explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1484: Apollo Speeches

2018-08-23T11:27:18Z

162.158.134.202: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1484
| date = February 9, 2015
| title = Apollo Speeches
| image = apollo_speeches.png
| titletext = While our commitment to recycling initiatives has been unwavering, this is not a cost any of us should be expected to pay.
}}

==Explanation==
As explained in the comic, {{w|Richard Nixon|Nixon}} staffer {{w|William Safire}} wrote [http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/11/in-event-of-moon-disaster.html two speeches] for the United States President to deliver, depending on whether or not the {{w|Apollo 11}} return launch was successful. When the outcome of an event (moon landing, military actions, etc.) can't be predicted with sufficient certainty, it is a common practice for "[http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/exhibit/nixon-online-exhibit-disaster.html contingency speeches]" to be prepared.

The rest of the comic runs with this theme, making the false claim that Safire had written several other such contingency speeches for increasingly unlikely possibilities. First listed are a couple pages from the real contingency speech to be delivered in the event that the astronauts were left stranded on the Moon. Lying on top of that is a speech to be delivered in the case that the spacecraft went missing altogether, which was relatively unlikely. The speeches after that deal with the following highly unlikely or impossible contingencies:
*The astronauts had stolen the ship and piloted it towards Mars, which was clearly not feasible: while the crew could have redirected the ship while sending insulting messages to Earth, the spacecraft lacked the power to fly to Mars within any reasonable period of time by several orders of magnitude or the supplies for the astronauts to survive such an extended trip.
**At the time of production for this strip in 2015, several governments and private companies have designs on Martian colonization.
*More astronauts than expected were found in the recovered ship;
**The appearance of three additional astronauts ventures into the realm of possibility normally reserved for science fiction and Twilight Zone episodes.
*The ship had hit the {{w|USS Hornet (CV-12)|USS ''Hornet''}} and crushed Nixon;
**The U.S.S. Hornet was the ship that recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts after they completed their return mission by landing their command module in the Pacific Ocean; President Nixon himself was on board to greet them upon their return. Apollo 11 famously landed in the Pacific Ocean, and the single ship tasked with its recovery would be a very small target to hit for the technology even if that had been the intent, which it was of course not. Spiro Agnew was, in 1969, Vice President of the United States, and thus next in line for the presidency. This joke plays off the extreme improbability of the ship, and indeed President, being hit and triggering a succession, causing "President Agnew" to address the world.
***This is not as implausible as it sounds. The re-entry guidance had become good enough by Apollo 11 that the destination point of the capsule was moved several hundred yards from the carrier's position for exactly this reason. Such a collision had been the subject of jokes at NASA, until one day an engineer came to Gene Kranz and said,"the more I think about it, the less I think it is a joke".
*The re-entry craft had been sold for scrap and crushed along with the astronauts inside.
**Apollo 11 observed a strict quarantine procedure after landing. This possibility requires extraordinary incompetence and unholy zeal for recycling programs. The command module was historically recovered, examined, and is now on permanent display in the {{w|National Air and Space Museum}}. Primary sources state that the astronauts were allowed to leave the craft before it was put on display.{{Citation needed}}

The title text builds upon this last contingency speech, delving into the pathos of the horror of the spacecraft's recycling and its passengers' resulting deaths despite the U.S.'s commitment to recycling initiatives.

Shortly after this comic was released, in that week's ''What if?'', ''those speeches'' are referenced with a link to this comic. (see [http://what-if.xkcd.com/129/ Black Hole Moon]).

This comic was referenced again in another ''What If?'', [https://what-if.xkcd.com/146/ Stop Jupiter].

==Transcript==
:[Commentary above the speeches.]
:In 1969, Nixon staffer William Safire wrote a speech for the president to deliver if the Apollo 11 return launch failed, stranding the doomed astronauts on the Moon.
:Uncovered in 1999, it is often called the greatest speech never given.
:Today, the ''full'' set of Safire's contingency speeches has been found.

