. Usually Randall is more accurate than this. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.171|108.162.221.171]] 14:09, 22 April 2015 (UTC)Agent0013
:Unless he was simply trying to compare the relative sizes. It's possible after that he would get in to the relative distance between the two - but good point. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:12, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
::It seemingly got lost when trying to resolve edits, but I'd calculated and intended to add that (for the size of a baseball, so a tennis ball would slightly different) 110 Moonball diameters separation between the two. Of course no human has (personally) seen that from a proper perspective, i.e. far enough away to get both bodies in the same convenient vision at the same time whilst off to the side. (Even the Apollo astronauts only got to look at one over the top of the other, at various times, or by panning between the two whilst in the midst of their trans-lunar trajectories.) But there's surely been a space probe or two with a suitable imager been tasked towards such a shot whilst off mostly perpendicular to the Earth-Moon and a decent distance away to get both in the same shot without distortion... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.67|141.101.98.67]] 17:52, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't agree with the claim (at a couple points in the article) that *all* life would be extinguished by any of these manipulations. 2-4 may kill off most or all macroscopic life, but microbes would survive all of them (unless Megan has bleach in that sports bottle). If 3 or 4 shattered the earth, that might extinguish all microbes, but even that I doubt. The only case I can imagine would be if 3 or 4 caused it to spiral into the sun. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:10, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Title text might be reference to HHGTG: “
Ford Prefect: I read of one planet in the seventh dimension got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole, killed ten billion people.
Arthur Dent: Madness. Total madness.
Ford Prefect: Yeah. Only scored thirty points too. ”[[Special:Contributions/198.41.241.91|198.41.241.91]] 14:23, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

-----

I admit that I'm super-confused by the structure of the comic. The explanation here describes possible consequences for the actions, but as depicted, only the first has any "real world" effect. I too would expect the water bottle to cause a deluge, but it doesn't seem to. What's going on? [[User:Mattdm|Mattdm]] ([[User talk:Mattdm|talk]]) 15:40, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

-----

The hoop in panel 16 seems too high, unless both Cueball and Megan are under 5 feet tall. --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 17:11, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Happy Earth Day everyone. Today is the day we regret everything we do to the earth, and the next is the day we forget all that. [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 17:59, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
:I just noticed that if [[1511]] (Spice Girl) had had been released on the following Friday, i.e. the slot actually given to comic 1513 (Code Quality), it would have coincided with Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham's 41st birthday. So, that would probably not have been an intentional direct reference, but ''soooo'' close to ending up being an accidental one. While I'm happy to go along with Earth Day as a deliberate reference... it makes you think, eh? (Although I'd be happy if people thought about Earth Day itself more than the synchronicity. It's a good cause, and pause for thought.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.67|141.101.98.67]] 19:55, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Why the whole paragraph about it being a baseball? We have no indication of what it is, so why not just say "if it's a tennis ball..." [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.107|173.245.50.107]] 18:35, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
:Might be my fault. I assumed it was a basketball/baseball comparison in my original endeavour, and this has persisted through other edits, even after the rather logical "...a tennis ball's proportions". Over-compensated for Randall being Leftpondian, probably, even though I've never played Baseball myself (only Rounders). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.67|141.101.98.67]] 19:55, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T17:52:10Z

141.101.98.67:

Talk:1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T09:57:18Z

141.101.98.67:

1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T09:43:54Z

141.101.98.67: Ouch. Editing error.#1 of ???

{{comic
| number = 1515
| date = April 22, 2015
| title = Basketball Earth
| image = basketball earth.png
| titletext = How many points do you get for dunking every basketball in existence at once?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Could definitely use review (or reversion to the first, simpler, explanation) and probably some handy hyperlinking for concepts.}}

In this comic [[Cueball]] is repeatedly attempting to make the comparison that for the {{w|Earth}}-{{w|Moon}} system, the Moon would be about the size of a {{w|baseball}} for an Earth the size of a {{w|basketball}}. A regulation baseball (9" circumference) is slightly above 30% that of a regulation basketball at 29.5" circumference (28.5" for women), whilst the Moon is actually slightly smaller in its own proportion (27%), but it's close enough for demonstrative purposes.

