explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1319: Automation

2014-01-22T19:22:49Z

141.101.99.248:

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)

::Yes, but I agree with Jevicci's comment and that's what I was going to post. The point of the automation is (in theory) to save effort. After an initial input of lots of work coding, the "automation" line drops to near-zero. That makes sense, but the "regular way" line should continue horizontal like it does in the 2nd graph because if you don't automate, it should continue to take effort. The first chart suggests that even in theory, automation takes more work and the same amount of time as the old fashioned way.

::I think what Randall is trying to say is EITHER that a) programmers will automate for the sake of the challenge or it being less tedious than the basic way even if it doesn't save time. b) programmers will automate even if it doesn't save time because they can use the code next time the problem arises. But I agree, I think the first graph's "regular way" line should have either continued horizontal, or tappered off somewhere after the "automation" line does. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:56, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

:::As far as I can tell, the line labelled "work on original task" is not meant to represent the amount of work you'd be doing without any automation (which would indeed remain a straight horizontal line), as the "theory" graph doesn't compare two separate scenarios. Rather, it's just there to be a baseline amount of work (programming work being done on top), which diminishes to near-zero as soon as automation takes over. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.221|108.162.231.221]] 18:28, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

::::Yea, in the theory you would continue performing the task while also coding the automation. Once the automation is done, you work on neither the original nor the coding so both drop to zero. In practice, you keep doing the work and never finish the automation, so the coding goes up and the original stays the same. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.29|173.245.48.29]] 22:20, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

:::: It makes more sense if you see the lines as' amount of work existing for a task'. The two lines are the given work and work given to self. Top graph: The amount of work for the given task remains constant until you solve the automation (work you gave yourself) at which point both drop as given work is now done and you won't carry on working on the automation anymore, free time. The graph doesn't reach zero as there will always be more you could do (like Richardson's Theory). On the second graph, you never work on the original task, get consumed by automation and end up with far more work than was ever presented (as pointed out, after the rethink) and there is a total increase in the amount of work which exists for you, without actually touching the given work... whether it actually gets done in the end or not doesn't matter as you could stop and the graphs would stay like they are. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.248|141.101.99.248]] 19:22, 22 January 2014 (UTC) thesuperkev

In other words, when automating, NEVER rethink. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 00:21, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

:And if you really must rethink, at least deploy the program first. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:17, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

950: Mystery Solved

2013-12-05T16:43:26Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 950
| date = September 12, 2011
| title = Mystery Solved
| image = mystery_solved.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The Roanoke Lost Colonists founded Roanoke, the Franklin Expedition reached the Pacific in 2009 when the Northwest Passage opened, and Jimmy Hoffa currently heads the Teamsters Union--he just started going by 'James'.
}}

==Explanation==
The aviation pioneer {{w|Amelia Earhart|Amelia Earhart's}} plane comes back to land after it went missing in 1937. Earhart was presumed dead and that her plane went down sometime during her journey. But, this comic supposes that it just took her 74 years to fly around the Earth without really ageing a day. (This means that her average speed was under one mile a day; although she says it's a long flight it can't be that long as no plane flies that slow.)

The title text proposed a few more solutions to mysteries including the lost colonists of {{w|Roanoke Colony|Roanoke}}, who were one of the first groups to come to North America, suddenly disappeared, and leaving their colony untouched. The {{w|Franklin's lost expedition|Franklin Expedition}} was a British voyage in 1845 to study the {{w|Northwest Passage}} that also disappeared somewhere in northern Canada. {{w|Jimmy Hoffa}} was the famous {{w|International Brotherhood of Teamsters|Teamsters Union}} leader who went missing in 1975 and declared dead in 1982 (possibly murdered).

==Transcript==
:[A twin prop airplane flies high overhead.]
:Off-screen person: What's that airplane?

:[The plane lands, a pilot steps out and waves to the crowd.]
:Off-screen person: Holy crap - Is that Amelia Earhart?

:[The frame shows a close up of Amelia Earhart.]
:Amelia: Hey everyone! My flight was a success!
:Off-screen person: But... Where were you?

:[The frame shows a wide view of Amelia again, she stops waving.]
:Amelia: I flew around the world!
:Off-screen person: But you disappeared in 1937!

:Amelia: Right, to fly around the world.
:Off-screen person: It's 2011!
:Amelia: The world is big. It's a long flight.

:Off-Screen person: But you...
:Off-Screen person: It's not...
:Off-Screen person: I-
:Amelia: Can I talk to someone smarter?

{{comic discussion}}

899: Number Line

2013-12-01T20:00:07Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 899
| date = May 16, 2011
| title = Number Line
| image = number line.png
| titletext = The Wikipedia page List of Numbers opens with "This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it."
}}

== Explanation ==
{{incomplete}}
Once again, Randall seems to be just messing around, this time with a number line.

*Negative numbers have the same magnitude as positive numbers but can only be used to represent the removal of that same magnitude (hence the term "difference" being used for subtraction).

*'''0.99'''.... is {{w|0.999...|provably equal to 1}} because there is no number between 0.99.... and 1. ([http://www.exploringbinary.com/binary-converter/ Binary 0.0000000000000000000000000001 = 0.0000000037252902984619140625])

*The {{w|Golden ratio}} is the length to width of rectangles that are most pleasing to the eye. The number which is about 1.61803, is the numeric value is called "phi", named for the Greek sculptor Phidias. The {{w|Parthenon}} is a perfect rectangle in size. The number of spirals on the head of [http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpampages/sunflower.html Sunflowers] are also said to exhibit the Golden mean/ratio.

*Forbidden Region and Unexplored are both map jokes.

*{{w|e (mathematical constant)|e}}(Euler's number) is 2.71828... and π(pi) is 3.14159265...

*2.9299372 is a President's Day reference. It is the average of e and pi just as the American Presidents' Day is always observed on the 3rd Monday of February (between {{w|George Washington}} and {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}'s birthdays). (For non-US residents, Washington and Lincoln were the 1st and 16th Presidents of the USA, respectively. Each has a celebrated place in American history.)

*{{w|Gird}} Could be a reference to [http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001120/secret_number.shtml Bleem] - a fictional integer between 3 and 4, also see [http://icarly.wikia.com/wiki/Derf iCarly's Derf] - a fictional integer between 5 and 6, [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bleen George Carlin's Bleen] - a fictional integer between 6 and 7, and [http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-033 SCP-033] - a fictional number that causes freaky things to happen.
**Interestingly, gird seems to resemble an older shape of the digit 4, such as seen on [http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/mappinghist/large2296.html this Ptolemaic world map from 1482].

*Site of the Battle of 4.108 is another map joke, implying that 4.108 is an actual location, where an eponymous battle was previously fought.

*It is often the case in the media that "It has been 7 years..." or "In the last 7 years..." etc. It is made to seem like a believable statistic but cannot always be true. Alternatively, it is intended as an absurd joke that the number 7 is just "not to be believed".

*8 is not the largest even prime. 2 is. A joke intended for those who clearly know that the claim is false.

*The last entry seems to be a reference to {{w|discrete mathematics}}, which rarely deals with numbers higher than 9. It finishes off the tone of the comic that seems to be shaping the number line terms of what is commonly useful to certain areas of applied mathematics, rather than a complete, accurate version of the number line.

*The title text is a literalist joke implying that Wikipedia would like its "{{w|List of numbers}}" page to include every number from negative infinity to infinity.