:'''In event astronauts stranded on Moon'''
:Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace.
:[Here, several lines from the original speech are cut.]
:In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
:Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the Moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever

:'''In event spacecraft goes missing'''
:Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins went to the Moon as ambassadors of peace for all mankind, and all mankind prays that they may yet return safely home.
:We are separated from the Moon by a vast gulf of space, against which their tiny vessel appeared as but a drifting speck. For a few brief seconds, we took our eye off them, and despite days of desperate searching, never again was their vessel sighted from Earth.
:While these men are lost, they are not forgotten, and their sacrifice will not

:'''In event astronauts abscond with spacecraft'''
:We do not know what led Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to betray the trust we placed in them, abandon their mission, and steer their vessel toward Mars. Nor do we know what compelled them to transmit such hurtful messages back to Earth, heaping contempt on their onetime home.
:But whatever the cause of their dereliction, I call upon the United States to commit itself, before this year is out, to launching a mission to chase down Apollo 11 and return its crew to earth to face justice. We must not rest until

:'''In event spacecraft returns with extra astronauts'''
:While there is much we do not understand, tonight all of earth is united in celebrating the safe return of our brave explorers.
:We of course have many questions, and in the days and weeks to come we will demand answers. How many souls were truly aboard Apollo 11 when it launched? Who are the six men now in quarantine aboard the USS Hornet? What happened

:'''In event spacecraft hits U.S.S. Hornet, crushing Nixon'''
:'''President Agnew''': Tonight, we have experienced a great national triumph and a great national loss. We take joy in the safe return from the Moon of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins, but that joy is tempered with sorrow as we mourn our president’s tragic death beneath their wayward capsule.
:Richard Nixon wholeheartedly supported our courageous astronauts as they carried the hopes and prayers of Earth to the heavens, and in the moment of their homecoming, he himself has departed on that ultimate voyage. As we grieve, we must rededicate ourselves to the cause for which our president

:'''In event spacecraft accidentally sold for scrap and crushed with astronauts inside'''
:My fellow Americans, I am as shocked and appalled as you at this stunning and

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

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T06:55:39Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2035
| date = August 20, 2018
| title = Dark Matter Candidates
| image = dark_matter_candidates.png
| titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REAL ORBIT LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be. In cosmology, {{w|Dark_matter| dark matter}} is an unknown type of matter thought to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe. The joke in this comic is that the possible explanations Randall gives are highly absurd.

* {{w|Axion|Axion}}
* {{w|Sterile_neutrino|Sterile neutrino}}
* {{w|Neutralino|Neutralino}} is a hypotetical particle from {{w|Supersymmetry|Supersymmetry}}.
* {{w|Q-ball|Q-ball}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T06:52:38Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ list

{{comic
| number = 2035
| date = August 20, 2018
| title = Dark Matter Candidates
| image = dark_matter_candidates.png
| titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REAL ORBIT LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be. In cosmology, {{w|Dark_matter| dark matter}} is an unknown type of matter thought to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe. The joke in this comic is that the possible explanations Randall gives are highly absurd.

* {{w|Axion|Axion}}

* {{w|Sterile_neutrino|Sterile neutrino}}

* {{w|Neutralino|Neutralino}} is a hypotetical particle from {{w|Supersymmetry|Supersymmetry}}.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T06:50:14Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ }

{{comic
| number = 2035
| date = August 20, 2018
| title = Dark Matter Candidates
| image = dark_matter_candidates.png
| titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REAL ORBIT LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be. In cosmology, {{w|Dark_matter| dark matter}} is an unknown type of matter thought to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe. The joke in this comic is that the possible explanations Randall gives are highly absurd.

{{w|Axion|Axion}}

{{w|Sterile_neutrino|Sterile neutrino}}

{{w|Neutralino|Neutralino}} Hypotetical particle from {{w|Supersymmetry|Supersymmetry}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T06:49:57Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ Neutralino

{{comic
| number = 2035
| date = August 20, 2018
| title = Dark Matter Candidates
| image = dark_matter_candidates.png
| titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REAL ORBIT LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be. In cosmology, {{w|Dark_matter| dark matter}} is an unknown type of matter thought to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe. The joke in this comic is that the possible explanations Randall gives are highly absurd.

{{w|Axion|Axion}}

{{w|Sterile_neutrino|Sterile neutrino}}

{{w|Neutralino|Neutralino}} Hypotetical particle from {{w|Supersymmetry|Supersymmetry}

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

{{comic discussion}}

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T06:47:48Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ }

{{comic
| number = 2035
| date = August 20, 2018
| title = Dark Matter Candidates
| image = dark_matter_candidates.png
| titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REAL ORBIT LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be. In cosmology, {{w|Dark_matter| dark matter}} is an unknown type of matter thought to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe. The joke in this comic is that the possible explanations Randall gives are highly absurd.

