explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2611: Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects

2022-04-25T21:24:32Z

141.101.99.236: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2611
| date = April 25, 2022
| title = Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects
| image = cutest_sounding_scientific_effects.png
| titletext = The Stroop-YORP number of a scientific paper is how many of the 16 finalist names (sans 'effect') it manages to casually sneak into the text.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a YORP effect - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This shows a tournament bracket for a hypothetical knock-out competition between different scientific effect000s

;YORP: (an acronym of Yarkovsky, O’Keefe, Radzievskii, and Paddack) is the effect of sunlight on an asteroid with variations of albedo, which can increase its rotation rate, perhaps until it spins itself apart.
;Nocebo: The opposite of the placebo effect. If you believe a medication will have side effects, you are more likely to experience side effects.

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

{{comic discussion}}

1419: On the Phone

2014-09-16T05:38:19Z

141.101.99.236: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1419
| date = September 10, 2014
| title = On the Phone
| image = on_the_phone.png
| titletext = 'No idea what I was thinking! Haha! But anyway, maybe we should check out what this Ba'al guy has to say.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|No explanation yet, just a description}}
What's to explain?

{{w|Fidgeting}} while talking on the telephone is a very common habit and may manifest as doodling or pacing. In the case of the person speaking off-panel (presumably [[Cueball]]), he paces while absent-mindedly moving random objects around the house. Taking this behavior to the extreme, he has also erected an {{w|obelisk}} in the backyard and carved prayers to "Ba'al, the Soul Eater" on it. This may be a reference to the saying "Idle hands are the devil's playthings."

The title text suggests that the "fidgeting" is just a cover story - the off-panel speaker is actually worshipping (or possessed by) Ba'al, and is casually trying to encourage Megan to do the same.

Ba'al, or {{w|Baal_(disambiguation)|Baal}}, refers to one of many deities and demons which go by this name. Given its title "The Soul Eater", it probably refers to {{w|Beelzebub}} (one of the {{w|Classification_of_demons#Binsfeld.27s_classification_of_demons|seven princes of hell}}).

==Transcript==
[Megan is pointing to the left off-panel and looking to the right off-panel.]
: Megan: Why is there a teapot in the bathroom?
: Off-panel voice (right): Sorry. When I'm on the phone I always zone out and pick stuff up and carry it around.
[Megan is in front of an open fridge, holding a hammer.]
: Megan: There's a hammer in the fridge.
: Off-panel voice: Another phone call. I was just fidgeting.
[Megan is walking next to four stacks of household objects: the first has a lightbulb on top of a book, the second has a blender on top of three books, the third has five books (two balanced vertically) with a smaller rectangular object on top, and the fourth has two tennis balls on top of three books]
: Megan: Did you put all our stuff in weird stacks?
: Off-panel voice: Long call. Sorry.
[Megan, outside, looks up at a towering straight-sided object]
: Megan: ...Why is there a giant obelisk in the backyard?
: Off-panel voice: Phone again. My bad.
: Megan: It's carved with prayers to "Ba'al, the Soul-Eater."
: Off-panel voice: Haha! I'm so absentminded.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1319: Automation

2014-01-21T09:55:30Z

141.101.99.236:

Why is this administrator protected? Did an admin lock it just to make sure they'd be the first person to explain it? --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 07:12, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

It is not protected. Check the logs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 07:39, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Alright, done the preliminary explanation. I think I got the joke right, and I'm a programmer myself so I can relate to the graphs. However, laymen may not understand the circumstances of programming world, so maybe simpler words could be used, or a real-life example given. That and I'm not a native English speaker, so someone else should do some grammar check. Also, I posted that from my mobile, it's not really convenient (editing the post itself is already a bit hard) so I'll do some fact checking and citation-linking once I got home. I did check on the screwing definition with TheFreeDictionary, don't have time to do better search now. [[User:Raestloz|Raestloz]] ([[User talk:Raestloz|talk]]) 08:55, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Note that in reality, many tasks can be automated successfully: while the programming takes longer that expected, may not simplify the task as much as expected and the program feels unfinished, outside circumstances can force the programmer to abandon ongoing development and use the program for partial automation instead. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:54, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

The title text reminds me of the old joke about the definition of politics -- "poli-" meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "blood sucking creatures". --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 12:31, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Or the definition of polygon; "poly" = parrot and "gon" = gone (i.e., deceased). Therefore,
"dead parrot" [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.236|141.101.99.236]] 09:55, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Why do the lines on the "Theory" graph converge shortly after automation takes over? Surely, the idea behind writing a code in this example is to save time. Therefore, the original task line should remain relatively constant and the coding line should plunge below it, no? {{unsigned|Jevicci}}

: Once the automation takes over, the programmer will no longer have to do anything, the program will take care of it [[User:Raestloz|Raestloz]] ([[User talk:Raestloz|talk]]) 00:22, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1095: Crazy Straws

2013-11-01T17:44:30Z

141.101.99.236:

