explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2259: Networking Problems

2020-01-27T13:07:47Z

162.158.154.91:

I just had an issue the other day with copying disk images to a network drive using <code>smbclient</code> on Linux Mint. The transfer would only run at 1 to 2 MB/s. Then I discovered that if I opened the mounted drive in the GUI file explorer and refreshed the directory where I was copying the image to, it would consistently cause the copy operation to jump to 40 to 60 MB/s and stay there for the rest of the operation. I concluded that <code>smbclient</code> must run on actual sorcery. [[User:Aaron Rotenberg|Aaron Rotenberg]] ([[User talk:Aaron Rotenberg|talk]]) 18:02, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

:Sounds like the explorer is able to create some sort of cache that the transfer is able to use but not create. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:36, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

:The original <code>smbclient</code> implementation turned out to be virtually impossible, so the programmers gave up and used <code>import_ai()</code>. Unfortunately they then used <code>ai_solve(network.problems,0,0)</code> to set the maliciousness and capriciousness variables to zero, but a combination of off-by-one and roll-over errors mean that these two variables are maximized. True story. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 09:39, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, can confirm that even the high end of 'normal computer problems' can result in belief in the occult and/or paranormal operation of computers. I now attempt to moderate my brainwaves into positive only flow to make sure I do not negatively effect the computer through quantum effects on the bits and operation. If i get frustrated or confused by the computer for an extended time, i put it down and walk away until I have more of a 'can do' attitude. Then of coarse there was that time that.... it may be too late for me, but there are puzzling computer problems to explore so I... remember me as I was. ~Litppunk 18:26, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
: Yeah. Life changed, memory lost. Still trying to fix bugs. Are you available to connect over this? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.72|172.68.133.72]] 22:04, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

"Ghosts generally are not concerned with expressions of belief, but there are some religious traditions that include group clapping and chanting." - I don't think the hover text is related to the ghosts. They seem just like two separate unbelievable things. "Perhaps the ghost in question is the Holy Ghost." - I doubt that is what he is referring to, especially since it is plural 'ghosts' and the Holy Ghost is singular. [[User:Curtobi4|Curtobi4]] ([[User talk:Curtobi4|talk]]) 18:44, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Clearly seems related to 1457, albeit with much more advanced tech issues. --[[User:GoldNinja|GoldNinja]] ([[User talk:GoldNinja|talk]]) 19:18, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Clapping hands and saying you believe in fairys is how you prevent Tinkerbell from Dying when you watch Peter Pan.{{unsigned|108.162.241.32}}
:Yeah, the interactive part of the play/movie/comix. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:36, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

: '''Pareidolia''' (one of my least favorite words because I can't spell it well enough to google for the correct spelling) is a definite problem for the human brain - we habitually spot patterns where they don't exist. But the problem for software engineers is that spotting patterns that '''DO''' exist is how you find bugs. So distinguishing between real patterns and pareidolia ('i' before 'e' except after 'c'...and 'r'...sometimes...) is a vital part of the job. Clearly Cueball has that problem here. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 20:48, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

I know it's hyperbole, but are there any actual networking problems that could cause every other packet to be laggy? [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 21:17, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

:Nothing I can think of you'd ever do in a production setup on purpose, but with some really crazy port-channel settings, with the right kind of tiny packets like a SYN, and a downstream bridge or repeater to add in some intentional delay, I think you could. Never underestimate the power of a sufficiently motivated netadmin. [[User:DevAudio|DevAudio]] ([[User talk:DevAudio|talk]]) 22:55, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

:Theoretically, yes. But it would require some malicious/stupid/buggy configuration. For example, some stupid packet scheduler on a misconfigured bonded link or having two same-metric routes to some destination that are not equal in fact. It may not even be an error in any ''local'' configuration, but a collective effect of multiple sub-optimal configurations or just a lack of knowledge of the whole picture of the network. In essence, if there are multiple connections leading to some destination, someone may want to utilize them all to 'sum' the bandwidth of them. A network device would then 'share' traffic between those multiple (in Cueball's case: two) connections, mostly sending every N-th packet on any particular connection. Normally there won't be ideal division of packets to connections unless there are some pathological conditions. If one of these connections is actually slower than the others, this could generate the effect seen by Cueball. The network administrator may not be aware of the asymmetry - the links connected directly to his device may be in fact identical, but the slowness can be induced somewhere along the path by a device not under his control. Similarly, Cueball, even if very competent, may not be aware that some device not under his control along the path uses such configuration and causes unintentional delays in (mostly) every other packet. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.23.109|162.158.23.109]] 09:07, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

The classic 500-mile bug: "We can't send mail more than 500 miles" http://web.mit.edu/jemorris/humor/500-miles

: I'm legally required to link [http://catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html The Story Of Mel] and [http://catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html A story about 'magic'] [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 12:28, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

While I don't believe that ghosts have power over computers, I do believe that many of the seemingly random "hiccups" in my computer programs are caused by sunspots. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:52, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Disagree strongly that this has anything to do with seeing patterns where they don't exist. Modern network troubleshooting tools will show you exactly the order that packets were received, and the time they were received at. Although it would be hard to induce the problem described, if it '''were''' induced, you could indeed see it quite clearly and objectively in a packet capture. This comic is more about some of the brain-breakingly twisted ways networking can go awry and all the impossible things it can make you want to believe in the quest to make sense of what we are seeing. [[User:DevAudio|DevAudio]] ([[User talk:DevAudio|talk]]) 23:02, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

: I will correct myself slightly - it would seem from the mouseover text that he is finding a false pattern, but it's not impossible for what he said to be true, it would just require laboratory conditions and someone playing a prank. He could also be seeing a real pattern with some kind of crazy cause involving a sound transducer and either EMI or some intentional sabotage. Yeah, that's waaaay off in left field, but so is the network data Cueball may be actually be seeing. On the whole, I would not fight someone who chose to believe Cueball is seeing a false pattern with the clapping. It's a reasonable interpretation for anyone who hasn't seen the insane things I have when troubleshooting networks. I HAVE seen ghost packets. (It was a weird glitch causing a switch to replay packets from hosts that weren't even connected anymore, not actual paranormal activity.) [[User:DevAudio|DevAudio]] ([[User talk:DevAudio|talk]]) 23:34, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, I don't think lag is about how long transmission of a packet takes, which is instead referred to as {{w|network delay}}. Furthermore, from the referenced Wikipedia page, network delay is experienced in each "hop" of the data packet from node to node and includes the following delays: processing delay (time to process the packet header), queuing delay (time packet spends in routing queue), transmission delay (time to push the packet onto the link), and propagation delay (time to travel to destination based on the speed of the link). IMHO, a laggy network connection is one where the network delay is longer than normal due to a temporary problem in one or more of these areas. A connection that is always slow because of low link bandwidth is not laggy, it's just slow. Others may disagree with me. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:02, 25 January 2020 (UTC)
: Lag is an application-layer concept (being the time from a user doing something to trigger an action to when the effects of that action start to be observed). The network-layer equivalent is ''latency'' and it is one of the fundamental limits on what you can do with remote resources (and the one that is very hard to do anything about, unlike bandwidth where you can just get more by spending money). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.53|141.101.99.53]] 02:01, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi. Isn't Randall using the scale in the wrong direction? I mean "normal problems" make your brain stop working if you debug them "none" to "some" while "Networking problems" only make your brain stop working if you debug them "a lot". If I am wrong. In what way should I read the axis? thx [[User:OK-Randall|OK-Randall]] ([[User talk:OK-Randall|talk]]) 09:44, 26 January 2020 (UTC)
: It's not a measure of "how much debugging" causes your brain to stop working, but instead is a measure of "how much your brain stops working" when debugging them. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:04, 26 January 2020 (UTC)
::Ah yes, I get it now, it's another example of Randall's ambiguous wording (after [https://www.explainxkcd.com/2258 someone who knows Jupiter is within earshot]). I initially read it as "(how much debugging them) (makes your brain stop working)", whereas Randall probably meant "(how much) (debugging them makes your brain stop working)".[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 13:07, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2255: Tattoo Ideas

2020-01-15T11:20:01Z

162.158.154.91:

"Changeme" made me think of FIXME or TODO of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comment_(computer_programming)#Tags [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.150|162.158.106.150]] 06:03, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
:yeah, it's the equivalent but for stuff like passwords [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 06:42, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

The "Eurion Constellation" is a constellation-like pattern of dots on paper currency that when detected, prevents photocopiers from making copies of the bills https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissot%27s_indicatrix Tisdot's indicatrix] is a matrix of circles placed on a map that change size and proportions (possibly turning into ellipses) based on map distortion. As a tatoo, that would be useful in tracking any distortion of the skin since you had the tattoo. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.216|141.101.105.216]] 07:07, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

The [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suffer-to-be-beautiful/ Snopes page on Epidurals and Tattoos] states that, as of 2005, doctors will administer epidurals (an anesthic procedure designed to lessen the pain of childbirth) through lower back tattoos, but that there is discussion in the Canadian medical community that there may be some risk involved with this procedure. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.177|172.69.54.177]] 07:23, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
:Until I clicked the link, I was under the impression you were telling us that the doctors would give women epidurals under the guise of tattoos or something... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.136|162.158.214.136]] 08:26, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

"The [https://www.who.int/patientsafety/safesurgery/checklist/en/ WHO Surgical Safety Checklist] was developed after extensive consultation aiming to decrease errors and adverse events, and increase teamwork and communication in surgery. The 19-item checklist has gone on to show signiﬁcant reduction in both morbidity and mortality and is now used by a majority of surgical providers around the world." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.184|141.101.76.184]] 07:31, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

In the 2000 movie "Memento", the amnesiac protagonist uses "an intricate system of Polaroid photographs and tattoos to track information he cannot remember." ([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_(film) Wikipedia]) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.154|141.101.76.154]] 07:40, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

Aww man, now I want the title text as a tattoo. Also, the words "You should add a dragon" abruptly in the middle of an intricate design[[User:V|V]] ([[User talk:V|talk]]) 08:03, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
:Or just "a dragon" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.136|162.158.214.136]] 08:24, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
::Or just tattoo "Your Tattoo" to show to anyone who asks to see your tattoo. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 11:20, 15 January 2020 (UTC)
:Even though it's too soon (xkcd [[286]])? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.228|162.158.255.228]] 09:42, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2255: Tattoo Ideas

2020-01-15T06:42:42Z

162.158.154.91:

Talk:2248: New Year's Eve

2019-12-30T18:49:04Z

162.158.154.91:

What about people born on New Year's [[User:HelloWorld|HelloWorld]] ([[User talk:HelloWorld|talk]]) 16:28, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

:This method works for them too. For instance, someone born 1/1/2000 will still be 19 on 12/31/2019 (2019 - 2000 = 19) but turn 20 the following day. Why do you think there's a problem for them? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 16:47, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

