explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3081: PhD Timeline

2025-04-26T01:14:46Z

162.158.167.87: /* Explanation */ We don't need to "both sides" everything, especially when one side is promoting falsehoods.

{{comic
| number = 3081
| date = April 25, 2025
| title = PhD Timeline
| image = phd_timeline_2x.png
| imagesize = 382x516px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Rümeysa Öztürk was grabbed off the street in my town one month ago.
}}

Clicking on the image on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] takes you to ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyypeEEOklM Surveillance video shows Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk apprehended in Somerville, MA]'' on YouTube.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Created by a DIVERGENT TIMELINE. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic presents a typical PhD timeline, with a twist. Typically a PhD is broken into a number of steps, from enrollment through to thesis defense. However, in this case, the timeline takes an unexpected turn when, instead of publishing the thesis, the candidate is detained by masked government agents. While this may seem like an unlikely event, it reflects the {{w|detention of Rümeysa Öztürk|lived experience of Rümeysa Öztürk}}, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University who was abruptly detained by six masked ICE agents in Somerville, MA while walking to an {{w|iftar}} dinner. Subsequently, she was transported to Vermont and then to a detention facility in Louisiana before a court ordered that she not be removed from Massachusetts.

The reason given for her detention was that her {{w|F visa|F-1 student visa}} was revoked due to, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, her alleged activities in support of the foreign terrorist organization {{w|Hamas}} on the campus of Tufts. Aside from her being co-author of an article in a student newspaper which was critical of her university's response towards the alleged {{w|Gaza genocide}}, no proof of such alleged support for Hamas has ever been provided. The U.S. government can cancel a visa if the subjects' activities are harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests, though the threat of a visa being revoked has a clear chilling effect on legal speech, and raises serious {{w|First Amendment}} issues.

The title text refers to the fact that Somerville is also where [[Randall Munroe]] lives.

For a more detailed account, see {{w|Detention of Rümeysa Öztürk}} on Wikipedia.

==Transcript==
:[A chart shows the typical events in a research program. At the top there is a dotted line. There is a title above the line and the line is labeled with text in the middle breaking the line:]
:US PH.D PROGRAM TIMELINE
:-------ENROLLMENT---------

:[The dotted line aligns with the top of an Y-axis with 7 ticks, the top tick on level with the dotted line. There are seven labels from top towards the bottom, not written near specifik ticks, and with uneven distance. Between each of the labels there is an arrow from the one above pointing the the next. To the right of the first five labels there is a split up rectangle, that are closed at the top , but open at the bottom. Down through the middle part it is split up in two along a kind of S-shape going a bit up from left to right. There is a gab between the top and bottom part of this figure along this s-shape. Both top and bottom part has a label. All text and other parts of the comic has been in black until this. But the last two labels near the Y-axis beneath where the rectangular figure stops, which are still written in black, have been crossed out with red squiggly lines, both the two small arrows and the text. From the label above those crossed out, there goes a red arrow down and then to the right. This point to another red label next to and right of the first of the two that has been crossed out. From beneath this another red arrow point to a second red label, next to the the last of the two that was crossed out. A third red arrow goes beneath this to a final red label.]
:Meet with Advisor
:Research Proposal
:Qualifying Exams
:Purpose Dissertation
:Research and Write dissertation

:[The above is the labels near the rectangular figure to the right with the following labels:]
:Coursework
:Research

:[The final two labels that have been crossed out with red lines:]
:Submit dissertation
:Defend dissertation

:[The new labels written to the right with red:]
:Get grabbed off the sidewalk outside of your home by masked government agents
:Be whisked out of the state before a judge has time to intervene
:????