{{w|Axion|Axion}}

{{w|Sterile_neutrino|Sterile neutrino}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1053: Ten Thousand

2018-08-15T09:03:30Z

162.158.134.202:

Regarding: "This also assumes that 10,000 people learn of something every day from the day they are born." That's not accurate. Whatever the any distribution of "age you learn" is, the average will hold. For example, if everybody learns some particular fact on their 21st birthday, it holds simply becuase there are roughly 10,000 people having their 21st birthday each and every day.

I think it also may be referring, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, to the fact that people who call people idiots because they don't know something, and yet fail to explain it, are creating ignorance to criticise it.

Person A says, "What is x?"

Person B responds, "You're an idiot for not knowing x."

Person B is now responsible for the idiocy he claims Person A to have, thus making Person B the ''real'' idiot. In this comic, he makes this point by refusing to be Person B, while at the same time making subtle references to still having the sadistic glee person B has.[[Special:Contributions/76.29.225.28|76.29.225.28]] 22:37, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I think he's getting the pleasure of seeing the look on Person A's face when Person A learns/sees something incredible! I think it's more of a positive. {{unsigned|Theo}}

I wonder which relative came back to life?[[User:Pennpenn|Pennpenn]] ([[User talk:Pennpenn|talk]]) 05:02, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Would someone care to explain the math behind this comic? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.10}}
:I did a try. The age is unimportant, it's only the birth rate. I'm happy about a feedback. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:18, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Looks like there might be a callback to this comic in the latest What-If. http://what-if.xkcd.com/135/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.177|108.162.210.177]] 10:14, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Yesterday I did just this! My mother had mentos and I had diet coke, and asked her if we should try to mix them (so I could show it to my children). And it turned out she'd never heard about it. So after we tried it with some success, I showed her this comic as well ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:20, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

To explain the math...In a given year the age of people under 30 is 4 million/yr * 30 yrs. Each of these people have a 1/30 chance of learning "it" in a given year: 4 000 000/yr * 30yr * 1/30yr * 1yr/365day = 4 000 000 / 365day = 10 959/day ~= 10 000 [[User:Zelcon|Zelcon]] ([[User talk:Zelcon|talk]]) 23:37, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Before solving a math problem, the most important thing to do is recognize what you are trying figure out and what the variables are. So let's examine your "statistics" for learning it. I will accept your estimation of 30 years*4 million (even though the number of people being born each year grows). However, when we get to 1/30, I have a serious issue. You are saying that my chance of learning anything in a given year is 1/30. Where did you get 30 from? The years that people are under. So you are essentially saying that a person has a 1/x chance of learning something in a given year where x is the age? This makes no sense!!! There is not a 1/30 chance that I am going to learn the cure to cancer this year!! {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.82}}

The 30 comes from the assumption that roughly 100% of people learn the "something" by age 30. You do not have a 1/30 chance of learning the cure to cancer this year, because there is not 100% chance of you knowing the cure to cancer by age 30. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.118|108.162.241.118]] 19:50, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

I had the chance to watch Star Wars prequel with someone who did not know who was Darth Vader, the shock was amazing in Revenge of the Sith. I wish everyone can discover that plot twist! Zyramere

1883: Supervillain Plan

2017-08-30T14:28:41Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ add'l wikilinking

{{comic
| number = 1883
| date = August 30, 2017
| title = Supervillain Plan
| image = supervillain_plan.png
| titletext = Someday, some big historical event will happen during the DST changeover, and all the tick-tock articles chronicling how it unfolded will have to include a really annoying explanation next to their timelines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft, please help to expand. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic [[Black Hat]] is a {{w|supervillain}}, befitting his {{w|Black hat|character}}. He plans to use {{w|Unmanned aerial vehicle|drones}} and explosives to move the entire State California into the Pacific, a la {{w|Lex Luthor}} in the 1978 ''{{w|Superman (1978 film)|Superman}}'' movie.

His {{w|Henchman|henchmen}} are [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]]. The latter appears to be a programmer who does not want to have the mission (and hence the drones' coding) to account for time/date discrepancies such as {{w|time zone}}s and {{w|daylight saving time}}, which would be a factor if the event took place on the wrong date or the landmasses were pushed too far apart.