::For people born late at night on New Year's Eve it could still present an issue ''theoretically'', but it would at least be the day of their birthday so you're not getting their age wrong so much as observing their birthday!
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:31, 30 December 2019 (UTC)
:::I believe what you're suggesting is that someone is not one year older until the exact time of their birth on the date of their birth. I don't think anyone gets that pedantic about their age unless they're really vain! ;-) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:45, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Anyone have any good tips for an "Off-By-One" party? My birthday is this January & I'm thinking that's as good a theme as any. Of course the invites will feature a "2 guests ±1" RSVP option, but I haven't thought much beyond that yet. Ideas?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:31, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

So, how old's Jesus? Two-thousand and nineteen? Two-thousand and eighteen? Two-thousand and twenty-(three...seven)? Well into this decade, some churches round here ''still'' had the ubiquitous cross-denominational "It is Christ's 2000th birthday!" plaques up from the false-millenium (I might have a look now to see if any still do!) but of all the things they get wrong I don't think that's particularly the biggest thing, so... ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 18:49, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2242: Ground vs Air

2019-12-18T19:46:33Z

162.158.154.91:

Wow; it took longer than I care to admit to realize 'thick' wasn't 'viscosity'...but 'altitude'. (i.e., height/thickness re: Kynde's comment) [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 01:08, 17 December 2019 (UTC)
:Ohhhhhhhh! [[User:Sdkb|Sdkb]] ([[User talk:Sdkb|talk]]) 02:38, 17 December 2019 (UTC)
::Not altitude, but height or thickness... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:03, 17 December 2019 (UTC)
::: ^ Yes, that. Correction added; I meekly blame word choice on keyboard dead zones. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 20:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

A link to the article is here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2005GL025621. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.192|162.158.186.192]] 01:12, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

It's probably worth mentioning in the explanation which map projection Randall chose to use for this comic from those listed in a previous comic about map projections. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

And by these metrics, blood is even thinner than water... {{unsignedip|162.158.107.199}}

But everything changed when the fire nation attacked [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.250|108.162.229.250]] 10:47, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

I assume ocean ridges have a very thin crust, meaning they get the ratio more towards air? I am not at all a geologist, so I ask this question, because ridges would intiutively appear to have a bigger crust, as they stand out from the ground. "That definition would, of course, have resulted in a significantly different picture where the air is thicker than the ground only inside small areas around mid-ocean ridges" should be explained by someone who knows why it is the case. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:26, 17 December 2019 (UTC)
:Mid-ocean ridges can even be raised above the ocean surface--Iceland is actually the high point on one of them. In other places they're trenches, though. Since seafloor crust is spreading at those points, it's at its thinnest there on average. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:08, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
::Would you feel confident, adding that in a concise way to the explanation? I do not... But I am glad I learned something by that. That might also explain why these ocean ridges tend to be equipped with volcanoes. I thought the reasoning was the other way round: They are ridges due to their geothermal activity. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:27, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

The current explanation seems to include water-thickness in with (either) air or ground thickness in discussing it in the initial transition from air to ground. Depends how you read it, which, but it easily reads as either. Maybe edit that aside out from that bit, then make sure that sliver of water is gone into later (...end of that para? ...footnote mention?) that sometimes the air ends at sea-level and ground starts after the depth of sea? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 12:28, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
:Just done what I think you asked for, as luck would have it. (And then redid it slightly to avoid adjectival and verb forms of "separate" appearing so close together.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 19:46, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

The current explanations refers to fire as being 12000km, I would rather go with the radius of 6000km. Makes more sense to me since we are on a sphere and not counting the crust thickness twice.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.52|108.162.216.52]] 17:52, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Should we make a Comics with Citations category? Seems like it's warranted [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.53|141.101.69.53]] 19:21, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

2242: Ground vs Air

2019-12-18T19:40:46Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */ Rerephrased to avoid messy not-quite-homophonic repetition of identical-looking word.

{{comic
| number = 2242
| date = December 16, 2019
| title = Ground vs Air
| image = ground vs air.png
| titletext = Water is thinner than both, and fire is *definitely* thicker.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a THICK FIRE. More on the general thickness of the "ground", especially on the oceans and at the thickest parts. Needs more about the actual data portrayed.}}
This comic depicts a map of the world using the {{w|Winkel tripel projection}}, comparing the thickness of the ground, which refers to the {{w|lithosphere}}, to the "thickness" (or height) of the air above it, which refers to the {{w|atmosphere}}.

In an inserted figure, [[Randall]] defines the thickness using three boundaries. At the top is {{w|space}}, defined by the {{w|Kármán line}} at an altitude of 100 km (≈ 62 mi). (See the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section below for a discussion of this definition of the beginning of space). Below that is the atmosphere which goes down to the ground, where [[Cueball]] is standing. Beneath the surface is the lithosphere, comprised of the Earth's crust along with the rigid upper part of the mantle, and beneath this is the {{w|asthenosphere}}, the partially melted, highly viscous region of the {{w|upper mantle}} just below the lithosphere. The lithosphere is variable in thickness, averaging about 100 km, but the oceanic lithosphere is much thinner than the continental lithosphere (oceanic crust is thinner and denser than continental crust). The diagram also shows oceanic cross-section to the left-hand side and, though the diagram does not make it explicit, presumably the two measurements used are of the atmosphere down from 'space' to the surface (solid ground or sea-level, whichever is locally highest) and of rock descending from the solid interface down to the asthenosphere, as the sliver of liquid that can intervene between the two spans is refered to as a seperate measurement elsewhere.

The map shades in the parts where the thickness of the ground is thicker than the thickness of the air. This almost only occurs over continents, and certainly only where the continental plates are located (which can stretch into the shallow parts of the oceans). But there are several sections, such as in the Caribbean, northernmost Canada, and the Sea of Japan, where the ground is thicker even being below sea level.

Randall has mainly used a work by Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni from 2006 to estimate the thickness of the "ground", and he gives the reference to the paper [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2005GL025621 DOI.1029/2005GL025621]. Basically, Randall has taken their map and shaded the blue areas. It is the second comic in a row with a citation, after the footnote in [[2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect]].

The title text refers to the ancient four {{w|classical element}}s: earth, water, air, fire. The lithosphere, or ground, is earth, the oceans is water, the atmosphere is air, and fire would thus be the hot, plastic rock of the Earth's mantle, see [[913: Core]]. The mantle is not "on fire", but it is hot enough that it would ignite almost anything on the surface. The water layer on Earth is never more than 11 km deep, even at the deepest part of the ocean, the {{w|Mariana Trench}}, and thus cannot compare to the thickness of the atmosphere or the lithosphere. An expansive definition of "fire" to include the rest of the Earth below the lithosphere puts the fire layer at 6,000 km thick, the radius of the Earth, much thicker than the other layers, hence the ''and fire is *definitely* thicker'' comment at the end of the title text. Space or vacuum would in the classical element terminology have been called the {{w|Aether (classical element)|Aether}}.

In [[977: Map Projections]] the [[977:_Map_Projections#Winkel-Tripel|Winkel-Tripel projection]] is the fifth projection which is linked to the {{w|Hipster (contemporary subculture)|hipster}} subculture.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the drawing]:
:Which is thicker—the ground or the air?

:[The drawing shows a Winkel tripel projection of the Earth. The features of the main map is unlabeled, with only the outlines of the landmasses present. Various parts of the map are labeled with "Air" (four times) or "Ground" (5 times). Areas marked as "Ground" are differentiated with gray shading. These are always over large landmasses or close to them. They cover most of North America (labeled), the northern part of South America (labeled), Northern Europe and most of Asia (labeled), Japan, most of Australia and part of the Indonesia, Western Africa, sub-equatorial Africa (labeled), and finally the central parts of Antarctica (labeled). Air is written on the West Coast of the United States, in the Atlantic Ocean, over the central part of Africa and in the Pacific Ocean, near the Philippines.]
:[Over West Coast of the United States]: Air
:[Over North America]: Ground
:[Over Atlantic Ocean]: Air
:[Over South America]: Ground
:[Over the central part of Africa]: Air
:[Over the southern part of Africa]: Ground
:[Over Asia]: Ground
:[Over Pacific Ocean]: Air
:[Over Antarctica ]: Ground

:[A small diagram is present in the Pacific Ocean left of South America. The diagram depicts several labeled layers of Earth and its atmosphere, listed below. Cueball, a body of water, and several mountains are shown on the flat surface part of the diagram, with the ocean floor lower than where Cueball stands. Above is a line representing the border to space. The line beneath the surface is much more curved going both up and down. Two double arrows representing the thickness of the atmosphere and the lithosphere are drawn between the surface and the layers above and below. Another curved double arrow is pointing to each of these distances and it is marked with a question mark in the middle of the line.]
:Space
:Atmosphere
:Lithosphere
:Asthenosphere
:?

:[In the bottom right corner of the comic with gray text is a reference:]
:Based mostly on Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni (2006) DOI.1029/2005GL025621

==Trivia==
*[[Randall]] always uses the {{w|Kármán line}} as the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.
**He has previously mocked the alternative definition of the atmosphere boundary (at 80 km ≈ 50 mi) used by {{w|US Air Force}} and {{w|NASA}} in the title text of [[1375: Astronaut Vandalism]].
***That definition would, of course, have resulted in a significantly different picture where the ''air'' is thicker than the ''ground'' only inside small areas around mid-ocean ridges.
**Although most authorities use the FAI definition of the Kármán line since it is the international organization of record for aeronautics, there are good scientific reasons for the U.S. Air Force definition.
**The Kármán line is named for {{W|Theodore von Kármán}}, who originally calculated the height at which a vehicle would have to travel faster than orbital velocity to generate lift from wings (therefore making the vehicle a spacecraft in orbit rather an "air"craft using aerodynamics for flight).
**Von Kármán originally calculated this height as 51.9 miles (83.6 km) - closer to the Air Force definition.
**Additionally, the boundary between the {{W|Mesosphere}} and the {{W|Thermosphere}} is traditionally taken to be 52.7 miles (85 km), also close to the Air Force definition.
**On the other hand, some newer research suggests the mesopause (the line between the mesosphere and thermosphere) may have peaks between 53 and 62 miles (85-100 km).
**Also the {{w|turbopause}} - the line where gas molecules cease mixing atmospherically and begin stratifying by molecular weight as if they are in orbit - is generally taken to be about 100 kilometers (62 miles), and as such, closer to the FAI definition.
**Regardless of which definition is used, the reality is that the transition from atmosphere to space takes place gradually over tens of kilometers.
***But the idea behind this comic is only funny if an atmosphere of 100 km thickness is used.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Space]]

2242: Ground vs Air

2019-12-18T19:37:30Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */ Rejigged reference to the water layer.

{{comic
| number = 2242
| date = December 16, 2019
| title = Ground vs Air
| image = ground vs air.png
| titletext = Water is thinner than both, and fire is *definitely* thicker.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a THICK FIRE. More on the general thickness of the "ground", especially on the oceans and at the thickest parts. Needs more about the actual data portrayed.}}
This comic depicts a map of the world using the {{w|Winkel tripel projection}}, comparing the thickness of the ground, which refers to the {{w|lithosphere}}, to the "thickness" (or height) of the air above it, which refers to the {{w|atmosphere}}.