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]

406: Venting

2025-02-26T17:56:47Z

162.158.167.87:

{{comic
| number = 406
| date = April 4, 2008
| title = Venting
| image = venting.png
| titletext = P.P.S. I can kill you with my brain.
}}

==Explanation==
This is yet another xkcd comic referencing ''{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}'', but it's not so much about ''Firefly'' itself as about [[Summer Glau]]. Summer Glau is an American actress best known for playing {{w|River Tam}} in ''Firefly'' and ''{{w|Serenity (film)|Serenity}}'', as well as Cameron in the ''{{w|Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles}}'' series. [[Cueball]] says that he gives a long and seemingly well-researched reply to a stupid comment on a blog when he feels angry as a way to vent. What we see of his comment begins with Cueball describing the original comment's incoherent and inconsistent spelling and grammar. Then, he proceeds to rip apart the commentator by citing their historical and political ignorance. He signs his comment as "Summer Glau", after which he reminds the blogger to watch the next season of ''Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles series''.

One likely reason that he uses "Summer Glau" is that she is worshipped by geeks the world over, even those incapable of writing coherent blog posts or comments. CrackMonkey74 would not risk responding negatively to the post, just in case it was actually written by Summer Glau, as they don't want everyone to hate them for attempting to argue with her. In this way, Cueball is assured of the last word in this argument, which makes for a most satisfying vent.

Another possible explanation is that River Tam has a genius-level intellect and is also mentally disturbed. Given xkcd's trend of comparing ''Firefly'' characters to their respective actors (especially in [[:Category:The Race|The Race series]]), Cueball is probably using Summer Glau's name simply because an exhaustively researched blog comment seems like something River Tam -- and thus possibly Summer Glau -- would do. The name ''CrackMonkey74'' also appears in [[202: YouTube]] as one of the clueless YouTube commentators, and later appears in [[574: Swine Flu]].

The title text refers to the famous dialogue delivered by River Tam in ''Firefly'' Episode 11: "{{w|Trash (Firefly)|Trash}}".

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:] When I need to blow off steam, I find a particularly stupid blog comment and reply with an exhaustively researched word-by-word rebuttal, which I sign 'Summer Glau'.

:[Cueball is sitting at a desk, typing in front of a monitor. A curved line leads up from his hands to the text above.]
:...In conclusion, on examining the above post by CrackMonkey74, after carefully working my way through the haze of spelling errors (documented in section 3), abuse of capitalization (section 4), and general crimes against grammar and syntax (sections 7-8), I have demonstrated that, beneath it all, the work betrays the author's staggering ignorance of the history and the workings of our electoral system. While the author's wildly swerving train of thought did at one point flirt with coherence, this brief encounter was more likely a chance event (see statistical analysis in table 5) than a result of even rudimentary lucidity.
::-Summer Glau
:P.S. Don't forget to check out the next season of the ''Sarah Connor Chronicles'' this fall on Fox!

==Trivia==
Cueball's statement has been widely reused by many bloggers after the release of this comic.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Summer Glau]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Terminator]]

1623: 2016 Conversation Guide

2024-12-22T09:41:28Z

162.158.167.87: /* Explanation */ Earth = planet, earth = dirt.

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

==Explanation==
[[File:Electric Flying Cars -- Advertisement, 1958 (51438281706).jpg|thumb|right|1958 poster advertising an electric future of freedom and horrible crashes]]
As each year turns (or other milestone dates, perhaps set out in popular fiction) it is common enough to remember that what is now the present was once considered ''the future!''

This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], published just prior to the start of the {{w|New Year}}, 2016, aims to clarify a number of the things one might have expected by now. (Another New Year comic followed on New Year's Day: [[1624: 2016]], making it two in a row with titles beginning with 2016...) The classic target of personal futurology is the ability to levitate or fly, to varying degrees. This topic was discussed before in [[864: Flying Cars]], where [[Megan]] suggests that the real advances in futuristic technology are in computers and electronics, rather than methods of flying.

;Flying car
Various forms of {{w|Flying_car_(aircraft)|flying car}} have had varying {{w|AVE_Mizar|degrees}} of {{w|Moller_M400_Skycar|success}} (although it's debatable whether these examples are actually cars or just small airplanes), but the comic points out that the regular {{w|helicopter}} is as close as most of us would ever get to levitating personal vehicles.