In computer programming, working with dates and times is often considered one of the more complicated tasks.

California is currently located entirely within the {{w|UTC−08:00|UTC-8}} time zone. In the comic, California floats West into the {{w|UTC−09:00|UTC-9}} time zone.

Note: Megan should be happy Black Hat hasn't planned [https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2012-11-12/daylight-saving-donut-arizona-ken-jennings-maphead to involve Arizona in his scheme].

==Transcript==
:[On the left of this single panel comic Black Hat sits on a high throne, showing a fist, and looking down to Cueball and Magan who stand in front of him on the right.]

:Black Hat: ... then, after our drones take control of the cities, we will detonate the devices. California will break off from the mainland and drift out to sea!
:Megan: How far out to sea? Will it put any of the cities in the UTC-9 time zone?
:Black Hat: What? I don't know.
:Megan: One request: Can we make sure this doesn't happen during the daylight saving changeover?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:You can tell when someone's been a programmer for a while because they develop a deep-seated fear of time zone problems.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Drones]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Programming]]

1875: Computers vs Humans

2017-08-14T08:37:58Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ elaborate a bit

{{comic
| number = 1875
| date = August 11, 2017
| title = Computers vs Humans
| image = computers_vs_humans.png
| titletext = It's hard to train deep learning algorithms when most of the positive feedback they get is sarcastic.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Cueball]]'s laptop smugly crows to its owner about how computers have proven their intellectual superiority over humans yet again. In May 2017, a Google artificial intelligence {{w|AlphaGo versus Ke Jie|beat}} the world's best Go player at the game. {{w|Go (game)|Go}} is a very complex and deep board game, so this could seem alarming to a person concerned about competing with computers.

However, Cueball seems too focused on his book or phone to care. He remains nonchalant in the face of this news, and suggests that computers learn next to become "too cool to care about stuff" themselves. The computer gets to work preparing to outdo humans at not caring. However, by expending the physical effort to set up the algorithm, it proves that it cares about reaching this goal, a contradiction that Cueball points out. Cueball further rubs it in by coolly stating that he doesn't even have to try to act the way he acts – much like a wide range of everyday human behaviors, such as moving around, or recognizing objects in images, require very little conscious effort, while being quite hard for machines to emulate.

Relative strengths of human versus computer go players was previously mentioned in [[1263: Reassuring|reassuring parable]]. This comic also presents something that looks like a reassuring parable (something humans can do which computers are not yet able to do). An irony here is that, unlike in the cartoon, it is very easy to make a computer not care about something. It is making it care about anything that would be quite difficult.

The title text elaborates on the hypothetical paradox of computers trying not to care about stuff. Neural network programs are developed by training them with sample inputs and the desired output. When the end goal is not to care, that is, that the output is unaffected by this input, then any examples where the output did depend on the input would be sarcasm: the use of irony to mock or to convey contempt.

[[Randall]] already noticed that computers would soon beat humans in Go back in 2012 in the comic [[1002: Game AIs]] and a year later the event is so close that it became the main topic of [[1263: Reassuring]]. The present comic could almost be seen as a continuation of ''Reassuring.''

==Transcript==
:[A laptop sits on a desk with office chair while Cueball is sitting with his back towards the desk in a sofa while he is reading from something in his hands, a book or a smartphone.]
:Laptop: We computers finally beat you humans at Go.
:Cueball: Yup.
:Laptop: Sucks for you!
:Cueball: Mm hmm.

:[Same setting in a frameless panel.]
:Laptop: What's next? Which quintessentially human thing should we learn to do better than you?
:Cueball: Being too cool to care about stuff.

:[Same setting.]
:Laptop: Okay, I'll apply 10,000 years of CPU time to the initial—
:Cueball: Sounds like you've already lost.
:Laptop: Damn. This is hard.
:Cueball: Is it? Never noticed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1874: Geologic Faults

2017-08-10T07:03:26Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ +wikilink

{{comic
| number = 1874
| date = August 9, 2017
| title = Geologic Faults
| image = geologic_faults.png
| titletext = I live on a torn-bag-of-potato-chips-where-the-tear-is-rapidly-growing fault, which is terrifying.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by several fools with no knowledge of faults. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic appears to be a successor to [[1714: Volcano Types]]. Similar to its predecessor, the comic explores several phenomena (in this case, geologic faults), both real phenomena and several made up for the point of a joke.