In an inserted figure, [[Randall]] defines the thickness using three boundaries. At the top is {{w|space}}, defined by the {{w|Kármán line}} at an altitude of 100 km (≈ 62 mi). (See the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section below for a discussion of this definition of the beginning of space). Below that is the atmosphere which goes down to the ground, where [[Cueball]] is standing. Beneath the surface is the lithosphere, comprised of the Earth's crust along with the rigid upper part of the mantle, and beneath this is the {{w|asthenosphere}}, the partially melted, highly viscous region of the {{w|upper mantle}} just below the lithosphere. The lithosphere is variable in thickness, averaging about 100 km, but the oceanic lithosphere is much thinner than the continental lithosphere (oceanic crust is thinner and denser than continental crust). The diagram also shows oceanic cross-section to the left-hand side and, though the diagram does not make it explicit, presumably the two measurements used are of the atmosphere down from 'space' to the surface (solid ground or sea-level, whichever is locally highest) and of rock descending from the solid interface down to the asthenosphere, as the sliver of liquid that can further seperate the two spans is refered to as a seperate measurement elsewhere.

The map shades in the parts where the thickness of the ground is thicker than the thickness of the air. This almost only occurs over continents, and certainly only where the continental plates are located (which can stretch into the shallow parts of the oceans). But there are several sections, such as in the Caribbean, northernmost Canada, and the Sea of Japan, where the ground is thicker even being below sea level.

Randall has mainly used a work by Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni from 2006 to estimate the thickness of the "ground", and he gives the reference to the paper [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2005GL025621 DOI.1029/2005GL025621]. Basically, Randall has taken their map and shaded the blue areas. It is the second comic in a row with a citation, after the footnote in [[2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect]].

The title text refers to the ancient four {{w|classical element}}s: earth, water, air, fire. The lithosphere, or ground, is earth, the oceans is water, the atmosphere is air, and fire would thus be the hot, plastic rock of the Earth's mantle, see [[913: Core]]. The mantle is not "on fire", but it is hot enough that it would ignite almost anything on the surface. The water layer on Earth is never more than 11 km deep, even at the deepest part of the ocean, the {{w|Mariana Trench}}, and thus cannot compare to the thickness of the atmosphere or the lithosphere. An expansive definition of "fire" to include the rest of the Earth below the lithosphere puts the fire layer at 6,000 km thick, the radius of the Earth, much thicker than the other layers, hence the ''and fire is *definitely* thicker'' comment at the end of the title text. Space or vacuum would in the classical element terminology have been called the {{w|Aether (classical element)|Aether}}.

In [[977: Map Projections]] the [[977:_Map_Projections#Winkel-Tripel|Winkel-Tripel projection]] is the fifth projection which is linked to the {{w|Hipster (contemporary subculture)|hipster}} subculture.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the drawing]:
:Which is thicker—the ground or the air?

:[The drawing shows a Winkel tripel projection of the Earth. The features of the main map is unlabeled, with only the outlines of the landmasses present. Various parts of the map are labeled with "Air" (four times) or "Ground" (5 times). Areas marked as "Ground" are differentiated with gray shading. These are always over large landmasses or close to them. They cover most of North America (labeled), the northern part of South America (labeled), Northern Europe and most of Asia (labeled), Japan, most of Australia and part of the Indonesia, Western Africa, sub-equatorial Africa (labeled), and finally the central parts of Antarctica (labeled). Air is written on the West Coast of the United States, in the Atlantic Ocean, over the central part of Africa and in the Pacific Ocean, near the Philippines.]
:[Over West Coast of the United States]: Air
:[Over North America]: Ground
:[Over Atlantic Ocean]: Air
:[Over South America]: Ground
:[Over the central part of Africa]: Air
:[Over the southern part of Africa]: Ground
:[Over Asia]: Ground
:[Over Pacific Ocean]: Air
:[Over Antarctica ]: Ground

:[A small diagram is present in the Pacific Ocean left of South America. The diagram depicts several labeled layers of Earth and its atmosphere, listed below. Cueball, a body of water, and several mountains are shown on the flat surface part of the diagram, with the ocean floor lower than where Cueball stands. Above is a line representing the border to space. The line beneath the surface is much more curved going both up and down. Two double arrows representing the thickness of the atmosphere and the lithosphere are drawn between the surface and the layers above and below. Another curved double arrow is pointing to each of these distances and it is marked with a question mark in the middle of the line.]
:Space
:Atmosphere
:Lithosphere
:Asthenosphere
:?

:[In the bottom right corner of the comic with gray text is a reference:]
:Based mostly on Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni (2006) DOI.1029/2005GL025621

==Trivia==
*[[Randall]] always uses the {{w|Kármán line}} as the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.
**He has previously mocked the alternative definition of the atmosphere boundary (at 80 km ≈ 50 mi) used by {{w|US Air Force}} and {{w|NASA}} in the title text of [[1375: Astronaut Vandalism]].
***That definition would, of course, have resulted in a significantly different picture where the ''air'' is thicker than the ''ground'' only inside small areas around mid-ocean ridges.
**Although most authorities use the FAI definition of the Kármán line since it is the international organization of record for aeronautics, there are good scientific reasons for the U.S. Air Force definition.
**The Kármán line is named for {{W|Theodore von Kármán}}, who originally calculated the height at which a vehicle would have to travel faster than orbital velocity to generate lift from wings (therefore making the vehicle a spacecraft in orbit rather an "air"craft using aerodynamics for flight).
**Von Kármán originally calculated this height as 51.9 miles (83.6 km) - closer to the Air Force definition.
**Additionally, the boundary between the {{W|Mesosphere}} and the {{W|Thermosphere}} is traditionally taken to be 52.7 miles (85 km), also close to the Air Force definition.
**On the other hand, some newer research suggests the mesopause (the line between the mesosphere and thermosphere) may have peaks between 53 and 62 miles (85-100 km).
**Also the {{w|turbopause}} - the line where gas molecules cease mixing atmospherically and begin stratifying by molecular weight as if they are in orbit - is generally taken to be about 100 kilometers (62 miles), and as such, closer to the FAI definition.
**Regardless of which definition is used, the reality is that the transition from atmosphere to space takes place gradually over tens of kilometers.
***But the idea behind this comic is only funny if an atmosphere of 100 km thickness is used.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Space]]

10: Pi Equals

2019-05-25T18:58:20Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */ It wouldn't just be a weird coincidence, it would be close to impossible for pi to not be a normal number. (Used a srtonger adjective.)

{{comic
| number = 10
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Pi Equals
| image = pi.jpg
| titletext = My most famous drawing, and one of the first I did for the site
}}

==Explanation==
There are two possible references here. One is from the book ''{{w|Contact (novel)|Contact}}'' by Carl Sagan, where the existence of God was shown in the last chapter to be encoded in the digits of {{w|pi}}. The other is an old joke of a {{w|Fortune cookie|fortune cookie}} with a fortune that reads, "Help! I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory!" Similar jokes are often repeated for any mass-manufactured personalized item, often implying that the worker who made the item is working in a sweatshop somewhere or is literally trapped inside a factory and calling for help via the items they produce. This joke is also referenced in [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]'s title text, where [[Mrs. Roberts]] [[Elaine Roberts|daughter]]'s name is "Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory."

The most literal interpretation of the joke would be that some being who helped to create the universe in a "universe factory" snuck a message into the digits of pi (a number that has an endlessly long decimal that never repeats) asking for help to get out. Mathematical concepts being manufactured in a factory is the main mental image here. One can't help but wonder if the [http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TimeBandits.jpg primordial beings who laboured on the universe] to produce things like the gravitational constant and pi have a labour union. Judging by the fact that they're calling for help, it seems they don't.

Since pi never ends and does not follow any sort of known pattern, if each number pair were assigned a letter from the alphabet, or if it was converted to base-26 (or preferably ASCII or some other form of text encoding, if you desire capitalization and punctuation), the entire works of Shakespeare, as well as any other expressible piece of information, including the message in this comic, could presumably be found (it is not really ''known'' that pi really has {{w|normal number|this property}}, but the absence of this property would in itself be an extraordinary coincidence); although the probability of finding any given string of numbers within a calculable range of digits of pi [http://www.angio.net/pi/whynotpi.html diminishes rapidly as the string length increases].

In the novel {{w|Contact (novel)|Contact}} by {{w|Carl Sagan}}, he includes a "[http://goddoesnt.blogspot.dk/2013/10/pi-and-signature-of-god-from-carl.html Signature of God]". In brief, the signature consists of a very long string of 1s and 0s far out (after some 10^20 seemingly random numbers) in the base-11 expansion of pi that when arranged in a square of a specific size yields a clear drawing of a circle with a diameter of several hundred digits. The existence of this pattern was hinted to the protagonist by a member of advanced alien civilization as being encoded in physics by an even more advanced civilization with the ability to create universes.

Interestingly enough, this could also work for pictures: if you assign a set of nine numbers to equal an RGB hexadecimal colour value, eventually you will find the Mona Lisa.

In the title text, [[Randall]] notes that this became one of his most famous comics (at the time it was re-released on the new [[xkcd]] site on the 1st of January 2006.) He also notes that it was one of his first drawings for the site (it was the 11th posted originally). See [[#Trivia|trivia]] below.

==Transcript==
:[A huge π to the left, then a large equal-to sign, and then five rows of text.]
:'''π ='''
:::3.14159265
:::3589793help
:::imtrappedin
:::auniversefac
:::tory7108914...

==Trivia==
*This was the 11th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous is [[9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow]].
**The next is [[14: Copyright]].
*Comic #36 was originally posted as a duplicate of comic 10: Pi Equals. This was corrected some time between April 23, 2006 and July 5, 2006 when the current version showed up in the web archive (see the links).
*This comic kept its original title: "Pi Equals"
*There were no original [[Randall]] quotes for this comic.
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].
*The book version of this comic (in ''[http://store.xkcd.com/products/xkcd-volume-0 xkcd: volume 0]'') has different title text:
**''"I've put rescue instructions in e. You'll need the cheat codes for your universe, which I hid in the square root of two."''
* "7108914" appears in position 13,709,690 of pi, suggesting that the length of the string of "digits" that is 'helpimtrappedinauniversefactory' is correspondent to a good 13,709,675 digits long, meaning each individual letter corresponds to about 456989.166667 digits. Aggravatingly, however, if the string was instead "71089314", it would appear at position 2533.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 11]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 11]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Footer comics]]

2150: XKeyboarCD

2019-05-16T07:57:50Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2150
| date = May 15, 2019
| title = XKeyboarCD
| image = xkeyboarcd.png
| titletext = The key caps use LCD displays for all the vowels, so they can automatically adjust over the years to reflect ongoing vowel shifts while allowing you to keep typing phonetically.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LEOPARD USING AN XKEYBOARCD. Seems to be finished, could someone check it again before deleting this tag? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In the same vein as the [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], the XKeyboarCD seems to be an overly inventive and borderline ludicrous keyboard intended for some unknown audience. It has an assortment of features (some fairly normal, some more exotic) which give it a..."diverse skill set".