== Transcript ==
:[Number line ranging from -1 to 10.]
:[Arrow pointing left, towards negative numbers] Negative "imitator" numbers (do not use)
:[Line right before the number one] 0.99... (acutally 0.0000000372 less than 1)
:[Line at the golden ratio.] Φ - Parthenon; sunflowers; golden ratio; wait, come back, I have facts!
:[Line at a region between two and 2.2] forbidden region
:[Line at Euler's number.] e
:[Line a bit before 3] 2.9299372 (e and pi, observed)
:[Line at π.] π
:[Line at 3.5 with a ribbon as the numeral] Gird - accepted as canon by orthodox mathematicians
:[Line a bit after 4.] site of battle of 4.108
:[Blob between 4.5 and 6.5 labeled unexplored.]
:[Line at seven.] Number indicating a factoid is made up ("every 7 years...", "science says there are 7...", etc)
:[Line at eight.] Largest even prime
:[Line at 8.75.] If you encounter a number higher than this, you"re not doing real math

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

1056: Felidae

2013-11-27T15:38:08Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1056
| date = May 16, 2012
| title = Felidae
| image = felidae.png
| titletext = 'Smilodon fatalis' narrowly edged out 'Tyrannosaurus rex' to win this year's Most Badass Latin Names competition, after edging out 'Dracorex hogwartsia' and 'Stygimoloch spinifer' (meaning 'horned dragon from the river of death') in the semifinals.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
This comic shows a graph with theee parts.

First, the names are sorted up by genera (plural of genus, a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms) from bottom to top of which animals would win in a fight. Secondly, the names within the genus are then sorted by coolness of name from left to right. Thirdly, in red you can see the direction that {{w|Apple Inc.|Apple}} has taken with nicknaming the versions of their {{w|OS X}} operating system. They started at v10.0 "Cheetah", and have moved through genuses from there in no order that this chart can make out.

Bobcats are an [[:Category:Bobcats|in joke]] of the comic in that they appear in the strangest places. The genus ''Puma'' here only lists synonyms for the puma (see {{w|cougar}}) instead of {{w|Puma_(genus)|the actual genus}}. Of course, the three OS X versions named by three of these synonyms are not the same.

Despite being named after "Hogwarts", the magical school from the Harry Potter series of books and movies, ''{{w|Dracorex hogwartsia}}'' is real.

Since this comic was published, Apple have stopped naming versions of OS X after big cats: v10.8 "Mountain Lion" was followed by v10.9 "Mavericks", named after a beach in California, and will be followed by v10.10 "Syrah", a type of grape also known as Shiraz.

==Transcript==
:Well-known felines:
:[A graph organizing various feline species labeled with common names ordered by Genera (in order of which would win in a fight) on the y axis, and coolness of name on the x axis.]
:Smilodon (extinct): "Saber-toothed cat (scientific name: Smilodon fatalis)
:Panthera: "Jaguar", "Leopard", "Snow Leopard", "Tiger", "Lion"
:Puma: "Cougar", "Puma", "Panther", "Mountain Lion"
:Other felidae: "Ocelot", "Cheetah"
:Felis & Lynx: "Housecat", "Bobcat", "Wildcat", "Lynx"
:[Some elements are further connected using an unbranched acyclic digraph. The elements are connected thus: "Cheetah" -> "Puma" -> "Jaguar" -> "Panther" -> "Tiger" -> "Leopard" -> "Snow Leopard" -> "Lion" -> "Mountain Lion".]
:The OS X Problem

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

316: Loud Sex

2013-11-27T15:21:36Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 316
| date = September 14, 2007
| title = Loud Sex
| image = loud_sex.png
| titletext = Spherical or parabolic reflectors would of course lead to aberrant behavior.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]]'s neighbor likes to engage in loud sex, which keeps Cueball awake at night, and she pretends to apologize for it as a way of bragging, so Cueball wants to get revenge. A usual way to do it is to retaliate by also having loud sex when the neighbor is not, thus inflicting the same to her as she did. But Cueball adds a science nerd's touch to it, by using an elliptical reflector dish. As shown on the schema, such a dish reflects the sound waves in a way that all waves originating from a specific point (the first focus of the ellipse the dish's shape is based on) converge after reflection to a specific other point (the second focus of the same ellipse).[1] Cueball calibrates and installs his elliptical dish in a way that all the sound coming from his loud girlfriend's head during sex, converge after reflection to his neighbor's head in her bed. This makes his loud sex far louder to her, than hers was to him (the concentrated noise seems loud enough to exceed the {{w|threshold of pain}}).

The title text makes a {{w|double entendre}} on the word "aberrant", where a spherical or parabolic reflector would cause distortion, but the play on words leads the reader to believe that aberrant sexual behavior would occur.

[1]: Note: that is actually the behaviour of an {{w|Ellipsoid|''ellipsoidal''}} reflector dish, or an elliptic one in two dimensions; but in 3D an elliptic one works similarly, only converging waves from a line to another line, instead of points.

==Transcript==
:My neighbor has loud sex.
:[Cueball in bed, covering his head with pillow. There is sound coming from outside.]
:''OHHHHH''
:''GASP''
:''AAAAAAA''
:Good for her and all, but it keeps me up at night.

:And she's so smug about it.
:[Cueball and neighbor coming out of their apartments.]
:Neighbor: Sorry, could you hear us last night? Oh, you know how it gets sometimes.
:Cueball: Not really...

:But tonight I finally get my revenge. Because now I have a loud girlfriend too.
:[Megan with "LOUD" and an arrow pointing to her.]

:And an elliptical reflector dish.
:[Diagram of an elliptical reflector dish.]

:[Cueball and Megan having sex, with dish behind them reflecting the sex sound effects, in a way that they focus, through walls, on his neighbor sitting up in bed while holding her head in pain.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Physics]]

368: Bass

2013-11-27T15:18:38Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 368
| date = January 9, 2008
| title = Bass
| image = bass.png
| titletext = And sometimes I use it to retaliate against the guy upstairs with the loud girlfriend and the elliptical dish.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] and [[Cueball]] are standing inside a room behind a window hearing an obnoxious car outside playing loud music with deep bass. Black Hat created a machine that is able to blow out the car's speakers (by playing the same soundwaves back at them, but with the {{w|Phase (waves)|phase}} slightly offset, the phase difference will set up a {{w|resonance}} in the car's speakers big enough for them to destroy themselves). In a stroke of evil, he then starts playing Shirley Ellis' ''{{w|The Name Game}}'' to show how annoying the man was acting. At the end Black Hat tops this by playing the song {{w|Macarena (song)|''Macarena''}}. According to [http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/yradish/top-10-most-annoying-songs-time-220759559.html a random blog], ''Macarena'' is the fifth most annoying song of all time.

The title text refers to a situation very similar to comic [[316: Loud Sex]], where an elliptical reflector is used to focus sound waves.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball are standing in a room with one window. Black Hat is pushing a box with an elliptical dish on top towards the window.]
:''THUMPA THUMPA''

:Cueball: The bass from that car is driving me nuts.
:Black Hat: Me too. Give me a hand here.

:[The dish is aimed out the window; Black Hat plugs the device into the wall.]
:Cueball: I'm afraid to ask.
:Black Hat: The system detects bass rhythms and floods the target with a phase-shifted replica signal.
:Black Hat: The resonance should blow out their speakers.

:[The side of a building. The dish of the device is visible through a window, emitting sound waves.]
:''THUMPA THUMPA''
:''BLAM''

:[Back in the room.]
:Black Hat: Speakers down. Now flip that red switch.
:[Cueball does so with a "click."]

:[Back to the outside view, more sound waves.]
:''SHIRLEY SHIRLEY BO BIRLEY BANANA FANNA FO FIRLEY''
:Cueball: You're horrifying.
:Black Hat: Okay, now throw the switch labeled "Macarena".

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

483: Fiction Rule of Thumb

2013-11-25T23:24:30Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 483
| date = October 1, 2008
| title = Fiction Rule of Thumb
| image = fiction_rule_of_thumb.png
| titletext = Except for anything by Lewis Carroll or Tolkien, you get five made-up words per story. I'm looking at you, Anathem.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] uses a graph that purports that the more words an author makes up, the less likely his book is any good. To demonstrate this, he provides an example where a hypothetical author uses three made up words, "Fra'as", "Farmlings", and "Krytoses". The latter of these words are described very unprofessionally as being "like swords but ''awesomer''" (and of course "awesomer" is itself a made-up word). The author clearly does not see that having to insert explanations of all the made up words makes the sentence extremely clumsy.