A {{w|Fault (geology)|fault}} is a geologic feature that involves the boundaries of two {{w|tectonic plates}}.

Thrust faults were previously mentioned in [[1082: Geology]], and in the title text of [[1388: Subduction License]], [[Beret Guy]] tells [[Cueball]] he can't be a 'normal' roomate because in his motion he is creating a reverse fault.

====Real geologic faults====
;Normal fault
In a {{w|Fault (geology)#Dip-slip faults|normal fault}}, the hanging wall (the upper wall; right) moves downward relative to the footwall (the lower wall; left). The Earth's crust is extended in this type of fault.
;Reverse fault
A reverse fault is basically the opposite of a normal fault. The hanging wall (left) moves upward relative to the footwall (right), and the Earth's crust is compressed.
;Transverse fault
A transverse fault, also known as a {{w|transform fault}}, is where the two plates move parallel to each other, but in opposite directions.
;Thrust fault
A {{w|thrust fault}} is when older rocks are pushed (or thrust) on top of younger rocks. The angles are typically lower (more horizontal) than in reverse faults.

====Fictional joke faults====
;Taffy fault
This appears to involve one tectonic plate, that is being stretched out like a piece of {{w|Taffy (candy)|taffy}}.
;Splinted fault
This appears to be a normal or reverse fault to which someone has attached a large splint.
;Squeezed-bar-of-soap fault
Two plates seem to be moving towards each other, while a third smaller plate is squeezed between them and pushed upwards, depicting a slippery bar of soap sliding between hands.
;Apple power cable fault
The plate appears to have been twisted and bent so many times that parts of it are fraying, similar a frayed Apple {{w|MagSafe}} connector. A similar joke is used in [[1406: Universal Converter Box]].
;Brio fault
The Brio fault seems to be two tectonic plates which join together like the Brio train track pieces do. {{w|Brio (company)|BRIO}} is a company from Sweden that makes wooden toys.
;Torn-bag-of-potato-chips-where-the-tear-is-rapidly-growing fault
The title text refers to when a bag of chips gets a crack in it. When that happens, it will almost always continue to grow as people get chips out of the bag, sometimes very quickly. It would be frightening to live near a fault that behaved like this because that could cause major seismic events very quickly. If you were close enough to the fault, you might also be afraid that the crack would grow underneath you and you would fall into the earth.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Lacks small description for each item.}}
:[The comic shows nine different schematic views to present geographic faults and some more.]

:[Two planes with a slip fault drifting away to the left and right.]
:Normal fault
:[Two planes with a slip fault drifting against each other from left and right.]
:Reverse fault
:[Two planes moving sidewards.]
:Transverse fault

:[The left plane moves above the other to the right.]
:Thrust fault
:[Two planes drifting away and the connection between them gets smaller.]
:Taffy fault
:[On top of both planes a small piece with splints holds them together.]
:Splinted fault

:[The two planes pressing together with a piece in the middle moving topwards.]
:Squeezed-bar-of-soap fault
:[The right plane is connected to the left and swinging up and down.]
:Apple power cable fault
:[One side with a thin connector and the other with an evenly spaced hole connecting the planes together.]
:Brio fault

{{comic discussion}}

1870: Emoji Movie Reviews

2017-08-02T07:16:54Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ linking tweaks

{{comic
| number = 1870
| date = July 31, 2017
| title = Emoji Movie Reviews
| image = emoji_movie_reviews.png
| titletext = There's this idea that emoji are bad for communication because they replace ambiguity and nuance with a limited set of preselected emotions, but it doesn't really survive a collision with real-world usage of the thinking face or upside-down smiley.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need to discuss title text and the signifigance of Wikipedia plotpoint and why it's ridiculous.}}

This comic discusses ''{{w|The Emoji Movie}}'' (previously covered in [[1857: Emoji Movie]]) between the cynical, Internet-equipped point of view of Megan and Cueball's language-enthusiasm. They ultimately agree the movie is bad.