*'''54 Configurable Rubik's Keys'''
The smaller cubes on a {{w|Rubik's cube}} resemble computer keys, so this feature makes fun of that by adding a spinnable Rubik's cube above the keyboard. The implication is that the keys would be 'configured' by solving the cube into the required state, although parity means that not all configurations could be reached by conventional means. To overcome this, the keys would need to be software-programmable, the equivalent of removing the stickers (or keycaps in this case), obviating the need to manipulate the cube as a twisty puzzle. Additionally, the rearmost keys would obviously be hard to see/reach.

*'''Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji'''
This feature parodies the feature of some laptop-keyboards where it is possible to dynamically assign emojis to a small touchscreen area. Which emojis would be "the most useful" is highly subjective. For example in the comic it shows the quite popular laughing with tears emoji, along with the octopus emoji and others. Notably, the "aerial tramway" was once the least-used emoji, and remains very rarely used.
The large size and central position of the keys make their usefulness even more questionable.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Emoji
! Name
|-
| 😰
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat/ Anxious Face With Sweat]
|-
| 😂
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-tears-of-joy/ Face With Tears of Joy]
|-
| 🐙
| [https://emojipedia.org/octopus/ Octopus]
|-
| 🏇
| [https://emojipedia.org/horse-racing/ Horse Racing]
|-
| 🚡
| [https://emojipedia.org/aerial-tramway/ Aerial Tramway]
|}

*'''Serif Lock'''
{{w|Serifs}} are small lines on the ends of certain characters in fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia. It is dependent on the font, not on the key pressed; "A" is represented by the same code regardless of its font. Since a given font almost always either has or doesn't have serifs, this key seems challenging to implement. This key could be implemented, however, by simply changing between a pair of fonts when it is pressed. What's more, the button is placed roughly where left shift is on most keyboards, liable to cause frustration.

*'''Unlimited Key Travel'''
On a keyboard, key travel refers to the distance the key moves between its unpressed and pressed states. In reality, laptop keys only move a few millimeters before bottoming out, and conventional keyboards up to about a centimeter. An increased key travel may make typing more comfortable. However, the usefulness of having unlimited key travel is unclear, and the question of how this would be physically possible in the keyboard depicted remains unanswered.

*'''Diagonal Spacebar'''
Instead of a wide key at the bottom that typists can hit easily with either thumb, we now have a tall, narrow key that requires being pressed with the right pinkie. This would not be a good change since most peoples' pinkies are their weakest finger.

*'''Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)'''
Most computers have four {{w|arrow keys}}: up, left, right, and down. However, the XKeyboarCD just has one that can be rotated. This has the added bonus of allowing the arrow keys to point more than four different directions. While innovative, its utility is questionable given trackpoint devices which provide more intuitive joystick-like control. It also comes at the cost of compatibility with certain programs, such as older video games. It would also be awkward to operate as going from horizontally left to horizontally right, for example, would require the user to rotate the key first and then press it which wastes precious time when playing a video game. There is also the problem of allowing unlimited rotation, requiring the combination of a keyswitch and angle-selection mechanism (perhaps the keycap mounted on a long square rotatable rod, keying through dual opposing potentiometers and onto a conventional key switch). This would be mechanically complex which adds to the cost of the keyboard.

*'''15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad'''
A {{w|15 puzzle}} is a square containing fifteen smaller squares and one blank spot, which allows the squares to be moved around. The squares are shuffled and then reassembled as a game or pastime, and are usually labelled 1-15 (as is the case here) or, when assembled properly, create a picture. A {{w|Numeric keypad|numberpad}} in this style would be frustrating to use for typing numbers, as they could shift (or be shifted) around, but could provide a fun feature to use as a game. How this would be used to generate numeric input is unclear, but the presence of 16 positions suggests {{w|hexadecimal}} input is possible. Keyboard keypads do have around 15 keys, but only 0-9 usually have numbers whereas the XKCD keypad has numbers 10-15 instead of the more conventional arithmetic operators, enter, and decimal point.

*'''Ergonomic Design'''

The cylindrical portion of the keyboard is advertised as being an ergonomic design. Ergonomic keyboards do tend to be curved, to follow natural arm and finger movements more closely, and some ergonomic keyboards come in unconventional form factors, such as vertical keyboards, to allow the user's hands to rest in more neutral positions or to change positions throughout the day. However, the cylinder shape presented here requires the user to lift and twist his arms to reach certain keys, which would be an even more strenuous motion than typing on a standard keyboard.

*'''Title Text'''
The title text references sound changes in languages. Every language (and indeed, every dialect) routinely undergoes changes in its sounds and phonemes, in a mostly regular and systematic way. While not only vowels are affected, in languages with many vowels such as English, they're particularly likely to shift around and/or merge. While having dynamic keycaps that change can actually come in handy, the feature of only having vowels change in response to sound shifts is a bit less so.

First, while changes in how we pronounce words are always ongoing, the way we write words down tends to stay relatively static, and thahs wiy wuhd faynd thaet werds biykahm ihncaampriyhehnsihbuhl duw tuw now laanger biyihng spehlld aes they wer bihfaor. Second, English only uses five glyphs (aeiou) and a variety of methods to represent four times as many vowel sounds, so the software would need to have a way to handling that ("bird" and "turn", for example, have the same vowel but are represented by "ir" and "ur"). Third, vowel shifts are not ubiquitous: the {{w|Caught-cot merger}}, for example, is a phenomenon happening across some parts (but not all) of the US and UK. Therefore, while some people would say "caught" and "cot have the same vowel it should be spelled the same by the keyboard, but others would say they're two different vowels and should not be spelled identically. Fourth, sound shifts tend to occur over a relatively long period of time (in terms of human lifetimes), so a user would probably find the keycaps only change once or twice. All in all, this is not a very useful feature.

An alternative explanation is that the keys actually map to the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}} and converts what you type into English words (and the vowel changes). The IPA is an alphabet used in linguistics and language teaching, designed to represent every phoneme present in languages of the world unambiguously, with optional modifiers to indicate more subtle nuances in pronunciation, intonation and speech pathology. This alphabet consists of 107 letters and 56 modifiers (with some letters shared with the Latin and Greek alphabets), which would explain the large number of keys. In that case, the feature remains questionable since it only handles vowel shifts and not consonants, and anybody who'd use an IPA-keyboard would probably need to type out the phonology of other languages and appreciate not having to find a key has moved because English has undergone a vowel shift.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Introducing the
XKeyboarCD
A keyboard for powerful users and their powerful fingers®

[Arrow to the various features of a keyboard labelling them.]

54 Configurable Rubik's Keys

Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji 
😰 😂 🐙 🏇 🚡

Serif Lock

Unlimited Key Travel

Diagonal Spacebar

Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)

15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad

Ergonomic Design
{{comic discussion}}

2150: XKeyboarCD

2019-05-16T07:50:29Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2150
| date = May 15, 2019
| title = XKeyboarCD
| image = xkeyboarcd.png
| titletext = The key caps use LCD displays for all the vowels, so they can automatically adjust over the years to reflect ongoing vowel shifts while allowing you to keep typing phonetically.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LEOPARD USING AN XKEYBOARCD. Seems to be finished, could someone check it again before deleting this tag? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In the same vein as the [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], the XKeyboarCD seems to be an overly inventive and borderline ludicrous keyboard intended for some unknown audience. It has an assortment of features (some fairly normal, some more exotic) which give it a..."diverse skill set".

*'''54 Configurable Rubik's Keys'''
The smaller cubes on a {{w|Rubik's cube}} resemble computer keys, so this feature makes fun of that by adding a spinnable Rubik's cube above the keyboard.

*'''Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji'''
This feature parodies the feature of some laptop-keyboards where it is possible to dynamically assign emojis to a small touchscreen area. Which emojis would be "the most useful" is highly subjective. For example in the comic it shows the quite popular laughing with tears emoji, along with the octopus emoji and others. Notably, the "aerial tramway" was once the least-used emoji, and remains very rarely used.
The large size and central position of the keys make their usefulness even more questionable.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Emoji
! Name
|-
| 😰
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat/ Anxious Face With Sweat]
|-
| 😂
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-tears-of-joy/ Face With Tears of Joy]
|-
| 🐙
| [https://emojipedia.org/octopus/ Octopus]
|-
| 🏇
| [https://emojipedia.org/horse-racing/ Horse Racing]
|-
| 🚡
| [https://emojipedia.org/aerial-tramway/ Aerial Tramway]
|}

*'''Serif Lock'''
{{w|Serifs}} are small lines on the ends of certain characters in fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia. It is dependent on the font, not on the key pressed; "A" is represented by the same code regardless of its font. Since a given font almost always either has or doesn't have serifs, this key seems challenging to implement. This key could be implemented, however, by simply changing between a pair of fonts when it is pressed. What's more, the button is placed roughly where left shift is on most keyboards, liable to cause frustration.

*'''Unlimited Key Travel'''
On a keyboard, key travel refers to the distance the key moves between its unpressed and pressed states. In reality, laptop keys only move a few millimeters before bottoming out, and conventional keyboards up to about a centimeter. An increased key travel may make typing more comfortable. However, the usefulness of having unlimited key travel is unclear, and the question of how this would be physically possible in the keyboard depicted remains unanswered.

*'''Diagonal Spacebar'''
Instead of a wide key at the bottom that typists can hit easily with either thumb, we now have a tall, narrow key that requires being pressed with the right pinkie. This would not be a good change since most peoples' pinkies are their weakest finger.

*'''Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)'''
Most computers have four {{w|arrow keys}}: up, left, right, and down. However, the XKeyboarCD just has one that can be rotated. This has the added bonus of allowing the arrow keys to point more than four different directions. While innovative, its utility is questionable given trackpoint devices which provide more intuitive joystick-like control. It also comes at the cost of compatibility with certain programs, such as older video games. It would also be awkward to operate as going from horizontally left to horizontally right, for example, would require the user to rotate the key first and then press it which wastes precious time when playing a video game. There is also the problem of allowing unlimited rotation, requiring the combination of a keyswitch and angle-selection mechanism (perhaps the keycap mounted on a long square rotatable rod, keying through dual opposing potentiometers and onto a conventional key switch). This would be mechanically complex which adds to the cost of the keyboard.

*'''15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad'''
A {{w|15 puzzle}} is a square containing fifteen smaller squares and one blank spot, which allows the squares to be moved around. The squares are shuffled and then reassembled as a game or pastime, and are usually labelled 1-15 (as is the case here) or, when assembled properly, create a picture. A {{w|Numeric keypad|numberpad}} in this style would be frustrating to use for typing numbers, as they could shift (or be shifted) around, but could provide a fun feature to use as a game. How this would be used to generate numeric input is unclear, but the presence of 16 positions suggests {{w|hexadecimal}} input is possible.

*'''Ergonomic Design'''

The cylindrical portion of the keyboard is advertised as being an ergonomic design. Ergonomic keyboards do tend to be curved, to follow natural arm and finger movements more closely, and some ergonomic keyboards come in unconventional form factors, such as vertical keyboards, to allow the user's hands to rest in more neutral positions or to change positions throughout the day. However, the cylinder shape presented here requires the user to lift and twist his arms to reach certain keys, which would be an even more strenuous motion than typing on a standard keyboard.