;Jetpack
"Where's my {{w|jet pack}}?" is a common {{tvtropes|IWantMyJetPack|trope}}. There are various systems and {{w|Astronaut propulsion unit|analogues}} that could be considered jet packs in some sense, but devices to let individuals fly on earth would be extremely dangerous, even if they could be made practical. A functioning jetpack would risk elevating people to dangerous altitudes while potentially accelerating them to dangerous velocities, make it both difficult and dangerous to steer. The high likelihood of fatal crashes means that a viable product is unlikely to ever exist - unless technologies will allow to augment humans (such as genetic engineering or cybernetics) to such degree, what they could ram the ground at top speed and remain unharmed.

;Moon colony
The basic {{w|Apollo_program| science and engineering}} {{w|International Space Station|exists}} exists to build some form of permanently manned settlement on the moon, but doing so would be extremely expensive. The technology to exploit lunar resources, either for construction or life support, has not yet been developed, so all equipment and supplies would need to be continually transported from Earth. Commercial potential of such a base would be extremely limited, and no organization or group has been willing to spend the kind of money it would take.

;Self-driving car
Randall notes that these are "coming surprisingly soon." Self-driving cars have not become nearly as ubiquitous as was frequently predicted in 2016. As of 2024 (9 years after the release of this comic), there are various forms of self-driving with various degrees of advancement. The most impressive would be [https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot Tesla's full self-driving beta], which is capable of performing acceptably in most situations, except for parking lot navigation. Other than Tesla, companies such as Google, Waabi, and Euler Motors are working on self-driving vehicles, though Tesla remains the [https://electrek.co/2023/07/13/tesla-most-wanted-car-brand-us-study/ most well-known amongst the general public]. All these vehicles still require a human driver present.

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

;Floating sky city
Various science fiction sources imagined the idea of floating cities (e.g. {{w|Bespin}}, {{w|Mortal Engines Quartet}}). In reality, this seems highly unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. Absent some form of levitation technology that doesn't even exist as a concept yet, the only ways to keep things floating inside a planet's atmosphere are to make use of either buoyancy or continually providing thrust and/or lift. But "cities are heavy". The amount of mass that any kind of city would have would require either an implausibly large volume to float by buoyancy, or an incredible amount of energy (continually provided) to supply thrust or lift. With any foreseeable technology, that's unlikely to ever be practical.

;Hoverboard
[[File:Red self-balancing two-wheeled board with a person standing on it.png|thumb|right|A self-balancing scooter, marketed as a "hoverboard"]]
The {{w|Hoverboard|levitating Hoverboard}} has been popularised by the {{w|Back_to_the_Future_Part_II|''Back To The Future'' franchise}} of films, with several attempts to fully emulate such a device with air-blast or magnetic levitation, but the ''term'' "Hoverboard" has ended up being applied to a {{w|Segway}}-like {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board|personal transport system}} that has at least become a mass-produced device (albeit with a number of {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board#Safety|safety concerns}}) even if it doesn't fly or levitate. The very concept of the hoverboard was therefore predicted to be reduced mostly to arguments between opposing camps of opinions; and then, in the title-text, the conclusion that giving up and resorting to old-fashioned walking is inferior to ''any'' of the possible alternatives.

;Robot butler
A long-held science fiction vision is a robot (presumably humanoid), that can perform household tasks, taking that burden off people. Randall mentions "Jeeves", saying "he wasn't that great". This is presumably a reference to the early search site {{w|Ask Jeeves}}, which used a stereotypical butler name. The concept was that the search engine could take on tasks for you, much as a butler would. However, it was only a search engine, incapable of performing any physical tasks, extremely limited in the non-physical tasks it could perform, limited in its accessibility, and not even a particularly good search engine in the first place.

In a broader sense, there do exist an increasing number of automated systems to do specific household tasks (such as {{w|Roomba|vacuuming}}), and voice-activated systems that can perform virtual tasks, like keeping schedules and looking up information, are {{w|Amazon Alexa|increasingly widespread}}. To date, though, a generalized robot that can perform variety of physical tasks does not yet exist in a practical form. Robots (both humanoid and otherwise) that can move and operate semi-autonomously are under development, but are neither sufficiently advanced nor sufficiently cost effective to replace human labor in most instances.

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

:It's 2016 – Where's my...