The title text declares that the average author is allowed five invented words per book before this rule is invoked against them, but mentions that {{w|J.R.R. Tolkien}} and {{w|Lewis Carroll}} are exceptions, as they are both very famous, well-respected writers {{w|Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|who made words up}} {{w|Jabberwocky|all the time}}.

Randall also makes a dig at {{w|Anathem}}, a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson about a monastic order on another planet that studies science, mathematics, and philosophy. The book is noteworthy for having a very large number of made-up or repurposed words, enough to require its own glossary. One of the more common fake words is ''fraa'' (without an apostrophe).

==Transcript==
:[Line graph shown with an inverse curve.]
:[Y-Axis: Probability book is good.]
:[X-Axis: Number of words made up by author.]
:[The curve becomes less steep as the number of words increase.]
:"The Elders, or ''Fra'as,'' guarded the ''farmlings'' (children) with their ''krytoses,'' which are like swords but ''awesomer''..."
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]

483: Fiction Rule of Thumb

2013-11-25T23:16:57Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 483
| date = October 1, 2008
| title = Fiction Rule of Thumb
| image = fiction_rule_of_thumb.png
| titletext = Except for anything by Lewis Carroll or Tolkien, you get five made-up words per story. I'm looking at you, Anathem.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] uses a graph that purports that the more words an author makes up, the less likely his book is any good. To demonstrate this, he provides an example where a hypothetical author uses three made up words, "Fra'as", "Farmlings", and "Krytoses". The latter of these words are described very unprofessionally as being "like swords but ''awesomer''" (and of course "awesomer" is itself a made-up word). The author clearly does not see that having to insert explanations of all the made up words makes the sentence extremely clumsy.

The title text declares that the average author is allowed five invented words per book before this rule is invoked against them, but mentions that {{w|J.R.R. Tolkien}} and {{w|Lewis Carroll}} are exceptions, as they are both very famous, well-respected writers {{w|Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|who made words up}} {{w|Jabberwocky|all the time}}.

Randall also makes a dig at {{w|Anathem}}, a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson about a monastic order on another planet that studies science, mathematics, and philosophy. The book is noteworthy for having a very large number of made-up or repurposed words.

==Transcript==
:[Line graph shown with an inverse curve.]
:[Y-Axis: Probability book is good.]
:[X-Axis: Number of words made up by author.]
:[The curve becomes less steep as the number of words increase.]
:"The Elders, or ''Fra'as,'' guarded the ''farmlings'' (children) with their ''krytoses,'' which are like swords but ''awesomer''..."
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]

612: Estimation

2013-11-25T21:05:13Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 612
| date = July 20, 2009
| title = Estimation
| image = estimation.png
| titletext = They could say "the connection is probably lost," but it's more fun to do naive time-averaging to give you hope that if you wait around for 1,163 hours, it will finally finish.
}}

==Explanation==
When moving or copying files using the {{w|File Explorer|Windows Explorer}}, a dialog box opens to inform the user of how many of the files being moved have been moved with an estimate of how long the rest of the files should take. However, this estimate is often subject to seemingly random and extreme changes from a time measured in seconds or minutes to one measured in hours or days. This is caused by variations in file transfer speed (for instance, transfers of many small files are generally slower than transfers of a few large files, because of per-file overhead). A brief slowdown may cause the system to display that the transfer will take a long time (based on the total amount of data yet be transferred and the current low speed), and then revert to a more accurate estimate when the bottleneck is cleared.

The joke in the comic is the idea that this feature was actually purposefully implemented and that the person who did so actually talks like that. He tells some friends on the phone how long it will take for him to arrive at their meeting point. However, like with Windows's estimation feature, he quickly changes his estimate multiple times from the extremes of days to seconds.

The title text references the fact that if the connection is lost, and data can no longer be transmitted, the estimation just gets larger and larger as time goes on rather than realizing that no data being sent means there is no connection.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: I'm just outside town, so I should be there in fifteen minutes.
:Cueball: Actually, it's looking more like six days.
:Cueball: No, wait, thirty seconds.

:The author of the Windows file copy dialog visits some friends.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

665: Prudence

2013-11-25T20:33:51Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 665
| date = November 20, 2009
| title = Prudence
| image = prudence.png
| titletext = Moments later, the White Witch rolls up and, confused, tries to tempt the probe with a firmware upgrade.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references the fantasy novel series "{{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}}" by {{w|C. S. Lewis}}. In the first book, four children discover the fictional world of Narnia which can be accessed through a wardrobe.

The comic mocks at the imprudent behaviour shown by the protagonists of the novel, who enter the world of Narnia without knowing anything about its dangers. In the comic, Megan discovers the magical wardrobe while playing {{w|hide-and-seek}}. Unlike the original characters, Megan does not precipitately set foot into Narnia. Instead, she fetches her technical equipment and sends a remote-controlled probe through the wardrobe door in order to sound the situation first. The probe can be seen in the last panel, encountering {{w|Mr. Tumnus}} the faun with an umbrella at a lamppost in a snowy wood. This picture is the first impression of Narnia in the novels and was apparently Lewis' original idea for the series.

The {{w|White Witch}} mentioned in the title text is the main antagonist in the novels. She originally lures one of the protagonists with a hot drink and Turkish Delight. In the scenario displayed in the comic, she tries to tempt the probe with a firmware update accordingly.

Megan takes a scientific approach to Narnia again in [[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3|a later comic]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan is running towards a closed wardrobe.]
:Someone off-panel: Everyone hide! 99... 98... 97...

:[Megan opens the wardrobe.]
:Wardrobe: click

:Megan, looking inside: !!!

:[Megan looks thoughtful.]

:[Megan walks away.]

:[Megan returns with an armful of electronics.]

:[Megan is kneeling, typing on a laptop, which has a cord extending into the wardrobe.]

:[A robotic probe is approaching Mr. Tumnus, the faun, under the lamppost in narnia.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan‏‎]]

694: Retro Virus

2013-11-25T20:23:31Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 694
| date = January 27, 2010
| title = Retro Virus
| image = retro_virus.png
| titletext = He says this is the year of Linux on the desktop! The world of Windows will fade any moment now!
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
This comic uses the word "retro" as a reference to {{w|Retro|retro style}} and "virus" as a reference to {{w|Computer virus|computer viruses}}. This {{w|portmanteau}} is also a double entendre for a {{w|retrovirus}}, which is a type of biological virus.

[[Cueball]] finds himself needing to clean a virus off his {{w|Microsoft Windows|Windows}} machine. Unfortunately, the {{w|Windows Registry|registry}} editor (regedit), a key tool in manipulating Windows, is affected. A coworker comes over and mentions that it has been a while since he has worried about cleaning viruses in the {{w|Windows API#Versions|Win32 API}}.

Cueball responds that {{w|Windows XP}} operating system is still the most popular (which it [http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=11&qpcustomb=0&qpsp=2009&qpnp=4&qptimeframe=Y was] in 2010, and remained until mid-2012), but is drowned out by another coworker ([[Ponytail]]) who exclaims that it is as if they are back in 2003. Back then, XP machines were the standard in many places. Windows XP is also far more susceptible to viruses than many other systems, e.g. {{w|Linux}}, {{w|Mac OS X}}, etc.

Cueball's coworkers continue to make fun of him by referencing things that were important back in 2003 like {{w|Howard Dean}}, {{w|Friendster}} or {{w|Kazaa}}. Such things have since fallen largely out of prominence.

The title text is a reference to the {{w|Desktop Linux#Year of Desktop Linux|year of Linux on the desktop}}, which is an expectation that in an upcoming year, Linux will make a large breakthrough and be widely adopted by businesses and personal users. The expectation has been around since about 2000, however, and has not exactly happened (although non-desktop devices running {{w|Android (operating system)|Android}}, a Linux-based OS, are now very common). If it were to happen, the large market share enjoyed by Windows OSes would fade away.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is using a computer.]
:Cueball: Argh, this is frustrating.
:Friend (off-panel): What?

:Cueball: This Windows box has a virus and I can't get RegEdit to-
:Friend (off-panel): Haha, cleaning viruses? Man, what a blast from the past!