*'''Title Text'''
The title text references sound changes in languages. Every language (and indeed, every dialect) routinely undergoes changes in its sounds and phonemes, in a mostly regular and systematic way. While not only vowels are affected, in languages with many vowels such as English, they're particularly likely to shift around and/or merge. While having dynamic keycaps that change can actually come in handy, the feature of only having vowels change in response to sound shifts is a bit less so.

First, while changes in how we pronounce words are always ongoing, the way we write words down tends to stay relatively static, and thahs wiy wuhd faynd thaet werds biykahm ihncaampriyhehnsihbuhl duw tuw now laanger biyihng spehlld aes they wer bihfaor. Second, English only uses five glyphs (aeiou) and a variety of methods to represent four times as many vowel sounds, so the software would need to have a way to handling that ("bird" and "turn", for example, have the same vowel but are represented by "ir" and "ur"). Third, vowel shifts are not ubiquitous: the {{w|Caught-cot merger}}, for example, is a phenomenon happening across some parts (but not all) of the US and UK. Therefore, while some people would say "caught" and "cot have the same vowel it should be spelled the same by the keyboard, but others would say they're two different vowels and should not be spelled identically. Fourth, sound shifts tend to occur over a relatively long period of time (in terms of human lifetimes), so a user would probably find the keycaps only change once or twice. All in all, this is not a very useful feature.

An alternative explanation is that the keys actually map to the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}} and converts what you type into English words (and the vowel changes). The IPA is an alphabet used in linguistics and language teaching, designed to represent every phoneme present in languages of the world unambiguously, with optional modifiers to indicate more subtle nuances in pronunciation, intonation and speech pathology. This alphabet consists of 107 letters and 56 modifiers (with some letters shared with the Latin and Greek alphabets), which would explain the large number of keys. In that case, the feature remains questionable since it only handles vowel shifts and not consonants, and anybody who'd use an IPA-keyboard would probably need to type out the phonology of other languages and appreciate not having to find a key has moved because English has undergone a vowel shift.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Introducing the
XKeyboarCD
A keyboard for powerful users and their powerful fingers®

[Arrow to the various features of a keyboard labelling them.]

54 Configurable Rubik's Keys

Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji 
😰 😂 🐙 🏇 🚡

Serif Lock

Unlimited Key Travel

Diagonal Spacebar

Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)

15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad

Ergonomic Design
{{comic discussion}}

2150: XKeyboarCD

2019-05-16T07:45:21Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2150
| date = May 15, 2019
| title = XKeyboarCD
| image = xkeyboarcd.png
| titletext = The key caps use LCD displays for all the vowels, so they can automatically adjust over the years to reflect ongoing vowel shifts while allowing you to keep typing phonetically.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LEOPARD USING AN XKEYBOARCD. Seems to be finished, could someone check it again before deleting this tag? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In the same vein as the [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], the XKeyboarCD seems to be an overly inventive and borderline ludicrous keyboard intended for some unknown audience. It has an assortment of features (some fairly normal, some more exotic) which give it a..."diverse skill set".

*'''54 Configurable Rubik's Keys'''
The smaller cubes on a {{w|Rubik's cube}} resemble computer keys, so this feature makes fun of that by adding a spinnable Rubik's cube above the keyboard.

*'''Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji'''
This feature parodies the feature of some laptop-keyboards where it is possible to dynamically assign emojis to a small touchscreen area. Which emojis would be "the most useful" is highly subjective. For example in the comic it shows the quite popular laughing with tears emoji, along with the octopus emoji and others. Notably, the "aerial tramway" was once the least-used emoji, and remains very rarely used.
The large size and central position of the keys make their usefulness even more questionable.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Emoji
! Name
|-
| 😰
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-open-mouth-and-cold-sweat/ Anxious Face With Sweat]
|-
| 😂
| [https://emojipedia.org/face-with-tears-of-joy/ Face With Tears of Joy]
|-
| 🐙
| [https://emojipedia.org/octopus/ Octopus]
|-
| 🏇
| [https://emojipedia.org/horse-racing/ Horse Racing]
|-
| 🚡
| [https://emojipedia.org/aerial-tramway/ Aerial Tramway]
|}

*'''Serif Lock'''
{{w|Serifs}} are small lines on the ends of certain characters in fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia. It is dependent on the font, not on the key pressed; "A" is represented by the same code regardless of its font. Since a given font almost always either has or doesn't have serifs, this key seems challenging to implement. This key could be implemented, however, by simply changing between a pair of fonts when it is pressed. What's more, the button is placed roughly where left shift is on most keyboards, liable to cause frustration.

*'''Unlimited Key Travel'''
On a keyboard, key travel refers to the distance the key moves between its unpressed and pressed states. In reality, laptop keys only move a few millimeters before bottoming out, and conventional keyboards up to about a centimeter. An increased key travel may make typing more comfortable. However, the usefulness of having unlimited key travel is unclear, and the question of how this would be physically possible in the keyboard depicted remains unanswered.

*'''Diagonal Spacebar'''
Instead of a wide key at the bottom that typists can hit easily with either thumb, we now have a tall, narrow key that requires being pressed with the right pinkie. This would not be a good change since most peoples' pinkies are their weakest finger.

*'''Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)'''
Most computers have four {{w|arrow keys}}: up, left, right, and down. However, the XKeyboarCD just has one that can be rotated. This has the added bonus of allowing the arrow keys to point more than four different directions. While innovative, its utility is questionable given trackpoint devices which provide more intuitive joystick-like control. It also comes at the cost of compatibility with certain programs, such as older video games. It would also be awkward to operate as going from horizontally left to horizontally right, for example, would require the user to rotate the key first and then press it which wastes precious time when playing a video game. There is also the problem of allowing unlimited rotation, requiring the combination of a normal keyswitch and angle-selection mechanism (perhaps a dual opposing potentiometer system with a long rod to activate the static conventional key switch below). This would be mechanically complex which adds to the cost of the keyboard.

*'''15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad'''
A {{w|15 puzzle}} is a square containing fifteen smaller squares and one blank spot, which allows the squares to be moved around. The squares are shuffled and then reassembled as a game or pastime, and are usually labelled 1-15 (as is the case here) or, when assembled properly, create a picture. A {{w|Numeric keypad|numberpad}} in this style would be frustrating to use for typing numbers, as they could shift (or be shifted) around, but could provide a fun feature to use as a game. How this would be used to generate numeric input is unclear, but the presence of 16 positions suggests {{w|hexadecimal}} input is possible.

*'''Ergonomic Design'''

The cylindrical portion of the keyboard is advertised as being an ergonomic design. Ergonomic keyboards do tend to be curved, to follow natural arm and finger movements more closely, and some ergonomic keyboards come in unconventional form factors, such as vertical keyboards, to allow the user's hands to rest in more neutral positions or to change positions throughout the day. However, the cylinder shape presented here requires the user to lift and twist his arms to reach certain keys, which would be an even more strenuous motion than typing on a standard keyboard.

*'''Title Text'''
The title text references sound changes in languages. Every language (and indeed, every dialect) routinely undergoes changes in its sounds and phonemes, in a mostly regular and systematic way. While not only vowels are affected, in languages with many vowels such as English, they're particularly likely to shift around and/or merge. While having dynamic keycaps that change can actually come in handy, the feature of only having vowels change in response to sound shifts is a bit less so.

First, while changes in how we pronounce words are always ongoing, the way we write words down tends to stay relatively static, and thahs wiy wuhd faynd thaet werds biykahm ihncaampriyhehnsihbuhl duw tuw now laanger biyihng spehlld aes they wer bihfaor. Second, English only uses five glyphs (aeiou) and a variety of methods to represent four times as many vowel sounds, so the software would need to have a way to handling that ("bird" and "turn", for example, have the same vowel but are represented by "ir" and "ur"). Third, vowel shifts are not ubiquitous: the {{w|Caught-cot merger}}, for example, is a phenomenon happening across some parts (but not all) of the US and UK. Therefore, while some people would say "caught" and "cot have the same vowel it should be spelled the same by the keyboard, but others would say they're two different vowels and should not be spelled identically. Fourth, sound shifts tend to occur over a relatively long period of time (in terms of human lifetimes), so a user would probably find the keycaps only change once or twice. All in all, this is not a very useful feature.

An alternative explanation is that the keys actually map to the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}} and converts what you type into English words (and the vowel changes). The IPA is an alphabet used in linguistics and language teaching, designed to represent every phoneme present in languages of the world unambiguously, with optional modifiers to indicate more subtle nuances in pronunciation, intonation and speech pathology. This alphabet consists of 107 letters and 56 modifiers (with some letters shared with the Latin and Greek alphabets), which would explain the large number of keys. In that case, the feature remains questionable since it only handles vowel shifts and not consonants, and anybody who'd use an IPA-keyboard would probably need to type out the phonology of other languages and appreciate not having to find a key has moved because English has undergone a vowel shift.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Introducing the
XKeyboarCD
A keyboard for powerful users and their powerful fingers®

[Arrow to the various features of a keyboard labelling them.]

54 Configurable Rubik's Keys

Hardcoded Plastic Keys for the 5 Most Useful Emoji 
😰 😂 🐙 🏇 🚡

Serif Lock

Unlimited Key Travel

Diagonal Spacebar

Arrow Key (Rotate to Adjust Direction)

15 Puzzle-Style Numberpad

Ergonomic Design
{{comic discussion}}

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T20:08:32Z

162.158.154.91: /* 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|Every section needs to be filled and explained. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of matter used by the vast majority of astronomers to explain the far too high apparent mass of objects at large scales in our universe. In galaxies, stars are orbiting faster than the gravitational force of the sum of the masses of visible matter in the galaxy could cause, and entire galaxies are observed moving much faster around each other than their visible masses could explain. In galactic collisions, the mass can appear to separate from the visible matter, as if the mass doesn't collide but the visible matter does. A small handful of galaxies have been observed to not have this property, suggesting that it is a *thing* that a galaxy can have more or less of and is separable from. At scales of our solar system those effects are too small and can't be measured. In cosmology, dark matter is estimated to account for 85% of the total matter in the universe.

This comic gives a set of possibilities of what dark matter could possibly be, charted by mass from smallest (given in {{w|Electronvolt#Mass|electronvolts}}) to largest (given in kilograms). Masses in the range 10-15 kg to 10-3 kg are given in grams together with appropriate prefixes, the ton takes the place of 103 kg.

The joke in this comic is that the range of the mass of the possible particles and objects stretch over 81 powers of ten. [[Randall]] filled the gap between real small candidate particles and real large candidate objects with highly absurd suggestions.

;Axion
An {{w|Axion|Axion}} is a hypothetical elementary particle that might be a component of dark matter.

;Sterile neutrino
{{w|Sterile neutrino|Sterile neutrinos}} are hypothetical particles interacting only via gravity. It's an actual candidate for dark matter.