''The Emoji Movie'' was released to theaters in July 2017, and received nearly universally-negative reviews. It is particularly notable for having just ''barely'' avoided a 0% rating on review aggregator site [http://www.RottenTomatoes.com Rotten Tomatoes], which would have classified it there as one of the worst movies of all time. Many critics of movie point to superficial problems like the subject matter and the product placement. Here, that train of thought is articulated a bit more, and ultimately it's argued that the real reason the film is bad is because the creators cashed in on a trend without doing any research into it.

When [[Megan]] first mentions movie's negative reviews, [[Cueball]] initially accuses the audience of being overly judgmental of the subject matter. He further expresses his fondness for {{w|emoji}} as an interesting and quirky part of language.

Cueball offers an early defense of ''The Emoji Movie'' by comparing it to ''{{w|The Lego Movie}}'', which – despite effectively being an entire movie of {{w|product placement}} for {{w|Lego}} – received generally positive reviews.

They start talking about a "Meh" emoji, who is the main character of the movie. The idea of "{{w|meh}}" as an emoji is actually ambiguous, as various emoji can be used to describe being unimpressed or neutral towards something. As given in examples from comic those are 😒 ({{w|Emoticons (Unicode block)|U+1F612}} Unamused face), 😐 (U+1F610 Neutral face) or 😕 (U+1F615 Confused face). The selection of a less identifiable emoji for the leading role also contrasts with the fact that the movie also features more iconic emojis.

Megan mentions that one of the attempted jokes in the film is a room full of emojis that are unpopular. Bizarrely, the eggplant emoji (🍆, U+1F346 Aubergine) is featured among them. This is a clear sign that the creative team in charge of this movie had limited first-hand experience with SMS messaging; as any millennial will tell you, the 🍆 is a sly stand-in for a penis, due to its similar shape. [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/eggplant-emoji-%F0%9F%8D%86] Cueball's reaction is to ask whether the creators of this film might be trying to be controversial on purpose, as it is popular lately (like for example in film {{w|Sausage Party}})

The line from the Wikipedia plot summary was a {{w|Special:Permalink/793251548|direct quote from Wikipedia}}. The sentence was introduced to the article by editor {{w|User:Voicebox64|Voicebox64}} on {{w|Special:Diff/792689187|July 28, 2017}}, and the exact phrasing quoted in the comic came from editor {{w|User:SubZeroSilver|SubZeroSilver}} on {{w|Special:Diff/793088884|July 30}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete|Could someone check if the emojis are all correct? Thanks in advance.}}
:[Cueball and Megan are walking. Megan is checking her phone.]
:Megan: Reviews for The Emoji Movie are... not good.
:Cueball: People are just snobs about emoji. I like them! Language is cool and weird.

:[Zoom on Megan; Cueball is outside of the frame.]
:Megan: It's apparently 80% product placement.
:Cueball (off-screen): Whatever. So was The Lego Movie, and I liked ''that''.

:[Zoom out; Cueball looks at Megan's phone.]
:Megan: It features the emoji we all know and love - with a "Meh" emoji in the starring role!
:Cueball: Wait... a "Meh" emoji?
:Megan: I wondered about that, too; the others are all familiar. Do they mean 😒? Or 😐 or 😕?
:Cueball: That's a little confusing...

:[Zoom in on both heads; Megan is looking at her phone.]
:Megan: There's a joke in the movie about the "emoji that no one uses" that includes the eggplant emoji.
:Cueball: ...was that on purpose? Or did they not run the script by enough people?

:[Megan and Cueball continue walking.]
:Megan: Here's a line from the Wikipedia plot summary:
:Megan: ''Gene and Hi-5 come to a piracy app where they meet the hacker emoji Jailbreak, who wants to reach Dropbox so that she can live in the cloud.''
:Cueball: Okay.
:Cueball: It's possible this movie is bad.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

1870: Emoji Movie Reviews

2017-08-01T09:05:51Z

162.158.134.202: /* Explanation */ +unicode code points and official names

{{comic
| number = 1870
| date = July 31, 2017
| title = Emoji Movie Reviews
| image = emoji_movie_reviews.png
| titletext = There's this idea that emoji are bad for communication because they replace ambiguity and nuance with a limited set of preselected emotions, but it doesn't really survive a collision with real-world usage of the thinking face or upside-down smiley.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need to discuss title text and the signifigance of Wikipedia plotpoint and why it's ridiculous.}}

This comic discusses {{w|The Emoji Movie}} between the cynical, Internet-equipped point of view of Megan and Cueball's language-enthusiasm. They ultimately agree the movie is bad.