:Friend: Check it out! Dude's cleaning Win32 viruses! Remember that?
:Ponytail (off-panel): It's like we're back in 2003!
:Cueball (small): Hey, XP's still the most-

:Friend: Did you get the virus from Kazaa?
:Ponytail (with laptop): Guess what I just read on Howard Dean's Friendster!?
:Cueball (head in hands): Guys...

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

816: Applied Math

2013-11-25T19:18:29Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 816
| date = November 8, 2010
| title = Applied Math
| image = applied_math.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Dear Reader: Enclosed is a check for ninety-eight cents. Using your work, I have proven that this equals the amount you requested.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Donald Knuth}} is a {{w|computer scientist}} that has written several computer science textbooks and he offers {{w|Knuth reward check|monetary rewards}} for anyone finding errors in his publications. The first error found in each book is worth US$2.56. Other suggestions are worth less than $2.56, but a check is still sent out if Dr. Knuth finds them to be reasonable.

In this comic, [[Megan]] uses a proof to invalidate logic itself. And then, she writes a letter to Dr. Knuth to collect her money for the 1,317,408 errors in {{w|The Art of Computer Programming}} at $2.56 each. Assuming only the latest edition of each volume is considered, the number of errors would average to more than 400 errors per page—that would imply that practically every single word is considered wrong by Megan.

In the title text is the reply from Dr. Knuth in which he uses Megan's logic disproving proof to show that the amount she requested is equal to 98 cents. This is an example of the {{w|principle of explosion}}, referenced in [[704: Principle of Explosion|a previous comic]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is standing at a whiteboard considering a logical proof. The proof assumes ''P'' and deduces ''P ∧ P.]
:Ponytail: Wow. I can't find fault with your proof.
:[Ponytail is still looking at the white board, the frame expands to show Megan walking away, rubbing her hands together in an evil manner.]
:Ponytail: You've show the inconsistency -- and thus the invalidity -- of basic logic itself.
:Megan: Excellent, on to step two.
:[Megan sits down at a desk and begins to write.]
:Dear Dr. Knuth,
:[She continues to write.]
:I am writing to collect from you the $3,372,564.45 I am owed for discovering 1,317,408 errors in The Art of Computer Programming...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Logic]]

866: Compass and Straightedge

2013-11-25T18:53:16Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 866
| date = February 28, 2011
| title = Compass and Straightedge
| image = compass and straightedge.png
| titletext = The Greeks long suspected this, but it wasn't until April 12th of 1882 that Ferdinand von Lindemann conclusively proved it when he constructed himself the most awesome birthday party possible and nobody showed up.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Compass and straightedge constructions}} are a class of problems in classical geometry. They take the form "Using only a compass and a straightedge, construct X", where X is a geometric figure such as a regular pentagon. The subject is typically covered in high school mathematics. Three such constructions remained unsolved for thousands of years before being shown impossible with the use of modern algebraic techniques.

The comic begins as if it were stating a problem in classical geometry but veers into an observation that no amount of technical knowledge can substitute for human companionship. An additional layer of humor is that [[Cueball]] is a stick figure so technically it is possible to create friends with a straightedge and a compass.

{{w|Ferdinand von Lindemann}} was a German mathematician who showed in 1882 that pi is not a zero of any polynomial with rational coefficients, i.e. it is a transcendental number. Transcendental numbers cannot be constructed with straightedge and compass. This proves that {{w|squaring the circle}} (a problem where it is required to construct a square with the same area as a given circle) is impossible, being as the sides of the square would need to be √π times the radius of the circle, and pi is not constructible.

==Transcript==
:I learned in high school what geometers discovered long ago:
:[Cueball, holding a compass and straightedge, looks sad.]
:Using only a compass and straightedge, it's impossible to construct friends.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

872: Fairy Tales

2013-11-25T18:43:40Z

141.101.99.248: best I could do for limit notation without TeX or something

{{comic
| number = 872
| date = March 14, 2011
| title = Fairy Tales
| image = fairy tales.png
| titletext = Goldilocks' discovery of Newton's method for approximation required surprisingly few changes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
An {{w|eigenvector}} is a mathematical concept. It refers to elements of a vector space which remain unchanged (except possibly being scaled to be longer or shorter) under some mapping. A simple example might make this clearer. Suppose we are on the Cartesian (or x-y) plane, and have a mapping which reflects vectors about the y-axis. Then a vector which lies on the y-axis would be unchanged under this reflection, and hence be an eigenvector of this mapping.

The concept of an eigenvector has nothing to do with the fairy tale {{w|Cinderella}}, therefore [[Megan]] confuses [[Cueball]] when she asks whether it occurred in the story of Cinderella.

The story of Cinderella includes Cinderella going to a ball in disguise, dancing with a prince and then leaving early and quickly, so she leaves a glass slipper behind. The prince then uses the shoe to find Cinderella. [[Megan]] says that the way she learned it, the prince used an eigenvector and corresponding eigenvalue to match the shoe to its owner. This is a somewhat logical mathematical connection to make, as eigenvectors and values are important properties of a matrix.

Megan explains that her mother would talk about her work, math, while she fell asleep in the midst of reading bed time stories. The middle panel refers to the story of {{w|The Ant and the Grasshopper}} with the addition of what is likely a reference to the {{w|Poincaré conjecture}}, a (now-misnamed) theorem in mathematics. Megan also mentions two other story changes. Inductive White and the (''n''−1) Dwarves is a combination of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves with the {{w|principle of induction}}, and The lim''x''→∞(''x'') Little Pigs combines {{w|The Three Little Pigs}} with {{w|Limit (mathematics)|mathematical limits}}. It "got weird toward the end" because the number of pigs tends to infinity as the story progresses.

In the title text, {{w|Newton's method}} for approximation is a method for finding successively better approximations to the zeroes (or roots) of a real-valued function. In {{w|Goldilocks}}, the protagonist finds successively better porridge and appropriately sized chairs in a house where three bears lived. In the same way, in the Mom's version of the fairy tale, she would find successively better approximations to zeroes instead of porridge and chairs instead of successively better bowls of porridge.

==Transcript==
:[Megan sits in an armchair, reading a book.]
:Megan: Are there eigenvectors in ''Cinderella''?
:Cueball: ... no?
:Megan: The prince didn't use them to match the shoe to its owner?
:Cueball: What are you ''talking'' about?
:Megan: Dammit.
:[Megan is in bed, mom is sitting on the edge of the bed reading.]
:My mom is one of those people who falls asleep while reading, but keeps talking. She's a math professor, so she'd start rambling about her work.
:Mom:But while the ant gathered food ...
:Mom:... zzzz ...
:Mom:... the grasshopper contracted to a point on a manifold that was ''not'' a 3-sphere ...
:I'm still not sure which versions are real.
:Cueball: You didn't notice the drastic subject changes?
:Megan: Well, sometimes her versions were better. We loved ''Inductive White and the (n−1) Dwarfs''.
:Megan: I guess ''The limx→∞(x) Little Pigs'' did get a bit weird toward the end...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Romance]]

872: Fairy Tales

2013-11-25T18:32:08Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 872
| date = March 14, 2011
| title = Fairy Tales
| image = fairy tales.png
| titletext = Goldilocks' discovery of Newton's method for approximation required surprisingly few changes.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
{{w|Eigenvector|Eigenvector}} is a mathematical concept. It refers to elements of a vector space which remain unchanged (except possibly being scaled to be longer or shorter) under some mapping. A simple example might make this clearer. Suppose we are on the Cartesian (or x-y) plane, and have a mapping which reflects vectors about the y-axis. Then a vector which lies on the y-axis would be unchanged under this reflection, and hence be an eigenvector of this mapping.

The concept of an eigenvector has nothing to do with the fairy tale Cinderella, therefore [[Megan]] confuses [[Cueball]] when she asks whether it occurred in the story of Cinderella.