;Electrons painted with space camouflage
{{w|Electron|Electrons}} are fundamental particles which compose the outer layers of atoms. A large number of electrons in the galaxy would be relatively easy to detect, as they not only interact with light (which dark matter does not appear to), but have a strong electric charge. Presumably, space camouflage is a positively-charged coating which prevents electrons from interacting with light. (Needless to say, this is not an actual candidate for dark matter.) The mass of an electron is about 0.5 MeV which fits well into the graph.

;Neutralino
A {{w|Neutralino|Neutralino}} is a hypothetical particle from {{w|Supersymmetry|Supersymmetry}}, not something made up by Randall Munroe that sounds vaguely like one. It's an actual candidate for dark matter.

;Q-ball
In theoretical physics, a {{w|Q-ball|Q-ball}} is a stable group of particles. It's an actual candidate for dark matter.

In billiards, a cue ball is the white (or yellow) ball hit with the cue in normal play.

;Pollen
{{w|Pollen|Pollen}} is a joke candidate, though people with seasonal allergies may suspect that the universe genuinely is made up entirely of pollen in the springtime.

;No-See-Ums
{{w|Ceratopogonidae|No-See-Ums}}, also called Ceratopogonidae, a family of small flies (1–4 mm long) who can pass through most window screens. Another joke candidate.

;Bees
Insects of the clade {{w|Bee|Antophila}} a major pollinator of flowering plants.

;8-balls
In pool, the {{w|Pool (cue sports)|8-ball}} is a black ball numbered 8. It's a pun with Q-ball/cue ball. Unless undetected aliens have discovered billiards and become addicted to it, 8-balls are found only on Earth and are, hence, unlikely dark matter candidates.

;Space Cows
Cows are Bovines extensively farmed on Earth for milk and meat. Although there is folk lore concerning cows {{w|Hey diddle diddle|acheiving circum-lunar orbits}}, they have yet to be found elsewhere in the Universe.

;Obelisks, Monoliths, Pyramids
While those human constructions are huge on a human scale, they're negligible at universe-scale. It would take a large number of such constructions, distributed through space, to replicate the effects of dark matter; while a scenario could be envisioned where enough such constructs existed, with properties and distribution allowing them to match observations, this is obviously not a likely explanation.
They often show up in fiction and pseudo-scientific literature as alien artifacts generating immense unknown power out of nowhere, with the most famous and influential example being the three monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey (with the largest TMA-2 having a mass of about 500,000 tonnes).

;Black Holes ruled out by:
{{w|Black hole|Black holes}} are known in sizes of a few sun masses (about 1030-1031 kg) as remnants of the core of former big stars and the real big ones at the centers of galaxies (millions or even billions of the mass of the sun.) But recent gravitational wave detection indicate that black holes at 50 or 100 sun masses also exist while their origin is still not understood. Randall doesn't mention this but some astronomers hope that these could fill at least a part of the gap.

Except the last item all range below the mass of the sun (2x1030 kg) while the smallest known black hole is about four sun masses.
* Gamma rays: If dark matter were black holes of this size, the black holes would be evaporating in bursts of {{w|Hawking radiation}}, and we'd see a buzz of gamma rays from every direction.
* GRB lensing: {{w|Gamma-ray burst|Gamma-ray bursts}} (GRBs) are the brightest events in the universe only been observed in distant galaxies. While gravitational microlensing (see below) is an astronomical phenomenon it doesn't make much sense here. GRBs are short (milliseconds to several hours) and often only detected by gamma-ray satellites in space but rarely at any other wavelengths. Measuring lensing effects would be very difficult. This [https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.3102 paper] discusses the probability of detecting lensing effects caused by Halo objects in the databases of GRB given sufficient objects to represent the missing mass.
* Neutron star data: {{w|Neutron star|Neutron stars}} aren't black holes but they're also small high compact objects at about 1.4 and 2.16 solar masses. While black holes can't be observed directly neutron stars are detectable in many wavelengths. The number of them gives a clue about the number of stellar black holes which is far too low.
* Micro lensing: {{w|Gravitational microlensing}} is a gravitational lens effect. This is a prediction by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and was first confirmed in 1919 during a solar eclipse when a star nearby the sun was closer to the sun than it should be. Astronomers have found many so called {{w|Einstein ring|Einstein rings}} or Einstein crosses where a massive object in front of other galaxies bends the light toward us. Those massive objects may be black holes but the number is far too low to explain the dark matter.
* Solar system stability: Our {{w|Solar system|solar system}} is 4.5 billion years old and very stable since then. If not we wouldn't exist. If dark objects at 1024 kg - 1030 kg (mass of Earth until Sun) would resemble the dark matter there should be many of them even in the vicinity of our solar system and the system wouldn't be stable at all.
* Buzzkill Astronomers: Black holes above a certain size would be impossible to miss, due to the effects they have on nearby matter. But at the mass of some 1030 kg there must be many supernova remnants we still haven't found.

;Maybe those orbit lines on space diagrams are real and very heavy
Any diagram of our solar system (or any solar system) will show lines representing the path the planet takes around its sun. Since planets orbit in ellipses, there will be an ellipse for every planet. This lines don't show real objects, though. Astronomers just draw them on pictures of the solar system to show where the planets move. If you draw a line on a map to give someone directions, that line isn't an object in real life; it's just on the map. If these lines were real, they would be ''huge'' (Earth's would be 940 million km long (2π AU) and Neptune's would be 28 ''billion'' kilometers long). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 Powers of Ten (1977)] gives a good sense of just how large these orbit lines need to be in order to be visible in space diagrams. If these orbit lines were also very dense, they would have a huge mass and could possibly account for the missing 85% of the mass in the universe. But they would also constantly be impaling the inner four planets, including the Earth, which would be a problem. Overall, not a very likely candidate.

;Title text
The title text refers to the fact that space is just vast emptiness where a little bit dust could be overseen. Actually the mean density of detectable matter in the universe is according to NASA equivalent to roughly [https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html 1 proton per 4 cubic meters]. And because this matter is mostly located in galaxies and inside there in stars and clouds the space between is even more empty. For comparison one gram hydrogen consists of {{w|Avogadro constant|6.022 x 1023 atoms}}. Like at home using a cleaning cloth in which we can see the dirt that wasn't clearly visible on the surface we have wiped Randall believes that some few atoms more per cubic meter could stay undetected in the same way. This isn't true because in the space between galaxies astronomers can detect matter as it spreads over thousands or millions cubic light years. Atoms can't hide, there is always radiation unless the temperature goes to zero Kelvin which is impossible.

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

:Dark matter candidates:
:[A line graph is shown and labeled at left quarter in eV and further to the right in g together with some prefixes.]
:[The labels read:]
:µeV, meV, eV, keV, MeV, GeV, TeV, 10-18kg, ng, µg, mg, g, kg, TON, 106kg, 1012kg, 1018kg, 1024kg, 1030kg

:[All items are shown in bars ranging between two approximately values:]
:< 1 µeV - 10 meV: Axion

:1 eV - 10 keV: Sterile neutrino

:0.5 MeV (exactly): Electrons painted with space camouflage

:10 GeV - 10 TeV: Neutralino

:100 TeV - 10-17 kg: Q-ball

:1 ng - 100 ng: Pollen

:0.1 mg - 1 mg: No-See-Ums

:10-1 g (exactly): Bees

:10 g - 100 g: 8-balls

:100 kg - TON: Space cows

:TON - 109 kg: Obelisks, monoliths, pyramids

:109 kg - 1033 kg: Black holes ruled out by:
::109 kg - 1013 kg: Gamma rays
::1013 kg - 1017 kg: GRB lensing
::1015 kg - 1022 kg: Neutron star data
::1021 kg - 1030 kg: Micro lensing
::1024 kg - 1030 kg: Solar system stability
::1030 kg - 1033 kg: Buzzkill astronomers

:1033 kg - >1036 kg: Maybe those orbit lines on space diagrams are real and very heavy

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]

2022: Sports Champions

2018-07-20T19:36:22Z

162.158.154.91: /* Transcript */ goggles, not googles :-)

{{comic
| number = 2022
| date = July 20, 2018
| title = Sports Champions
| image = sports_champions.png
| titletext = For a long time, people thought maybe Usain Bolt was the one for running, until the 2090s and the incredible dominance of Derek Legs.
}}

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

In an example of {{w|nominative determinism}}, the comic lists people whose surname relates to their participation in various sports. As the comic is of "sports champions", it is presumed that these people are at the top of their sport. It is presented as though it was created in the far future, reflecting on sports players over the decades through to the 2080s. The first three are real sportspeople, the remainder are imaginary players of the future.

The caricatures feature people participating in their sport, except for Jebediah who is standing at a {{w|lectern}}.

{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:20%"|Name
!style="width:10%"|Decade
!style="width:15%"|Sport
!style="width:55%"|Explanation
|-
|Margaret Court
|1960s
|Tennis
|{{w|Margaret Court}} is a Australian tennis player, former world number 1, who won many competitions in the 1960s and 70s. A {{w|tennis court}} is the playing arena used in that sport.
|-
|Gary Player
|1970s
|Golf
|{{w|Gary Player}} is a South African golfer who won nine major championships in the 1960s and 70s. Game competitors are often known as "players", for example, the golf tournament {{w|The Players Championship}}.
|-
|Lonzo Ball
|2020s
|Basketball
|{{w|Lonzo Ball}} is an American professional basketball player, currently with the Los Angeles Lakers. The 2020s decade listed is a projection of when he would likely become his most dominant in the sport, as he began playing professionally in 2017. Of course, basketball is a {{w|ball game}}.
|-
|Jake Halfpipe
|2030s
|Skateboarding
|A {{w|half-pipe}} is a structure used in extreme sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding.
|-
|Sarah Goggles
|2030s
|Swimming
|{{w|Goggles}} are protective eyewear used in many sports, such as swimming or skiing.
|-
|Kevin Slurve
|2050s
|Baseball
|A {{w|slurve}} is a baseball throwing technique, a portmanteau of '''sl'''ider and c'''urve'''.
|-
|Julia Chairlift
|2050s
|Skiing
|A {{w|chairlift}} is an aerial machine often used to transport winter sportsmen and -women up mountains.
|-
|Dwight Shuttlecock
|2060s
|Badminton
|A {{w|shuttlecock}} is a projectile used in the sport of badminton.
|-
|Brandon Sponsorship
|2060s
|Unclear
|Sporting professionals are often {{w|Sponsor (commercial)|sponsored}} by corporations. Brandon is holding a pair of shoes, which are probably a branded sponsorship item.
|-
|Kate Dopingscandal
|2070s
|Cycling
|There have been many {{w|Doping in sport|doping}} scandals in the world of sport. Since Kate is standing next to a bicycle, {{w|Lance Armstrong}} is a great example here. Recently one of the larger scandal was that {{w|Doping in Russia|many Russian competitors}} did {{w|Russia_at_the_2014_Winter_Olympics#Doping_scandal_after_Olympics|use drugs}} during the {{w|2014 Winter Olympics|2014 Winter Olympics}} in {{w|Sochi}}, Russia.
|-
|Jebediah Disasterous Postgame-PressConference
|2080s
|Unspecified
|At the end of sporting events - ie post-game - there is often a {{w|News conference|press conference}} where the competitors discuss the result. Sometimes, these live interviews are a disaster. Randall has chosen to spell his name as "Disasterous", rather than the more conventional "Disastrous".
|-
|(in title text)
Usain Bolt and Derek Legs
|2090s
|Sprinting
|From the title text, {{w|Usain Bolt}} is the (now retired) world record holder for the 100 meter dash and 4×100 meter relay events in {{w|Track & Field}}. Thus Randall considers him a solid contender for this list since he can ''bolt'' down the track. However the fictional Derek Legs ends up replacing Bolt on the list, either because they are an even faster sprinter, or because “legs” more clearly and unambiguously relates to running than “bolt” does.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Two rows of people wielding sports equipment are shown, six in the upper row, five in the lower, only the last has no equipment but is standing behind a lectern with a microphone attached to it. Below each person, their name is given and the decade in which they were champions of their sport is given below their name, in brackets. Here is a list of the 11 people:]