Many critics of {{w|The Emoji Movie}} point to superficial problems like the subject matter and the product placement. Here, it's argued that the real reason the film is bad is because the creators cashed in on a trend without doing any research into it.

When [[Megan]] first mentions The Emoji Movie's panned reviews, [[Cueball]] initially accuses the audience of being overly judgemental of the subject matter. He further expresses his fondness for {{w|emoji}} as an interesting and quirky part of language.

Cueball offers an early defense of ''The Emoji Movie'' by comparing it to ''{{w|The Lego Movie}}'', which – despite effectively being an entire movie of {{w|product placement}} for {{w|Lego}} – received generally positive reviews.

They start talking about a "Meh" emoji, who is the main character of the movie. The idea of "{{w|meh}}" as an emoji is actually ambiguous, as various emoji can be used to describe being unimpressed or neutral towards something. As given in examples from comic those are 😒 (U+1F612 Unamused face), 😐 (U+1F610 Neutral face) or 😕 (U+1F615 Confused face). The selection of a less identifiable emoji for the leading role also contrasts with the fact that the movie also features more iconic emojis.

Megan mentions that one of the attempted jokes in the film is a room full of emojis that are unpopular. Bizarrely, the eggplant emoji (🍆, U+1F346 Aubergine) is featured among them. This is a clear sign that the creative team in charge of this movie had limited first-hand experience with SMS messaging; as any millennial will tell you, the 🍆 is a sly stand-in for a penis, due to its similar shape. [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/eggplant-emoji-%F0%9F%8D%86] Cueball's reaction is to ask whether the creators of this film might be trying to be controversial on purpose, as it is popular lately (like for example in film {{w|Sausage Party}})

The line from the Wikipedia plot summary was a {{w|Special:Permalink/793251548|direct quote from Wikipedia}}. The sentence was introduced to the article by editor {{w|User:Voicebox64|Voicebox64}} on {{w|Special:Diff/792689187|July 28, 2017}}, and the exact phrasing quoted in the comic came from editor {{w|User:SubZeroSilver|SubZeroSilver}} on {{w|Special:Diff/793088884|July 30}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete|Could someone check if the emojis are all correct? Thanks in advance.}}
[Cueball and Megan are walking. Megan is checking her phone, presumably to check reviews about The Emoji Movie.]
:Megan: Reviews for The Emoji Movie are... not good.
:Cueball: People are just snobs about emoji. I like them! Language is cool and weird.
[Megan stops; Cueball is now outside the frame.]
:Megan: It's apparently 80% product placement.
:Cueball (off-screen): Whatever. So was The Lego Movie, and I liked ''that''.
[Cueball looks at Megan's phone.]
:Megan: It features the emoji we all know and love - with a "Meh" emoji in the starring role!
:Cueball: Wait... a "Meh" emoji?
:Megan: I wondered about that, too; the others are all familiar. Do they mean 😒? Or 😐 or 😕?
:Cueball: That's a little confusing...
[Zooms in; Megan is now looking at her phone by herself.]
:Megan: There's a joke in the movie about the "emoji that no one uses" that includes the eggplant emoji.
:Cueball: ...was that on purpose? Or did they not run the script by enough people?
[Megan and Cueball continue walking.]
:Megan: Here's a line from the Wikipedia plot summary:
:Megan: ''Gene and Hi-5 come to a piracy app where they meet the hacker emoji Jailbreak, who wants to reach Dropbox so that she can live in the cloud.''
:Cueball: Okay.
:Cueball: It's possible this movie is bad.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

Talk:1808: Hacking

2017-03-19T20:16:37Z

162.158.134.202:

Some explanations for title text:
* a list of millions of prime factors: trivial to produce and useless without knowing the problem they're from
* a 0-day Tamagotchi exploit: sounds not very useful, unless modern Tamagotchis [http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39002142 have internet connection]
* and a technique for getting gcc and bash to execute arbitrary code: unlike other applications, these two programs (especially when used together) are specifically created to let user execute arbitrary code{{unsigned ip|141.101.80.106}}
--
Internet connected tamagotchis you say?
http://spritesmods.com/?art=tamasingularity -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.202|141.101.76.202]] 06:42, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
--