The story of Cinderella includes Cinderella going to a ball in disguise, dancing with a prince and then leaving early and quickly, so she leaves a glass slipper behind. The prince then uses the shoe to find Cinderella. [[Megan]] says that the way she learned it, the prince used an eigenvector and corresponding eigenvalue to match the shoe to its owner. This is a somewhat logical mathematical connection to make, as eigenvectors and values are important properties of a matrix.

Megan explains that her mother would talk about her work, math, while she fell asleep in the midst of reading bed time stories. The middle panel refers to the story of the Grasshopper and the Ant with the addition of what is likely a reference to the {{w|Poincaré conjecture|Poincaré conjecture}}, a (now-misnamed) theorem in Mathematics. Megan also mentions two other story changes. Inductive White and the n - 1 dwarves is a combination of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves with the principle of induction, and the LIM x->∞ (x) little pigs combines the 3 little pigs with mathematical limits. It "got weird toward the end" because the number of pigs tends to infinity as the story progresses.

In the title text, {{w|Newton's method}} for approximation is a method for finding successively better approximations to the zeroes (or roots) of a real-valued function. In Goldilocks, the protagonist finds successively better porridge and appropriately sized chairs in a house where three bears lived. In the same way, in the Mom's version of the fairy tale, she would find successively better approximations to zeroes instead of porridge and chairs instead of successively better bowls of porridge.

==Transcript==
:[Megan sits in an armchair, reading a book.]
:Megan: Are there eigenvectors in ''Cinderella''?
:Cueball: ... no?
:Megan: The prince didn't use them to match the shoe to its owner?
:Cueball: What are you ''talking'' about?
:Megan: Dammit.
:[Megan is in bed, mom is sitting on the edge of the bed reading.]
:My mom is one of those people who falls asleep while reading, but keeps talking. She's a math professor, so she'd start rambling about her work.
:Mom:But while the ant gathered food ...
:Mom:... zzzz ...
:Mom:... the grasshopper contracted to a point on a manifold that was NOT a 3-sphere ...
:I'm still not sure which versions are real.
:Cueball: You didn't notice the drastic subject changes?
:Megan: Well, sometimes her versions were better. We loved ''Inductive White and the (N-1) Dwarfs''.
:Megan: I guess the ''LIM x->∞ (x) little pigs'' did get a bit weird toward the end...

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Romance]]

885: Recycling

2013-11-25T18:25:32Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 885
| date = April 13, 2011
| title = Recycling
| image = recycling.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = And given how much of my stuff they go through, they definitely know where I live.
}}

==Explanation==
Recycling plants often can only process one type of material at a time, which necessitates some form of sorting facility. [[Randall]] show some degree of thoughtfulness in separating his paper from metals for the convenience of the people working at the facility, but then he leaves congealed juice in a bottle, rendering it unrecyclable without cleaning and extra effort on the part of the recycling facility.

The title text implies that the workers know his address, most likely from various envelopes and junk mail that he has recycled.

As always, Randall is both a self-conscious man and a paranoid man.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is picking through various items of trash or recycling on a conveyor belt. A juice bottle, empty cardboard box, opened tin can, bottlecap, crumpled and flat sheets of paper, a soda or pop can, and miscellaneous junk are visible.]
:Cueball: This guy tears the labels off his cans, so he clearly understands they're going to be sorted somewhere—
:Cueball: Yet in the same batch he includes a bottle with like an ounce of congealed juice in it.
:Cueball: What an asshole.

:Caption: I worry a lot about what the people at the recycling center think of me.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

886: Craigslist Apartments

2013-11-25T18:21:56Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 886
| date = April 15, 2011
| title = Craigslist Apartments
| image = craigslist apartments.png
| titletext = $1600 / 1386153BR 3BATH, MODERN SLIDING DOORS, GUEST ROOMS, GARBAGE DISPOSAL. FREE MANDATORY PARKING (ENFORCED). CONVENIENT TO ALDERAAN.
}}

==Explanation==
First and foremost, just like all {{w|Craigslist}} apartment postings, all of these posts are in all caps and some of the posts are re-posted several times, which is very annoying, but must work, otherwise the agents would not do it. Additionally, lots of posts use lots of tildes, exclamation points or asterisks as above to set their posts apart from others.

*$1600 / 2BR <nowiki>~~~</nowiki> Hardwood floors, utilities included. Cats OK, limit one per square foot.
:This ad is aimed at "crazy cat ladies/bachelors" who compulsively keep a number of animals much greater than is appropriate to the living space.

*$1100 / **** Great deal square house door in front!!! ****
:The square house must be a garage, or just a regular square house.

*$2300 / 3BR !!!!!!!! Elegant apartment permanently lit by strobe light!!!! No floor.
:

*$980 / 1BR New "hammock"-style dwelling. Water and heat free from same dispenser. Viking landlord.
:Hammock style dwelling sounds like working as an oarsman on a Viking ship.

*$1550 / 2BR (one inside the other). Has running water, in a sense. Free heat in short, intense bursts. Klein stairs.
:This place is possibly a reference to {{w|Klein geometry}}.

*$3200 / 1BR W/trimmed carpet and pert fixtures. Previous tenants clean. Call now, want you inside. $120/night (no animals)
:The trimmed carpet is obviously a sex posting, because Craigslist has taken down the obvious prostitution posts after getting a lot of heat about them. So, this is a posting to get around those sort of rules.

*$2100 / 3BR on scenic Ash Tree Lane. Builder unknown; house has always existed. Walls shift; center of house may contain minotaur.
:The {{w|Minotaur}} house is a reference to the Labyrinth and Minotaur on Crete from ancient Greek mythology, as well as the novel ''{{w|House of Leaves}}''.

*$600 / 5BR Three floors w/pool, rooftop garden, beautiful glass facade, no catch, 5-min drive to historic Pripyat.
:This is a reference to the ghost town of {{w|Pripyat}}, which is near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine. It may also be the nuclear facility itself, depending on interpretation; the pool and 3-story structure are part of the power plant's design, the rooftop now has plants growing on it after years of neglect, and the glass facade references radioactive glassy minerals created by the explosion.

*$7100 / 60BR Sleek modern w/extreme running water. Previous tenants may resist entry. Contains all new wiring and is a submarine.
:This house is a submarine, as indicated by the advertisement, presumably operated by the navy. The "previous tenants", being members of the armed forces, would undoubtedly resist entry of someone attempting to board their submarine. The sixty bedrooms refers to the crew members' bunks on board the ship, which are in extremely tight quarters and can be very uncomfortable

*$1616 / 3BR + 2Bath, tub full of blood. Closet full of board games which play themselves. Pets OK but won't survive long.
:The last one on the list does not seem to be a direct scary movie reference, but a horror movie reference in general.

*''Title text:'' $1600 / 1386153BR 3bath, modern sliding doors, guest rooms, garbage disposal. Free mandatory parking (enforced). Convenient to Alderaan.
:The title text is a reference to the {{w|Death Star}} in Star Wars. Alderaan is the home planet of Princess Leia, which was obliterated by the Death Star. Mandatory parking references the tractor beams used to drag nearby ships (such as the Millennium Falcon) into the base. It seems somewhat inconvenient that this "apartment" has over a million bedrooms but only three bathrooms.

==Transcript==
:((The comic is a single panel, presented as an apartment search.))
:[Title bar.]
:All apartments
:Search for: [_______] in: All apartments ( ) Title only (*) Entire post Search
:Rent: [Min] [Max] 0+ BR [ ] Cats [ ] Dogs [ ] Has image
:[Date bar]
:Fri Apr 15
:[Begin the apartment listings.]
:$1600 / 2BR <nowiki>~~~</nowiki> Hardwood floors, utilities included. Cats ok, limit one per square foot.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$2300 / 3BR !!!!!!!! Elegant apartment permanently lit by strobe light!!!! No floor.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$980 / 1BR New "hammock"-style dwelling. Water and heat free from same dispenser. Viking landlord.
:$1550 / 2BR (one inside the other). Has running water, in a sense. Free heat in short, intense bursts. Klein stairs.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$3200 / 1BR W/trimmed carpet and pert fixtures. Previous tenants clean. Call now, want you inside. $120/night (no animals)
:$2100 / 3BR on scenic Ash Tree Lane. Builder unknown; house has always existed. Walls shift; center of house may contain minotaur.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$600 / 5BR Three floors w/pool, rooftop garden, beautiful glass facade, no catch, 5-min drive to historic Pripyat.
:$7100 / 60BR Sleek modern w/extreme running water. Previous tenants may resist entry. Contains all new wiring and is a submarine.
:$1616 / 3BR + 2Bath, tub full of blood. Closet full of board games which play themselves. Pets ok but won't survive long.