He handily illustrates this with two balls of those sizes that looks like the Earth and the Moon. They are invisibly suspended, or as seems clear from the first row of panels, are actually the real ones shrunk to the relevant size. But before he can finish with this common type of comparison he is being repeatedly interrupted and must begin all over again. Maybe he even have to start with a new Earth-Moon system, since they look the same every time independent of the catastrophe occurring to Earth each time. Each of the four attempt has it's own row of four panels in the comic.

Here is a similar example where someone has made a comparison of the sizes of the Solar system based on a [http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira60.html Sun the size of a Basketball].

It is common to describe the relationship of very large (and very small) objects to common or garden objects on a more human scale. (e.g., coming from smaller scales, "if the an atom were scaled to the size of a soccer stadium, the nucleus itself would be a pea sitting on the centre-spot".)

In the first interruption, [[Black Hat]] comes in and is amazed by this cool floating globe. Of course, being Black Hat, he has to prod this nice globe with a digit. But by putting his finger into one of the oceans of this "real" Earth, without a second thought, he apparently generates a {{w|megatsunami}} of epic proportions, that rolls in over an unidentified city with skyscrapers, utterly dwarfed by a breaking wave.

The second interruption occurs when [[Megan]] arrives and pours liquid (perhaps water) from a drinks bottle onto the "Earth" basketball, seemingly flooding its entire surface. This would make an {{w|List of flood myths|even worse tsunami}}, almost certainly extinguishing all land-dwelling life.




In the third interruption, a cat walks into shot and then playfully attacks the 'Earth'. Anyone still living upon the Earthball will have experienced cataclismic events far greater than Blackhat's digital prodding, especially as the 'model' Earth is no longer suspended and was thus taken 'out of its orbit'. One way or another, that will have surely caused (undepicted) disasters of cataclismic proportions by the measures originally established by Blackhat's tentative interference.


In the fourth and final interruption [[Ponytail]] comes running by Cueball, grabs the "Earth" basketball, probably bouncing it off the floor while {{w|Dribbling#Basketball|dribbling}} towards the {{w|Backboard (basketball)|basketball hoop}} where she actually jumps in an attempt to {{w|Slam dunk|dunk}} the "Earth" basketball. This would ''not'' be good for any residents of "Earth" basketball who have yet to succumb to the events so far (if it is not a reset as mentioned), with the combined pressure, movement and impact damage this simple sequence would surely impart upon them.

This simile-callback is continued in the title text with the idea that "every basketball in existence" (i.e. every basketball upon the "Earth" basketball, as well as the "Earth" basketball itself) is counted towards the score from a single dunking.
[[Randall]] may or may not know exactly how many basketballs there are, perhaps through research for some What-If question or other, but almost certainly assumes that there are no basketballs ''not'' on "Earth" basketball, as well we might ourselves regarding the existence of extra-terrestrial basketballs, even without allowing for recursion. But there might be some question about whether the Earthball's own sub-scale basketballs fall within the regulations.


It is almost certainly not a coincidence that today is {{w|Earth Day}}, which is celebrated annually on 22nd of April to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript| Formatting and description of images}}

:[Cueball is standing next to a floating basketball-sized Earth with his hand near it.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball is now holding a baseball-sized moon. The basketball-sized Earth is still there. Black hat is in panel.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:Black Hat: Hey, cool!
:[Black Hat is touching the Earth ball.]
:Cueball: Um.
:[Unclear scene, possibly a tsunami caused by Black Hat touching the Earth.]
:AAAAAAAA

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: Let's try that again. If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball holding baseball-sized moon, with Megan in frame holding a sports water bottle.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:[Megan squirts the earth with her water bottle and then walks away. The continents have disappeared from the flooded Earth ball.]

:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:Cueball: The Moon- would...
:Cat: MROWL! [Cat jumps at Earth.]
:Cat: RRRRR! [Cat on the ground wrestling with the Earth.]

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball with Moon and Earth balls. Ponytail has entered, running.]
:Cueball: The Moon would, uh...
:[Ponytail has grabbed the Earth ball and is holding or dribbling it, still running.]
:[Ponytail reaches a basketball basket and shoots the Earth ball towards it.]

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T09:41:22Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */ So many edit conflicts! Hope I've integrated my intended changes without annoying anyone!