Compare [[915:_Connoisseur|xkcd.com/915]]. [[User:Arlo James Barnes|Arlo James Barnes]] ([[User talk:Arlo James Barnes|talk]]) 10:06, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

*"Subcultures" is misspelled in the comic. Perhaps Randall will fix it and reupload? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 15:17, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
**Randall has corrected the mistake, but the image on this page is still the old one. Would we want to keep both versions of the image in the interest of completeness? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 00:02, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

* Have to admit, this one went a bit over my head. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 20:38, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

*Fractals not only have an unlimited level of detail; they are (most times) self-similar in the sense that you'll find the same pattern on every level of detail. Just like finding the equivalent of finding the "Paris hilton of the plastic straw subcultures' hobbyists' splinter group." [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 09:06, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

*I think we should get the corrected comic, but note that it was originally misspelled in the explanation. Tebow Time, Twice a Day. 17:19, 16 August 2012 (UTC) ([[User talk:jjhuddle|talk]])

*It's a mistake to think the every-pickier level of detail is a flaw in these interest subcultures. Smaller and smaller levels of study are what flesh out our knowledge of the world. And myriad small subgroups of shared interests allow many people to achieve excellence and status, not just in their minds but in an (admittedly small) range of reality. Examples: the people who maintain and improve the Kennedy line of Boston Terriers; people whose specialty is tooth wear in prehuman hominids; people who parse xkcd comics.
** This comment was mine, attribution corrected.[[User:Noni Mausa|Noni Mausa]] ([[User talk:Noni Mausa|talk]]) 12:39, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

* I don't think that the comic means it as a flaw, I think it's a just a (humourous) observation, not a negative critisism.

* Agreed, and it even goes on here (just drop in on the community portal, to see tempests in a tea pot such as whether he's [[Cueball]] or [[Rob]]...) I couldn't help but think that RM poked his head in on this site and came up with this comic as a response. (Of course, that would be greatly overestimating our importance in the grand scheme of things, but we are all entitled to our little fantasies of grandeur, no?) Ah, well... it seemed perfect timing nonetheless. '''By the way, folks: please sign your posts.''' Four tildes, a la <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>, is all it takes... -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:30, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

* I don't think the fractal analogy holds because human subcultures cannot be nested infinitely deep. At some point, subcultures will come down to individual humans, who aren't also (infinitely deep) subcultures. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.155.184|70.31.155.184]] 15:06, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
** Randall is using the term hyperbolically — his point is that subcultures have ludicrous amounts of detail, not necessarily infinite. [[Special:Contributions/108.233.253.211|108.233.253.211]] 18:26, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
*** Half of me disagrees with you, with the other half in an argument with itself over from which crazy straw will Paris Hilton look best drinking. [[Special:Contributions/146.186.149.47|146.186.149.47]] 18:49, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
**** Still, even people so crazy they are kept in straitjacket all the time can have only several dozens of personalities ... there's not enough space in brain for infinite. -- [[Special:Contributions/89.177.52.2|89.177.52.2]] 09:36, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
** I still believe Randall's point was not the infinite detail, but self-similarity. Regardless on whether you look at something very popular or a niche - you'll always find exactly the same social structures. [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 06:05, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
** Funny, I was just reading the article http://www.economist.com/node/21560559 -- And while they're not infinite, there's a damn lot of (microbial) subcultures within a human too!

* Isn't there any reference to the [http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html Open Letter to Hobbyists] and the famous hacker Eric Raymond?
** I keep coming back to this page to see who "Eric" is. I don't think it's Eric Raymond (no apparent connection, from what I can see). Any insights? [[User:Zelmo|Zelmo]] ([[User talk:Zelmo|talk]]) 03:56, 18 August 2012 (UTC)
*** "Eric" isn't an uncommon name, and in fact, there's a well documented "[http://www.catb.org/esr/ecsl/ Eric Conspiracy]" out there. While ESR is a prominent Eric, I see nothing to tie the Eric in this comic to ESR specifically. For that matter, I'd be hard pressed to see a reference to Bill Gate's "Open Letter to Hobbyists", either. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 17:54, 19 August 2012 (UTC)
*** I wonder if the comic is making an oblique reference to String theory and Loop Quantum Gravity. There was (and still is, in some places) a lot of hostility between the two camps, most easily visible in the articles and comments of various physics blogs. This would kind of tie in with the 'fractal' comment, since you see this same division into strings (or wiggly crazy straws) and loops - it's a pattern that repeats when you look at physics groups or crazy straw groups. In that case, the Eric would be "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Verlinde Erik Verlinde]". I know it's a bit of a stretch, but what do you think? [[User:Slouchingtb|Slouchingtb]] ([[User talk:Slouchingtb|talk]]) 01:56, 20 August 2012 (UTC)
**** Okay, at this point the depth of the discussion has just corroborated the point of the comic. Good job, everyone, pack it up. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.236|141.101.99.236]] 17:44, 1 November 2013 (UTC)