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

959: Caroling

2013-11-25T17:16:27Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 959
| date = October 3, 2011
| title = Caroling
| image = caroling.png
| titletext = For a thousand generations we vowed never to forget how his soldiers feasted on our brother Stephen.
}}

==Explanation==
Here are the lyrics for the first verse of the Christmas Carol, "{{w|Good King Wenceslas}}"

:''Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,''
:''When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;''
:''Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel,''
:''When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.''

First and foremost, {{w|Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia|Wenceslas}} was not a king, but merely a {{w|duke}}, the "kingship" was given to him ceremonially after his death. Secondly, the Wenceslas that the carol is about was not responsible for any massacre (in fact he is considered a saint in most Christian churches); [[Black Hat]] is merely playing a prank on unsuspecting innocent carolers.

The title text references "the {{w|St. Stephen's Day|Feast of Stephen}}" which is also known as the "Feast of St. Stephen" or "St. Stephen's Day", which is a holiday celebrated on 26 or 27 December, depending on the Western or Eastern church respectively. It is not actually a feast that involved eating a person named Stephen, instead a celebration of the Saint named Stephen.

==Transcript==
:[Three people stand together singing Christmas carols.]
:Carolers (in unison): Good king Wenceslas looked out on the—

:[Black Hat leans out of an above ground window.]
:Black Hat: King Wenceslas massacred my people.

:[The carolers stand in silence.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Music]]

964: Dorm Poster

2013-11-25T17:15:43Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 964
| date = October 14, 2011
| title = Dorm Poster
| image = dorm poster.png
| titletext = I was going to record an album with that cover under the name "PINK FTFY", so it'd come after them on the store CD rack. But at this point music stores are just rooms where CDs are set out to age before they're thrown away, so probably nobody would see it.
}}

==Explanation==
The poster on the wall is the album artwork for {{w|Pink Floyd|Pink Floyd's}} album {{w|The Dark Side of the Moon}}. It shows a beam of light passing through a {{w|Dispersive prism}} and separating into a rainbow. After thinking a bit, the new student makes a poster that uses a lens to reverse the rainbow into another prism.

In the title-text, the words "Pink FTFY" (Fixed That For You) would come immediately after Pink Floyd alphabetically, but [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] seems to believe no one would see it, because supposedly no one visits record stores any more now that music can be bought and downloaded online.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball finds dorm room.]

:[View into the dorm room. The left half is already occupied, and a friend has filled his side with the normal accoutrements of dorm life. There is a Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" poster hanging on the far wall, offset and only on Cueball's side]

:[Cueball has a bit of a ponder.]

:[Cueball leaves for a bit.]

:[Cueball returns with an item]

:[View into the dorm room. Cueball is moving in, and has placed a second Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" poster modified with a lens in the rainbow's path. The poster is placed upside down on Cueball's side of the far wall to catch the rainbow, feed it back into the prism, and turn it back into a narrow stream of white light.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1219: Reports

2013-11-25T15:54:52Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1219
| date = May 31, 2013
| title = Reports
| image = reports.png
| titletext = If that fails, just multiply every number by a thousand. 'The 2nd St speed limit should be set at 25,000 mph, which would likely have prevented 1,000 of the intersection's 3,000 serious accidents last month.'
}}

==Explanation==
The quoted text of the report could (and indeed probably ''would'', given the apparent contents) be stereotypically read out loud by the author, or internally by the reader, in an essentially monotonal manner, as exhibited by any number of popularised film and TV characters such as 'Arthur Pewtey' from the {{w|Marriage Guidance Counsellor|Monty Python sketch}}. But this comic asks us to imagine it instead voiced in the voice of an upset (soon-to-be-'ex-'?) spouse, presumably berating the project leader on various real or imagined infractions, and it works just as well. The jagged nature of the speech bubble indicates that the report has typed out on the computer's screen, but also helps to re-enforce the nagging internal voice.

The title text joke relates to an alternative plan, namely to proportionally exaggerate everything you read. What would have been one serious accident that would have been prevented in the previous month had the speed limit been 25mph, out of the three that actually occurred under the current limit, now becomes one ''thousand'' people saved! And ''all'' those lives would have been saved by reducing the speed limit to a 'mere' 25,000 miles per hour. (Of course, around 2000 accidents would ''not'' have been prevented because people ''still'' try to mess with vehicles that are moving at hypersonic velocities...).

Note that the title text is inconsistent; if ''every'' number were to be multiplied by a thousand, then the speed limit would apply to 2000th Street. (Somewhat surprisingly, there do exist streets of this name, mainly in Illinois.)

==Transcript==
:How to make boring technical reports more fun to read:
:Imagine they were written and sent in, unsolicited, by the estranged spouse of the head of the project.
:<Six guard rails have erratic reflector placement, and one even lacks reflectors entirely, despite rule G31.02(b) clearly mandating consistent usage.>
:Cueball: ...Sharon!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1203: Time Machines

2013-11-25T15:43:31Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1203
| date = April 24, 2013
| title = Time Machines
| image = time machines.png
| titletext = 'All time machine systems nominal ... T-minus ten ... eleven ...'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] activates a time machine to go back into the past. The time machine rewinds time, but in the process rewinds the event where the time machine itself was turned on, turning the time machine off in the process. He is now a few seconds in the past, prior to having activated the time machine, but he is baffled that he does not seem to have accomplished anything and turned off the time machine unintentionally. It would seem that the time machine is the world's most technologically-advanced "{{w|useless machine}}" (a device whose only purpose is to switch itself off when it is switched on).

The title text mimics a countdown to an event. "T minus 10," for example, means 10 seconds until the event. When the event is the activation of a time machine traveling back in time, after 10 seconds it will once again be "T minus 10," and a second later it will be "T minus 11," counting up rather than down. This casts doubt on the value of the countdown because, from the perspective of the time traveler, the event has already taken place.

Cueball is only able to travel back in time a few seconds because in this comic time is seen as continuous and linear, so he can only travel back in time to the moment he activated the machine (the first series of "E"s is the machine warming up and the second series of "E"s is that in reverse) the logic behind this is because time is continuous, Cueball's input was required for the machine to work.

==Transcript==
:The problem with time machines:
:[Cueball has his hands on the lever of a time machine.]

:[Cueball flips the switch from OFF to ON.]
:''Click''
:eeeeEEEEE

:EEEEEeeee
:''Click''
:[Cueball flips the switch from ON to OFF.]

:[Cueball is puzzled.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1165: Amazon

2013-11-25T15:27:29Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1165
| date = January 25, 2013
| title = Amazon
| image = amazon.png
| titletext = Amazon.com took a surprise early lead with 'Time required to transport a package from Iquitos, Peru to Manaus, Brazil' but then lost it at 'Minutes to skeletonize a cow'.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Amazon River}} in South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow. {{w|Amazon.com}} is a website that specializes in commerce and selling goods over the internet. The "round 14" suggest they are being compared in different criteria in a sort of competition. With such different systems, we can assume that most of those comparisons were similarly funny. The title text mentions two other criteria of comparison.

The measure of flow for the Amazon river (cubic meters per second) indicates the volume of water that passes a given point in the river at any second. To illustrate how much 220,000 cubic meters is, the comic shows a car parked next to 220,000 cubic meters of water. 220,000 cubic meters equals a cube with an edge length of 60.4 meters. By comparison the 0.9 cubic meters of goods that are shipped by Amazon.com seems very small (note that 0.9 cubic meters of goods per second is still a lot).
To illustrate this size, the comic shows an Amazonian fish (or possibly an {{w|Amazon river dolphin}}) investigating the packages.