:[Woman with dark hair holding a tennis racket]
:Margaret Court
:(1960s)

:[Cueball with a golf club]
:Gary Player
:(1970s)

:[Cueball with a basketball]
:Lonzo Ball
:(2020s)

:[Hairy on a skateboard]
:Jake Halfpipe
:(2030s)

:[Woman with dark hair wearing a swim cap and goggles]
:Sarah Goggles
:(2030s)

:[A man with a baseball cap throwing a baseball to the right]
:Kevin Slurve
:(2050s)

:[A woman with long black hair in a knit cap and wearing ski googles is standing on skis holding ski poles]
:Julia Chairlift
:(2050s)

:[Hairy holding a badminton racket bouncing a shuttlecock on it]
:Dwight Shuttlecock
:(2060s)

:[Hairy holding a pair of shoes in his hand]
:Brandon Sponsorship
:(2060s)

:[Hairbun standing next to a bicycle.]
:Kate Dopingscandal
:(2070s)

:[Hairy standing behind a lectern with a microphone on it.]
:Jebediah Disasterous Postgame PressConference
:(2080s)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Fun fact: Every sport eventually produces a champion competitor named after a common element of the game.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Basketball]]

2022: Sports Champions

2018-07-20T06:30:41Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */ specify (in title text)

2022: Sports Champions

2018-07-20T05:36:56Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */ {{w|

2022: Sports Champions

2018-07-20T05:34:40Z

162.158.154.91: /* Explanation */ c/e

Talk:1866: Russell's Teapot

2017-08-02T23:39:54Z

162.158.154.91: thoughts on strict definition of russell's idea versus orbital dynamics and the IAU

In this case, nesting the teapot in a catapult/cannon which is launched by another catapult/cannon might perhaps be sufficient to get past NASA regulations. (Catapults/cannons only launching the payload and not themselves...) --[[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]], 2017. [[User_talk:Nialpxe|(Arguments welcome)]]
:Though there's still the matter of an equal and opposite force pushing the satellite away from its gravitational bonds of the catapult. Even if the 2nd catapult is no longer associated with the Earth or Earth's gravity, the catapult will continue to be a launcher. That's just changing what it is launching *from*. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.125|172.68.58.125]] 18:31, 24 July 2017 (UTC)ColinHeico
:But make sure it is a mobile cannon, otherwise it would not qualify as a launch '''vehicle'''. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.19|162.158.89.19]] 11:32, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
::I immediately thought "railgun". And the payload can still be a rocket; once it's not touching the ground it's accelerating, not launching. (Also Russell failed to account for female barbers. Honestly, people!) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.4|108.162.241.4]] 09:42, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
::: One such company did exist, Quicklaunch had the idea of launching via a space gun. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicklaunch {{unsigned ip|172.68.141.142}}

::: He didn't need to account for female barbers (or anybody who isn't a man) because the barber in the paradox shaves precisely those men who don't shave themselves. He ''only'' shaves men, and all men in the town are ''only'' shaved by him or themselves. Everyone else is a completely different story, so they can be shaved by whoever they want (except the barber, who only shaves men). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.88|108.162.241.88]] 00:14, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

:::Only if you assume that females who are barbers don't shave their legs, armpits, or their various lady parts. This only further confuses the paradox. {{unsigned|Mjm87}}
::::For much of Bertrand Russell's life, they didn't. http://mentalfloss.com/article/22511/when-did-women-start-shaving-their-pits [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.4|108.162.241.4]] 09:42, 22 July 2017 (UTC)

:You wouldn't even need a cannon/catapult. If you put the satellite on a small rocket, and put that on a much larger rocket, you can have the big one launch itself, the smaller one, and the satellite. The regulation only says the satellite must be in a non-self-launching launch vehicle. It doesn't say it can't *also* be in a self-launching launch vehicle. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.113|108.162.246.113]] 20:06, 24 July 2017 (UTC)

When I first saw this comic I immediately thought of the Utah Teapot, it's a model used in computer graphics because it's simple and has both convex and concave surfaces. Both teapots, I would assume, (I've only just heard of Russel's Teapot so I could be wrong) are well known to different parts of the nerd community? {{unsigned ip|162.158.255.22}}

Hopefully it will support HTCPCP-TEA. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.34|108.162.241.34]] 17:48, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

i think people just really like teapot examples {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.23}}

:The major problem here is that CubeSats are currently only launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and are expected to re-enter the atmosphere within days to weeks. Russell's teapot is (allegedly) in orbit between Earth and Mars and Cueball's device is not likely to have enough delta-v to leave Earth orbit. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 18:18, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
"A teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars" This implies that the teapot is physically located between Mars and Earth at all times. Which if true would be a highly irregular orbit requiring constant velocity changes, which is an impossible feat to achieve with current teapot technology. {{unsigned|Mjm87}}
:Nonsense. It would be a ''highly regular orbit'' and many asteroids are already there, despite the most of them are between Mars and Jupiter (Asteroid-Belt):--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:22, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
::Since we're nitpicking. Having velocity changes does not preclude being in orbit: objects in orbit are always accelerating. Having a constant velocity change does preclude being in orbit, but it also precludes remaining between Earth and Mars, since it would result in eventually leaving the solar system.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.112|172.68.54.112]] 19:45, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
:::Still nonsense. The mean velocity of an (elliptic) orbit is constant, only the direction is changing. And there are many asteroids in stable orbits between Earth and Mars. Leaving the solar system would require many energy at those orbits, all human build probes (Pioneer, Voyager and New Horizons) had to use gravity assist at Jupiter to reach this target.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:12, 26 July 2017 (UTC)
::::It sounds to me like you're missing the interpretation Mjm87 is trying to share. Yes, the way Russell meant it was that Russell's Teapot is between Mars and Earth in the same way that Earth is between Mars and the Sun, that this teapot is in a larger orbit than Earth and smaller than Mars. Mjm87's interpretation adds the idea that not only is it in such an orbit, but also in a direct line in between, always. In other words, that someone looking at Mars through a powerful telescope would always be able to see Russell's Teapot "in the way", like a little Mars eclipse. :) Staying in that spot would indeed take strange acceleration. I'm no astrophysicist or anything, but I imagine if I think of our galaxy as a clock face, with Earth always at the 12 o'clock position, that Mars would at some point be at 3 o'clock, at another time be at 9 o'clock, etc. (of course this is a 2D intepretation of a 3D situation, but I hope you get my point. Actually the third dimension would make this orbit even stranger) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:16, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

I can see both of your points. As mjm87 says, "between the Earth and Mars", taken literally, would mean "on a line between the two planets", which would be a very unusual orbit. And, I agree, it would be impossible without constant velocity changes, so wouldn't be an "orbit" in the usual sense.
On the other hand, I took Russell's words the way Dgbrt seems to have, as meaning "between the orbits of Earth and Mars", as this is the way most astronomers would interpret it. A don't know that there are "many" asteroids that remain between Earth and Mars, but there are quite a few crossing the space, and at least a few with average distances in that range. - N Kalanaga {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.159}}
:There is also quantifier scope ambiguity there. I believe that there is a large constellation of teapot statites, and at any given moment at least one of them is directly between Earth and Mars. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.58|172.68.54.58]] 06:29, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
Since Russell was going for absurdity, I favour the more absurd interpretation namely Mjm87's. [[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 08:21, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
:Taking "on a line between the two planets" literally would simply reduce to "inside the orbit of Mars". The Earth moves faster than Mars and right now the Sun is exactly between them on that line. NASA, ESA, and ISRO can not communicate with their orbiters and rovers until the beginning of August (see {{w|Solar conjunction}}). So the meaning "between the orbits of Earth and Mars" is still much more plausible.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:11, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
:What if it's in the Earth-Mars L1 point? Then it's always on a line between the two planets. [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 06:02, 26 July 2017 (UTC)
::{{w|Lagrangian point}}s exist for Earth-Sun, Mars-Sun, or Moon-Earth (small object orbits a larger one). There is nothing similar for Earth-Mars. Earth moves faster around the sun and the closest approach happens every 26 months at a distance not less than 55 Mio. km. 13 months later the maximum distance is approx. 400 Mio. km and the sun is in the middle as it happens right now!--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:46, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Don't worry we have been working on it. Launching the project in a few months.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSmdiMSFBSb/?taken-by=hate_plow
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSwW4MIlE0b/?taken-by=hate_plow
[[User:Zackdougherty|Zackdougherty]] ([[User talk:Zackdougherty|talk]]) 03:10, 22 July 2017 (UTC)

:Actually, it couldn't be on a direct line between Earth and Mars because then it would be tremendously easier to find (or disprove)! If the teapot can be anywhere between the orbits, then that is a vastly larger space to look for a teapot and therefore more difficult to disprove. Similarly, it is unlikely there are a whole constellation because then it would be more likely to find at least one. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.94|172.68.34.94]] 03:19, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Could some people (smarter than myself) make an attempt at labeling the items on the cube sat that Randall left at squiggles? Maybe starting from the top, clockwise? I'll start a table, but I'm sure someone will need to fix it. [[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 03:24, 25 July 2017 (UTC)
:Personally, I suspect such a diagram wouldn't have the top labelled as "Teapot", but as "Payload". :) To me it looks even longer, so perhaps "Top Secret Specialty Payload" or something? [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:05, 1 August 2017 (UTC)

The title text refers to Russell's paradox, and it is funny that Russell came to it thinking about teaspoons : "The class of teaspoons, for example, is not another teaspoon, but the class of things that are not teaspoons, is one of the things that are not teaspoons." See https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1046863/how-can-a-set-contain-itself for the exact source.
[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.47|198.41.242.47]] 08:29, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

Amusingly Russell's original words, atleast as far as I've seen them quoted, literally described the teapot as being a planet. They stated something like "what if I said that orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars was a small planet the shape and size of a teapot...". The "thought experiment" dies a pretty quick death when you consider the current IAU definition of a planet, that it must be large enough to pull itself into a sphere from self-gravity(no marks for the teapot) and it needs to be gravitatonally dominant in it's orbital regions (no chance for something so low in mass), although that latter point tends to provoke the Pluto debate. Either way , by the strict definition, there isn't a teapot shaped "planet".Also if you don't call the teapot a planet, but do stick to Russell's words about an elliptical orbit you can probably calculate that something so small waving about between the orbits of Earth and Mars will end up being ejected due to a gravitational tug or resonance somewhere, probably from Jupiter (given Jupiter's mass it perturbs just about anything even when things are inside the orbit of Mars), once again profound philosophy gets an unfortunate surprise from orbital dynamics.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 23:39, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1871: Bun Alert