::Flying car → They're called "helicopters"

::Jetpack → Turns out people are huge wimps about crashing

::Moon colony → No one has put up the cash

::Self-driving car → Coming surprisingly soon

::Floating sky city → Turns out cities are heavy

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Back to the Future]]

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T05:35:48Z

162.158.167.87:

I wonder where [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party making it in Boston Harbor, at ambient temperature, at scale] would fit on this scale. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.162|172.70.206.162]] 04:38, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: A little to the left of the microwave thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.252|162.158.186.252]] 05:14, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
When I make ramen, I put the measuring cup in the microwave. Fight me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.87|162.158.167.87]] 05:35, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-08-03T05:48:24Z

162.158.167.87: /* Explanation of clues */

{{comic
| number = 2957
| date = July 10, 2024
| title = A Crossword Puzzle
| image = a_crossword_puzzle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x937px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hint: If you ever encounter this puzzle in a crossword app, just [term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality].
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice|<big>'''SPOILER ALERT!'''</big> Stop scrolling! These crossword clues comprise a single hidden joke, which you can figure out yourself. If you read on, the joke is spoiled and your chance of finding out the joke yourself is gone instantly!|image=warning!!.png}}

This crossword may seem extremely difficult, with questions covering a wide variety of trivia, linguistics, mathematics in various forms, alongside wordplay typical of crossword puzzles. But the joke is that every single letter of every single answer is "A".

The name of this comic, “A Crossword Puzzle”, is a double entendre which could, in itself, be considered a cryptic clue; the “A” can be interpreted both as the indefinite article “a”, and as an identifier saying that this crossword puzzle is specifically an “A” puzzle, due to the answer being all “a”s.

The title text is a play on a "type A" personality. The term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality is "Type A". In the context of the title text, this answer is a hint that the entire puzzle can be completed in a crossword-solving app by typing the letter A repeatedly.