{{w|Iquitos}} and {{w|Manaus}} are cities near the source and mouth respectively of the river; the title text suggests that it is faster to have a package shipped between the two than let it drift downstream. 'Minutes to skeletonize a cow' refers to {{w|piranha}}, an Amazonian predatory fish with a popular reputation of being capable of the mentioned act when hunting in groups, which has little basis in reality, though.

==Transcript==
:Round 14
:Estimated outflow volume
:in cubic meters per second
:[A cube of water representing the outflow of the Amazon.]
:Amazon 220,000
:[A pile of boxes representing the outflow of Amazon.com.]
:Amazon.com 0.9
:Advantage: Amazon

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

783: I Don't Want Directions

2013-11-25T15:17:10Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 783
| date = August 23, 2010
| title = I Don't Want Directions
| image = i_dont_want_directions.png
| titletext = Yes, I understand that the turn is half a mile past the big field, but my GPS knows that, too. This would be easier if you weren't about to ask me to repeat it all back to you.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball wants to use his GPS to find an individual's house, and therefore needs the house's address. The person on the phone is giving him directions, something that is useless because by giving Cueball the address, the GPS can give directions to the address, possibly better than the ones he is getting over the phone. Cueball then decides to tell the person that he would like to mail something to their house, hoping they will give him the address, because you must have the address to mail something.

The title text is a continuation of the comic's joke. By the end of the comic, Cueball has got the information he needs, and has just ignored the directions he did not want. However, if the person on the phone insists on checking Cueball has remembered the directions correctly, Cueball has to be able to learn the useless information he did not want in the first place, and has been mostly ignoring, at least well enough to repeat it once.

Judging by the roads mentioned in the comic (presumably {{w|Interstate 495 (Massachusetts)|I-495}} and {{w|Massachusetts Route 18|MA-18}}), the person on the phone lives somewhere around [http://goo.gl/maps/tXFbF southern Lakeville, Massachusetts], and Cueball is starting from the Boston area.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball on phone.]
:Cueball: Looking forward to seeing your new place! What's the address? -- Mm hmm. Yes, I'm taking 495. But I have a GPS, so I really just need the street address.

:[Close up.]
:Cueball: ...then south on 18, okay, but I have a GPS, so if you just want to skip to the street address, I can...

:[Full body shot, facing other direction.]
:Cueball: Thanks, I'm glad to know Highland Road comes a mile after the big intersection, but I keep saying I have a GPS, can you tell me the street address? ... Technically that's just more information on how to get to your place, not the address itself. If you could--

:[Close up again, Cueball writing on pad.]
:Cueball: ...I appreciate that you want to help, but I'm ignoring you and just waiting for the... Listen, I just remembered I need to mail you a letter. What's your address? -- Mhm... okay... Great, Thanks! I'll see you in an hour!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1155: Kolmogorov Directions

2013-11-25T15:03:46Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1155
| date = January 2, 2013
| title = Kolmogorov Directions
| image = kolmogorov directions.png
| titletext = People get really grumpy when they realize you're giving them directions for how to go to the store and buy a GPS.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Andrey Kolmogorov}} was a mathematician who worked, among other things, on defining computational complexity. Roughly speaking, the {{w|Kolmogorov complexity}} of a string (of bits, words, symbols, etc.) is the shortest description that allows an accurate reconstruction (or, in some variants, the length of the smallest program which will output the original string). Cueball's method of giving directions is very reminiscent of Kolmogorov's method of determining complexity. These directions may have minimal Kolmogorov complexity, but they are non-intuitive (and are likely not the shortest or quickest way to get there, considering that they consist only of left turns).

This is [[783|not the first time]] Cueball has had difficulties with directions.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball on the phone.]
:Phone: How do I get to your place from Lexington?
:Cueball: Hmm...
:Cueball: Ok, starting from your driveway, take every left turn that doesn't put you on a prime-numbered highway or street named for a president.
:When people ask for step-by-step directions, I worry that there will be too many steps to remember, so I try to put them in minimal form.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

1066: Laundry

2013-11-25T14:18:03Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1066
| date = June 8, 2012
| title = Laundry
| image = laundry.png
| titletext = During the second semester, the path is briefly routed through the dishwasher.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is all about college laundry habits and how as time goes by, you end up just throwing clothes on the floor and then wearing them again.

In the first week, the student undertakes a proper laundry routine. However, due to increasing laziness, by the second week they have abandoned folding their clothes, and by the third week no longer bother hanging them in the closet. By the second month dirty clothes are no longer stored in a laundry hamper and are just dumped on the floor, and by the end of the semester clothes are not washed at all.

The title text seems to indicate that the student has a brainwave sometime later, to wash their clothes in the dishwasher along with the dishes, presumably as a timesaver. The experiment was brief because dishwashers aren't actually any good at washing clothes (they wouldn't move the clothes about).

==Transcript==
:'''College Laundry Habits'''

:[Panel labeled "First Week". 5 ovals arranged in a rough circle, with a clockwise path connecting them: "Dresser & Closet", "On Body", "Hamper", "Washer & Dryer", "Folding Area" (and back to the first). The area outside the ovals is labeled "Floor."]

:[Panel labeled "Second Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Folding Area" - only through the other 4 ovals.]

:[Panel labeled "Third Week". The path has been modified so that it does not go through "Dresser & Closet". Only "On Body", "Hamper", and "Washer & Dryer" remain.]

:[Panel labeled "Second Month". The path no longer passes through "Hamper" - only "On Body" and "Washer & Dryer".]

:[Panel labeled "End of Semester". The path no longer goes to "Washer & Dryer", instead just looping back around from "On Body" to "On Body" again after passing through the "Floor."]

{{comic discussion}}

1288: Substitutions

2013-11-25T13:49:48Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1288
| date = November 8, 2013
| title = Substitutions
| image = substitutions.png
| titletext = INSIDE ELON MUSK'S NEW ATOMIC CAT
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall|Randall Munroe]] is playing off of the fact that many readers of modern news articles quickly become bored with the legal and political jargon. He suggests that by substituting certain words for others can make reading the article more interesting, albeit less accurate. Although since Randall [[558: 1000 Times|doesn't think very]] highly [[932: CIA|of the news]], he's probably suggesting this chart wouldn't make them less accurate at all.

For example, a sentence that reads
:Witnesses reported that the suspect allegedly escaped unharmed.
would be changed to
:These dudes I know reported that the suspect kinda probably escaped unharmed.

This substitution does not change the meaning much, and the original sentence does not lose much of its accuracy. However, for substitutions later in the comic, a sentence may be changed as following
:A new study finds that senators and other congressional leaders are increasingly likely to view election results on their smartphone.
into
:A Tumblr post finds that elf-lords and other river spirits are increasingly likely to view eating contest results on their Pokédex.

Which is less meaningful, but more interesting.

A [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xkcd-substitutions/jkgogmboalmaijfgfhfepckdgjeopfhk?hl=en&gl=001 Chrome extension] is available for applying the substitutions on webpages.

'Spaaace' is likely a reference to the Space Core from {{w|Portal 2}}.

The {{w|Virtual Boy}} is a table-top video game console made by Nintendo released in 1995, and discontinued about the same year. It achieved true-3D graphics through the use of a large visor containing a pair of LED screens.

The Pokédex is a device in the {{w|Pokémon|Pokémon world}} that records the data of captured Pokémon.

{{w|Homestar Runner}} is the title character of a Flash-animated web cartoon series.

At the title text {{w|Elon Musk}} is mentioned who is the CEO of {{w|Tesla Motors}}, which produces electric cars (ATOMIC CATs).

News reports about new studies (Tumblr posts) are further lampooned in [[1295: New Study|a comic posted two weeks later]].