Expanded the details; I know Tamagotchi hacking is a thing, but I'll leave it to someone who actually knows about it to decide whether it's worth mentioning in the page. Also, "a list of millions of prime factors" could just as well be called "a list of millions of prime numbers", which sounds much less important, but I couldn't think of a brief way to mention that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.4|162.158.78.4]] 09:53, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

The television-show "Zondag met Lubach" (Sunday with Lubach) has prior to the elections in the Netherlands launched the Kamergotchi-app. In this app you have to cuddle and feed your partyleader to keep him/her alive. The party leader is randomly chosen. In the last episode of the show the results from the app were compared with the polls. Surely the CIA and the Russians would like to hack this Tamagotchi-clone. Vince 10:27, 8 March 2017 (UTC){{unsigned ip|141.101.105.174}}

- I think the joke regarding the "millions or prime factors" is that "millions" sounds like a lot, but it is in fact a very small set that can be easily computed, and even more easily downloaded. It is also useless for cracking any modern encryption. Bigprimes.net has a downloadable list of the first 1.4 billion primes; the 1.4 billionth prime (32416190071) is a 40-bit number, which is only useful for factoring 80-bit products at best. The CIA would likely need (and probably do have) at least a trillion primes pre-computed. [[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 10:53, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Say, this was the first header on the WSJ today! [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 10:54, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

I think the 0 day tamagotchi exploit might be a pun on 0 day exploits as explained above and the fact that tamigotchis use an ingame time mechanic. So a 0 day tamigotchi exploit might allow you to do something special with or to your tamigotchi while it is still and egg. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.28|172.68.2.28]] 12:56, 8 March 2017 (UTC)-

I think you're actually allowed to have an e-mail address like john dot doe@example.org - but a lot of programs will be greatly confused by it. That is not really a comment on the comic. Also, I once read someone's research which reported that spam list users simply delete obfuscated addresses, and particularly if "spam" appears in the address; for them, if not for the TLAs, to do more is pointless. So by all means set your real address to johnlovespamela@couples.com. Although you may have to change your names and sex. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com.fearless.not!:-) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.108|141.101.107.108]] 15:47, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

A list of one prime from each of the million most important RSA keys could accurately, if understatedly, be described as "a list of a million prime factors". If people realize what it is it would break the web. So it depends on which primes: the first million, meh; a million random primes; yawn; a million carefully chosen primes, yowza! The last two would not be obviously different unless you did some fairly minimal work. A prime the CIA classifies could be interesting. Or they could be messing with us.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.21|162.158.62.21]] 15:52, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

I can't resist pointing out that anything that has a speaker also has a microphone. So a network connected tamagotchi, which is presumably capable of playing sounds, could also be used as a bug, despite being a "low-end device" ☺{{unsigned ip|162.158.78.130}}

:I don't think you can turn a speaker into a microphone using only software, you have to reconnect wires. Also the sound card must already have hardware for audio input. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 14:59, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
::Any speaker can be a microphone too, so "hardware for audio input" is rather loose. It just has to be capable in some way, directly or indirectly, to measure the fluctuations from sound waves striking the speaker.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.130|162.158.78.130]] 17:30, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
:::By hardware for audio input I meant electronic circuits inside the sound card that accept analog input and convert it to a digital signal. If a device is designed just for sound output it might not have the necessary electronics for sound input. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 21:52, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

:If the device uses a RealTek (Conexant, IDT or other) audio codec chip, malware may silently "retask" the output channel as an input channel (as per Intel High Definition Audio specification) and record sound from normally connected speakers [https://www.wired.com/2016/11/great-now-even-headphones-can-spy/ without any hardware modification]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 15:16, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

If the gcc/bash thing was actually a reference to ShellShock or some other real problem, then its inclusion wouldn't be funny... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.51|162.158.74.51]] 19:18, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Pretty sure the gcc/bash thing is a joke about using gcc to make a program, then executing it in bash. This is trivial. A real hack that did this unintentionally would need to involve some other program as well, like some way to get remote access using ssh or such. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 21:52, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

In light of the CIA hack revelations, I'm tempted to change my email to Me '); DROP TABLE @gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.193|162.158.154.193]] 09:39, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Having millions of passwords without a context can be very useful. Ever heard of a dictionary attack? This list is such a dictionary. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.202|162.158.134.202]] 20:16, 19 March 2017 (UTC)