{{comic
| number = 1515
| date = April 22, 2015
| title = Basketball Earth
| image = basketball earth.png
| titletext = How many points do you get for dunking every basketball in existence at once?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Could definitely use review (or reversion to the first, simpler, explanation) and probably some handy hyperlinking for concepts.}}

In this comic [[Cueball]] is repeatedly attempting to make the comparison that for the {{w|Earth}}-{{w|Moon}} system, the Moon would be about the size of a {{w|baseball}} for an Earth the size of a {{w|basketball}}. A regulation baseball at 29.5" circumference (28.5" for women) is slightly above 30% that of a regulation basketball (9" circumference), whilst the Moon is actually slightly smaller in its own proportion (27%), but it's close enough for demonstrative purposes.

He handily illustrates this with two balls of those sizes that looks like the Earth and the Moon. They are invisibly suspended, or as seems clear from the first row of panels, are actually the real ones shrunk to the relevant size. But before he can finish with this common type of comparison he is being repeatedly interrupted and must begin all over again. Maybe he even have to start with a new Earth-Moon system, since they look the same every time independent of the catastrophe occurring to Earth each time. Each of the four attempt has it's own row of four panels in the comic.

Here is a similar example where someone has made a comparison of the sizes of the Solar system based on a [http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira60.html Sun the size of a Basketball].

It is common to describe the relationship of very large (and very small) objects to common or garden objects on a more human scale. (e.g., coming from smaller scales, "if the an atom were scaled to the size of a soccer stadium, the nucleus itself would be a pea sitting on the centre-spot".)

In the first interruption, [[Black Hat]] comes in and is amazed by this cool floating globe. Of course, being Black Hat, he has to prod this nice globe with a digit. But by putting his finger into one of the oceans of this "real" Earth, without a second thought, he apparently generates a {{w|megatsunami}} of epic proportions, that rolls in over an unidentified city with skyscrapers, utterly dwarfed by a breaking wave.

The second interruption occurs when [[Megan]] arrives and pours liquid (perhaps water) from a drinks bottle onto the "Earth" basketball, seemingly flooding its entire surface. This would make an {{w|List of flood myths|even worse tsunami}}, almost certainly extinguishing all land-dwelling life.




In the third interruption, a cat walks into shot and then playfully attacks the 'Earth'. Anyone still living upon the Earthball will have experienced cataclismic events far greater than Blackhat's digital prodding, especially as the 'model' Earth is no longer suspended and was thus taken 'out of its orbit'. One way or another, that will have surely caused (undepicted) disasters of cataclismic proportions by the measures originally established by Blackhat's tentative interference.


In the fourth and final interruption [[Ponytail]] comes running by Cueball, grabs the "Earth" basketball, probably bouncing it off the floor while {{w|Dribbling#Basketball|dribbling}} towards the {{w|Backboard (basketball)|basketball hoop}} where she actually jumps in an attempt to {{w|Slam dunk|dunk}} the "Earth" basketball. This would ''not'' be good for any residents of "Earth" basketball who have yet to succumb to the events so far (if it is not a reset as mentioned), with the combined pressure, movement and impact damage this simple sequence would surely impart upon them.

This simile-callback is continued in the title text with the idea that "every basketball in existence" (i.e. every basketball upon the "Earth" basketball, as well as the "Earth" basketball itself) is counted towards the score from a single dunking.
[[Randall]] may or may not know exactly how many basketballs there are, perhaps through research for some What-If question or other, but almost certainly assumes that there are no basketballs ''not'' on "Earth" basketball, as well we might ourselves regarding the existence of extra-terrestrial basketballs, even without allowing for recursion. But there might be some question about whether the Earthball's own sub-scale basketballs fall within the regulations.


It is almost certainly not a coincidence that today is {{w|Earth Day}}, which is celebrated annually on 22nd of April to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript| Formatting and description of images}}

:[Cueball is standing next to a floating basketball-sized Earth with his hand near it.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball is now holding a baseball-sized moon. The basketball-sized Earth is still there. Black hat is in panel.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:Black Hat: Hey, cool!
:[Black Hat is touching the Earth ball.]
:Cueball: Um.
:[Unclear scene, possibly a tsunami caused by Black Hat touching the Earth.]
:AAAAAAAA

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: Let's try that again. If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball holding baseball-sized moon, with Megan in frame holding a sports water bottle.]
:Cueball: The Moon would be -
:[Megan squirts the earth with her water bottle and then walks away. The continents have disappeared from the flooded Earth ball.]

:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:Cueball: The Moon- would...
:Cat: MROWL! [Cat jumps at Earth.]
:Cat: RRRRR! [Cat on the ground wrestling with the Earth.]

:[Back to Cueball standing with the basketball-sized Earth.]
:Cueball: If the Earth were the size of a basketball,
:[Cueball with Moon and Earth balls. Ponytail has entered, running.]
:Cueball: The Moon would, uh...
:[Ponytail has grabbed the Earth ball and is holding or dribbling it, still running.]
:[Ponytail reaches a basketball basket and shoots the Earth ball towards it.]

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T05:14:23Z

141.101.98.67:

Talk:1515: Basketball Earth

2015-04-22T05:11:05Z

141.101.98.67: Created page with "Apologies to the first editor, who made a snappier version of what I wrote. For the record, whilst fighting a dodgy internet connection I eventually ended up replacing the fo..."

1180: Virus Venn Diagram

2015-04-11T16:04:13Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1180
| date = March 1, 2013
| title = Virus Venn Diagram
| image = virus venn diagram.png
| titletext = Within five minutes of the Singularity appearing, somebody will suggest defragging it.
}}

==Explanation==
Randall uses an {{w|Euler diagram}} (technically not a {{w|Venn diagram}}) to make fun of clueless computer users. A common response to any computer problem is: "Maybe it has a {{w|Computer virus|virus}}?". The circles in the diagram don't overlap, meaning: 1) Problems that people suspect are virus-caused are never virus-caused. 2) Problems that are actually virus-caused are never suspected by people to be caused by a virus.

The title text refers to the {{w|technological singularity}}, a hypothetical point in the future when {{w|superintelligence}} emerges in computers, so that they can build new computers with ever increasing intelligence. It is seen as impossible to predict what would happen beyond this point; hence the term "singularity". [[1084: Server Problem]] makes a joke on this.

"Defragging" is short for {{w|disk defragmentation}}, an easy, user-friendly action that PC users can undertake to supposedly make their computers run faster. It is therefore a common all-round recommendation to do this, regardless of the problem. [[Randall]] suggests the same clueless users would encounter the singularity and attempt defragging. It probably won't help much.

==Transcript==
:[Euler diagram with two circles that don't intersect.]
:Green circle: Computer problems that make people say, "Maybe it has a virus?"
:Blue circle: Computer problems caused by viruses

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1180: Virus Venn Diagram

2015-04-11T16:02:54Z

141.101.98.67: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1180
| date = March 1, 2013
| title = Virus Venn Diagram
| image = virus venn diagram.png
| titletext = Within five minutes of the Singularity appearing, somebody will suggest defragging it.
}}

==Explanation==
Randall uses an {{w|Euler diagram}} (technically not a {{w|Venn diagram}}) to make fun of clueless computer users. A common response to any computer problem is: "Maybe it has a {{w|Computer virus|virus}}?". The circles in the diagram don't overlap, meaning: 1) Problems that people suspect are virus-caused are never virus-caused. 2) Problems that are actually virus-caused are never suspected by people to be caused by a virus.

The title text refers to the {{w|technological singularity}}, a hypothetical point in the future when {{w|superintelligence}} emerges in computers, so that they can build new computers with ever increasing intelligence. It is seen as impossible to predict what would happen beyond this point; hence the term "singularity". [[1084: Server Problem]] makes a joke on this.

"Defragging" is short for {{w|disk defragmentation}}, an easy, user-friendly action that PC users can undertake to supposedly make their computers run faster. It is therefore a common all-round recommendation to do this, regardless of the problem. [[Randall]] suggests the same clueless users would encounter the singularity and attempt defragging. It probably won't help much{{citation needed}}.

==Transcript==
:[Euler diagram with two circles that don't intersect.]
:Green circle: Computer problems that make people say, "Maybe it has a virus?"
:Blue circle: Computer problems caused by viruses

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Computers]]