==Transcript==
:'''Substitutions''' that make reading the news more fun:

:Witnesses → These dudes I know
:Allegedly → Kinda probably
:New study → Tumblr post
:Rebuild → Avenge
:Space → Spaaace
:Google Glass → Virtual Boy
:Smartphone → Pokédex
:Electric → Atomic
:Senator → Elf-lord
:Car → Cat
:Election → Eating contest
:Congressional leaders → River spirits
:Homeland security → Homestar Runner
:Could not be reached for comment → Is guilty and everyone knows it

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Politics]]

1008: Suckville

2013-11-25T13:46:58Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1008
| date = January 25, 2012
| title = Suckville
| image = suckville.png
| titletext = Suckville is considered by the Census Bureau to be part of the Detroit metropolitan statistical area, despite not being located anywhere near Detroit.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are playing a card game (maybe {{w|Dominion (game)|Dominion}} or {{w|Magic: The Gathering}}) and Megan whips a common insult, a play on the word "suck" that adds a typical city name suffix to the end of it. Other variations are: "losertown", "lameville", etc.

The phrase is originally based on the ubiquitous signage you see along roads that say "Welcome to Town X - Population Y".

Then, since Cueball one-ups Megan by indicating there is a city by that name, she can only resign herself to the fact that her smack talk did not work.

The title text informs the reader that Suckville is classified as part of the Detroit area despite not being located there. Detroit, of course, is the quintessential example of a city so run down, it might as well really be named "Suckville", or include a district of that name. In fact, the city only recently (2013) declared itself bankrupt.
(Fun fact: looking in the [http://factfinder2.census.gov/main.html factfinder] Suckville is "corrected" to {{w|Saukville, Wisconsin}}, which is indeed not particularly close to {{w|Detroit, Michigan}}. However the population of Saukville in the 2010 census is given as 4451 for the village, and 1755 for the surrounding town municipality.)

In the third panel, Megan has not turned into an insect — her legs are just shifting position and both positions are depicted at once.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is kneeling on the floor, playing a card game.]
:Megan: Hah! -- Welcome to Suckville - population: you.
:[Cueball is sitting on the floor opposite her, also playing the game.]
:Cueball: Why are you using 2000 census data? -- That's an old figure.
:[Megan turns around from the game to look at her laptop, which is sitting on the floor behind her.]
:Megan: I couldn't find Suckville in the 2010 census.
:Cueball: Huh? It's right there in SF-1 table P1.
:Megan: Oh. So it is.
:[Megan turns back to Cueball, who is looking at his cards.]
:Megan: Well, then. Welcome to Suckville - population: 83.
:Cueball: Much better.

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

1287: Puzzle

2013-11-25T13:46:52Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1287
| date = November 6, 2013
| title = Puzzle
| image = puzzle.png
| titletext = Prediction for Carlsen v. Anand: ... 25. Qb8+ Nxb8 26. Rd8# f6 27. "... dude." Qf5 28. "The game is over, dude." Qxg5 29. Rxe8 0-1 30. "Dude, your move can't be '0-1'. Don't write that down." [Black flips board]
}}

==Explanation==

The game of {{w|Go (game)|go}} (also called Weiqi, Baduk or Igo) is usually played on the 19×19 intersections of a grid, but sometimes a faster, simpler version is played on the 9×9 intersections of a grid (which thus has 8×8 squares, as a chessboard, though they are not colored in an alternating pattern – {{w|White and Black in chess|introduced to chess in the 13th century}}). In the comic, white has chess pieces and plays against black, which uses go stones.

In chess, particularly in puzzles, the phrasing "White to move" indicates that it's the White player's turn; "White to play and win" indicates that it's White's turn and the next series of moves (if White plays correctly) will result in an advantageous position or possibly outright win for White. The caption "White to continue insisting this is a chessboard" is a play on this traditional phrasing. The same kind of phrasing is also used in {{w|Tsumego|Go puzzles}}. In Go puzzles the objectives are often of a local or tactical (as opposed to strategic) character, such as "White to capture four black stones" or "White to live in the corner".

Two versions of the board were posted by Randall: both had white after e3, d4, Nf3, Nc3, but the first with an extra bishop at e4 (B@e4), the second after Bd2.

B@e4 in the first version of the board was perhaps intended to represent confusion in White's mind whether he was playing Go (placing a piece) or Chess (it's a chess piece) – as a 'placement' this move could have been first, and could explain the pawn at e3, with e4 already being blocked.

It it unclear who has gone first. In Go it is traditional for black to go first, while in Chess it has been traditional for white to go first for about a century. Indeed, both players have made five moves, although the caption/"punchline" implies it is the start of white's sixth turn (though if black did go first, none of his/her pieces are in the 3-3 handicap positions marked on a 9x9 Go board).

The title text refers to the upcoming {{w|World Chess Championship 2013|2013 World Chess Championship}} between Carlsen and Anand. {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} is a 22 year old Norwegian chess grandmaster, who had the highest peak rating and was the third youngest grandmaster in history. He was the world's 2009 blitz champion and is currently ranked #1 in the world by FIDE. {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} is a 43 year old Indian grandmaster, 5 time and current World Champion, who is currently ranked #8 in the world.

The game transcript in the title text refers to the ending of the famous {{w|Morphy versus the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard|Opera Game}} between Paul Morphy and the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. That game ends with 16. Qb8+ Nxb8 17. Rd8#. In the title text, Black continues to make moves as if he has not been checkmated, over White's protests. After White uses his rook to capture Black's king (to emphasize the checkmate), Black defiantly writes "0-1" (the notation symbolizing a Black victory) on his scoresheet. When informed that his move cannot be to declare victory, he flips the board. "0-1" may also represent a position on a go board (first down on the top left corner) in [http://senseis.xmp.net/?Coordinates certain coordinates systems].

The game transcript is written in standard {{w|Algebraic notation (chess)|algebraic notation}}. The destination square is represented by a lowercase letter (a-h, on the x-axis) and a number (1-8, on the y-axis), with the bottom-left square being a1 and the top-right square being h8. The uppercase letters refer to the piece that is moving to that square (e.g., Q = Queen, K = King, N = Knight, R = Rook), so Qa1 would mean moving the Queen to the bottom-left square. The absence of an uppercase letter refers to a pawn's move (e.g., "f6" means moving a pawn to f6). If the move captures a piece, an "x" is inserted between the piece and the destination (e.g., Nxb8). Checks are indicated by +, and checkmate by #.

==Transcript==
:[A game board with 8x8 white squares and black borders, like a goboard or an all white chessboard, there are white chess pieces in starting position on the bottom after Pe3, Pd4, Nf3, Nc3, Bd2 and five black Go pieces on the vertices in the center of the board at d4 d5 c6 g4 g6.]
:White to continue insisting this is a chessboard

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

1295: New Study

2013-11-25T13:46:46Z

141.101.99.248: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1295
| date = November 25, 2013
| title = New Study
| image = new_study.png
| titletext = When the results are published, no one will be sure whether to report on them again.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
Another of Randall's jabs at modern news networks. Also a play on the joke that "87% of statistics are made up on the spot" (which is itself completely fictitious). This joke has most famously been referenced by the [http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-05-08/ May 8, 2008 Dilbert comic strip].

This is probably inspired by the July 2011 hoax study which correlated {{w|Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage}}, specifically that Microsoft Internet Explorer users had a significantly lower I.Q. than other users. The study was reported by over 30 news outlets including NPR, ''Forbes'', CBS News, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', ''The Inquirer'', and ''CNN''. The perpetrator made little effort to conceal the deception by publishing it on a freshly created domain name with a parking lot as the corporate address, and was surprised that so many reputable outlets did no fact checking.

More recently, [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131003-bohannon-science-spoof-open-access-peer-review-cancer/ Fake Cancer Study Spotlights Bogus Science Journals].

People making the substitutions in [[1288: Substitutions|a comic posted two weeks before this one]] will read this comic as one about {{w|Tumblr}} posts.

==Transcript==
:Reporter: ...And in science news, according to a new study, 85% of news organizations repeat "new study" press releases without checking whether they're real.
{{comic discussion}}