2017-08-02T23:25:10Z

162.158.154.91: warning about your captchas, problem with them , delete this comment once you're aware of it

This is basically the title text from 1682. Is it just me, or has Randall been running out of ideas lately? [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 13:31, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:In all fairness, Randall has been known to play the long game. There might be a thread to pull here. {{unsigned ip|172.68.143.186|13:44, 2 August 2017‎ (UTC)}}
::Yea, Randall has built on earlier ideas before. E.g. 1818 being built on an idea from What-If 141. It's non-indicative of a lack of ideas. But the notion that ideas are a finite resource is silly anyways. Watch the talk he gave at Google in 2007, it's on YouTube, and there's a bit in there where he talks about how he comes up with his comics. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.35|108.162.238.35]] 13:49, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
No idea why he's picked bunnies specifically, maybe that will become apparent in a future strip. Considering just this standalone comic, it seems to be a parody of apps that increasingly swamp the user with notifications about pointless things that one might imagine nobody would ever care about. In this instance, it might be imagined that few people would care about notifications for bunny sightings, but in the last pane it appears that someone truly does. This might compare with notifications for rare pokemon sightings in Pokémon Go (not provided in-app but there are groups on facebook etc. that alert users to rare pokemon / legendary raids) - with the difference that bunnies are extremely common. Also, is it significant that he specifically uses the word "buns" instead of "bunnies"? There may be a connection with the observation that they are just like little hopping loaves of bread.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.208|141.101.98.208]] 14:45, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:I mean, that's pretty much what twitter is for.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.190|162.158.134.190]] 15:11, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:Cf. memes such as "anatomy of the bun". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.35|108.162.238.35]] 19:37, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
:Agree with the idea that it may be reference to people overreacting to trivial things and using technology to alert others about it e.g. Starbucks unicorn locations, PokemonGo, etc. No idea about the title text though, he is basically saying people may be alerted at night? Maybe some recent trend that focuses on night gatherings? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.72|172.68.47.72]] 20:58, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

I think this may just be an extended example of dadaism. If he carries on with the theme I think it is as likely to make less sense as it is to make more sense. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.189|162.158.58.189]] 15:12, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Beret Guy's comment about investors and building the alert system could be a reference to [[1493: Meeting]]. Is the "loaves of bread that hop" line just a pun on the word "bun"? Is "Night Buns" a reference to something? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.41|172.68.46.41]] 20:13, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

WARNING: your captchas aren't working well at all. In firefox your captcha gets crushed somehow underneath the formatting tools bar where you can do text entry when editing. I was only able to pass the captcha and get this comment posted by viewing the html source of the webpage and tracking what link the captcha was supposed to go to. I suggest you try setting up some sort of formatting on the webpage to place the captcha elsewhere on the page one sees after editing a comment-box/wiki-like page. Thanks[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 23:25, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Talk:270: Merlin

2017-08-02T23:19:58Z

162.158.154.91: your captcha doesn't load

Immediately after watching Memento, I spliced it together in chronological order and watched it again. Definitely straightforward, and much more boring that way. [[User:Wotpsycho|Wotpsycho]] ([[User talk:Wotpsycho|talk]]) 02:48, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

If this Merlin experiences time backwards, then he should remember watching the film before doing so (as he will do it later). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.63|173.245.55.63]] 12:51, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
:Yes this is a plot hole. Mentioned it in the explain. Also he lived 1400 years before the invention of the DVD ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:38, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
::Doesn't the "living backward" thing just mean that he remembers the future (his past) but not the past (his future)? So, for example, from his perspective, he would meet someone he didn't know, but for the other person it would be a final goodbye, and when Merlin says goodbye forever, he remembers the friend, but for the friend it's a first hello and the friend doesn't know Merlin. (Sorry if this is confusing, but the concept of living backwards is confusing.) If this is true, then Memento would be straightforward, except for the black-and-white bits. [[User:Cheese Lord Eggplant|Cheese Lord Eggplant]] ([[User talk:Cheese Lord Eggplant|talk]]) 23:42, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
:::Based on the second panel, Merlin remembers the future, but not the past. This would mean that he is born knowing his whole life, along with every person he will meet. Once he meets that person, he will have forgotten meeting that person. When that person says goodbye to Merlin for the last time, Merlin will have forgotten completely. It would not be a first meeting as time still progresses chronologically for Merlin. Only his memories are reversed. {{unsigned|Flewk}}

Remembering the future would be a weird way to live. He would be destined to perform every action as it is all planned out in his memory from birth. The other weird part would be that he would have no recollection of anything he has ever done. So the last panel is definitely a plot hole. He would know for a fact that the movie is straight forward until he watches it; at which point he will have forgotten about the movie entirely. [[User:Flewk|Flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 09:22, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

The comic does not speculate on the other effects of Merlin experiencing a time reversed existence. For example the effect as considered on a feynman diagram, where particles travelling backwards in time are antimatter, which may lead to very unfortunate results at any handshake Merlin attempts to make.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.91|162.158.154.91]] 23:19, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

1824: Identification Chart

2017-04-16T08:59:02Z

162.158.154.91: red arrows

{{comic
| number = 1824
| date = April 14, 2017
| title = Identification Chart
| image = identification_chart.png
| titletext = Be careful-it's breeding season, and some of these can be *extremely* defensive of their nests.
}}

==Explanation==
Some aircraft are named after creatures of flight, including {{w|bird of prey|birds of prey}}, other birds, and insects. This comic spoofs an "identification guide" of bird silhouettes, each with the {{w|fuselage}} of an aircraft and the wings of the flying animal from which the aircraft gets its name. All are birds with the exception of the {{w|hornet|hornet}} which is an insect, see the [[#Table|table]] below for individual explanations.

This idea of having feathers wings on a plane is absurd, as bird wings (for birds that can fly) are made to support the lightweight structure of a bird. Supporting the metal parts of a plane along with its human pilot would be impossible.

General military training often includes aircraft identification. {{w|Aircraft_recognition|Silhouette charts}} are given to ground observers for memorization and reference so that friend or foe can be determined in the field. Conversely, many bird watching books will carry pictures of avian silhouettes from below, as often key details like tail and wing shape are the easiest way to determine what a species a high soaring bird is, especially birds of prey.

The comic highlights not only the various designs of aircraft tails, but also bird wings. Some wings are highly adapted for soaring (eagle), speed (falcon), as well as rapid acceleration and short flights (blackbird).

The title text is juxtaposing military air bases with breeding nests of the animals, both of which might earn a hostile response to approach at the wrong time, but in wildly different measure. Encroaching on breeding territory of some of the birds being referenced may result in getting dived at or chased, so the comparison invites the reader to imagine what might happen if the analogous creatures in the comic were defending their nest with aircraft ordnance.

===Table===
{| class="wikitable"
!Animal
! style="width: 8em" | Plane
!Description
|-
|{{w|Osprey|Osprey}}
|{{w|Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey|V-22 Osprey}}
|The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a raptor with distinctive white and brown coloring. It's also sometimes referred to as a sea hawk or fish eagle due to its virtually all fish diet.
The V-22 Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that has been in development since the 1980s, and was introduced to the U.S. Armed Forces in 2007. It's a troop carrier aircraft that combines the vertical take-off ability of a helicopter with the high cruising speed of an airplane. (''{{w|Bell Helicopter}}'' and {{w|Boeing Rotorcraft Systems|''Boeing''}})
|-
|{{w|Hornet|Hornet}}
|{{w|McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet|F/A-18 Hornet}}
|Hornets are a type of wasp of the genera vespa or provespa. They're known to be highly territorial and aggressive.
The F-18 Hornet is a fighter developed for the Navy in the 1970s. It's been deployed by air forces around the world in both air-to-air and air-to-ground roles, and is flown by the US Navy demonstration team, the Blue Angels. The airplane is still being produced in an updated and larger version, the {{w|F/A-18E/F Super Hornet}}. (''{{w|McDonnell Douglas}}'')
|-
|{{w|Falcon|Falcon}}
|{{w|General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon|F-16 Falcon}}
|A falcon is a bird of prey known for its tapered wings that allow for high speed flight and high maneuverability.
The F-16 Falcon is a light single-engine fighter. It's flown by the USAF demonstration team, the Thunderbirds. (''{{w|General Dynamics}}'')
|-
|{{w|Harrier (bird)|Harrier}}
|{{w|Harrier_Jump_Jet|AV-8B Harrier}}
|A harrier is a hawk that hunts by flying low over open ground.
The first operational {{w|STOL}}/{{w|VTOL}} fighter. They are known for their use in the {{w|Falklands War}} (1982), where they operated from converted cargo ships as well as aircraft carriers. (''{{w|Hawker Siddeley}}'')
|-
|{{w|Eagle|Eagle}}
|{{w|McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle|F-15 Eagle}}
|Eagle is a common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae.
Introduced in 1976, other jets like F-16 have filled its role. The U.S. Air National Guard is the largest operator as of now. (''{{w|McDonnell Douglas}}'')
|-
|{{w|Kestrel|Kestrel}}
|{{w|Kestrel_K-350|Kestrel K-350}}
|A bird of prey that can hover before swooping in on its prey.
The Kestrel is a single-engine, proof-of-concept aircraft, similar to the {{w|Pilatus PC-12}}. (''{{w|Kestrel Aircraft}}'')
|-
|{{w|Hawk|Hawk}}
|{{w|BAE_Systems_Hawk|Hawk T1}}
|A hawk is a large bird of prey with a heavy head and beak. They have very acute vision.
A trainer aircraft. It is flown by the Royal Air Force display team, the ''{{w|Red Arrows}}''. {{w|T-45 Goshawk}} is the U.S. designation of a variant of this aircraft. The fuselage silhouette is of a BAe Hawk, although other aircraft have also had Hawk-related names, for example the Hawker [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Sea_Hawk Sea Hawk] and the Douglas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-4_Skyhawk A-4 Skyhawk]. (''{{w|BAE Systems}}'')
|-
|{{w|Common blackbird|Blackbird}}
|{{w|Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird|SR-71 Blackbird}}
|There are many birds that goes under the {{w|Blackbird#Birds|name blackbird}} but the common blackbird is a species of {{w|true thrush}}.
A Mach 3+ spy aircraft, known for its speed and engine design (which allowed them to work both as turbines and ramjets). (''{{w|Lockheed Martin}}'')
|}

==Transcript==
:[A silhouette identification guide chart shows eight silhouettes in two rows. The silhouettes are a combination of the fuselage of an aircraft and the wings of birds, or in the second case an insect. Below each silhouette is a label:]
:Osprey Hornet Falcon Harrier
:Eagle Kestrel Hawk Blackbird

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Animals]]