===Explanation of clues===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Location !! Clue !! Explanation !! Squares
|-
| 1-Across || Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote || Reference to the {{w|Wilhelm scream}}, a widely used stock sound effect. || 10
|-
| 11-Across || {{w|IPv6}} address record || An IPv4 record is an "A" record; an IPv6 record is four times the length and is designated an "AAAA" record. || 4
|-
| 15-Across || “CIPHERTEXT” decrypted with Vigenère key “CIPHERTEXT” || A "{{w|Vigenère Cipher}}" translates the original text by the distance from A from the key, letter by letter. For instance, if the plaintext is "XK" and the key is "CD", the C shifts X 2 forward to become Z, and the D shifts K 3 forward to become N, yielding a ciphertext of "ZN". Since the ciphertext and the key are the same in this case, decryption just shifts all the letters back to A, akin to subtracting a number from itself and getting 0. || 10
|-
| 16-Across || 8mm diameter battery || An {{w|AAAA battery}} is a 1.5 V battery that measures 8.3 mm in diameter, 2.2 mm smaller than the more common AAA battery. || 4
|-
| 17-Across || “Warthog” attack aircraft || The {{w|A-10 Warthog}} is an attack aircraft. Here, A-10 has been turned into AAAAAAAAAA (ten As). || 10
|-
| 18-Across || '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for “inability to visualize” || {{w|Aphantasia}} is the inability to experience mental images. Following the example of the pattern in the clue, taking the first letter and every third one after (rather than just every third letter) we determine that '''A'''ph'''a'''nt'''a'''si'''a''' gives us the word "aaaa". This clue is particularly mean because of how it instructs you to visualize the letters highlighted within the word in order to get the answer. || 4
|-
| 19-Across || An {{w|acrostic}} hidden on the first page of the dictionary || The first page of the dictionary (if you ignore the copyright page and the index) is the list of words starting with A. An acrostic of this page, taking the first letter of each line and arranging them in order, would just be a sequence of As. || 15
|-
| 21-Across || Default paper size in Europe || {{w|A4 paper}} (here written as AAAA) is the default size in Europe. At 210×297 mm, it is approximately 0.24″ narrower and 0.71″ longer than the 8.5″×11″ paper used in the United States, and due to having an aspect ratio of 1:sqrt(2), can be cut or folded in half to create two half-sized sheets (A5) with exactly the same aspect ratio. A4 is, itself, also a halving of A3 and of identical ratio, as is the case with all A-sizes higher and lower in the sequence.|| 4
|-
| 22-Across || First four unary strings || A unary number system represents numbers using just one symbol. For example, 7 in unary would be 1111111. The first four strings in unary, if you used A as the first (and only) symbol, would be A, AA, AAA, AAAA. || 10
|-
| 23-Across || Lysine codon || {{w|Lysine}} is an amino acid, with codons AAA and AAG. || 3
|-
| 24-Across || 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution || [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-63/subpart-AAAAAAA?toc=1 "40 CFR Part 63"] refers to federal air pollutant regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. The subpart for "asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing" is AAAAAAA (also part LLLLL). || 7
|-
| 25-Across || Top bond credit rating || The highest {{w|credit rating}} for bonds is AAA. || 3
|-
| 26-Across || Audi coupe || First of three Audi references. {{w|List_of_Audi_vehicles|Audi's car models}} range from A1 (subcompact hatchback) to A8 (full-size luxury sedan); the A5, the one referenced here, is a compact executive {{w|coupe}}. || 5
|-
| 27-Across || A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted || Two {{w|AAA_battery|AAA}} batteries, which are often used to power remote controls for domestic devices. These have been combined to give AAAAAA — "Inserted" is often a cryptic hint that one word should surround another, although such a cryptic clue would normally also contain a more direct clue (albeit ambiguously) to the full answer. || 6
|-
| 29-Across || Unofficial Howard Dean slogan || A reference to Howard Dean, an American Democrat who ran for the party's nomination in 2004. He famously [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0 yelled at a rally] in a way that was thought to be bizarre and which, it is thought, doomed his campaign. || 7
|-
| 32-Across || A 4.0 report card || A 4.0 GPA, at least {{w|Academic_grading_in_the_United_States|in the USA}}, is all As. This clue assumes seven classes. || 7
|-
| 33-Across || The “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball” (vowels only) || The {{w|Savannah Bananas}}, the vowels for whom are aaaaaa. The {{w|Harlem Globetrotters}} are an exhibition basketball team, with the Savannah Bananas following a similar formula in baseball. || 6
|-
| 34-Across || 2018 Kiefer song || “[https://genius.com/Kiefer-aaaaa-lyrics AAAAA]”. This is the only five-letter song title in Kiefer's 2018 album ''Happysad''. || 5
|-
| 35-Across || Top Minor League tier || The top {{w|Minor League Baseball}} tier is AAA. || 3
|-
| 36-Across || Reply elicited by a dentist || A dentist will often tell the patient to "open wide and say 'Ahh.'" The puzzle instead stylizes it as AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 38-Across || Anaa’s airport || {{w|Anaa}} is an atoll in the {{w|Tuamotu archipelago}} of {{w|French Polynesia}}. AAA is the {{w|IATA}} code for its airport. || 3
|-
| 41-Across || Macaulay Culkin’s review of aftershave || In the movie ''{{w|Home Alone}}'', Kevin (played by {{w|Macaulay Culkin}}) puts on his father's aftershave lotion. The eight-year-old boy is not used to the lotion's antiseptic and screams as the stinging sensation kicks in. || 10
|-
| 43-Across || Marketing agency trade grp. || The {{w|American Association of Advertising Agencies}}, also called the 4As (here AAAA). An abbreviated word in a clue, here "grp.", is a common way to signal that the answer also should also be written as its abbreviation. || 4
|-
| 44-Across || Soaring climax of Linda Eder’s ''Man of La Mancha'' || Refers to [https://youtu.be/BWP7l0OTXJI?t=130 the 18-second-long wordless passage in Eder's opus], or possibly the final high note in the song “The Impossible Dream”. || 15
|-
| 46-Across || Military flight community org. || The {{w|Army Aviation Association of America}}, or AAAA. || 4
|-
| 47-Across || Iconic line from ''Tarzan'' || Tarzan has a famous {{w|Tarzan yell|war cry}} he shouts, usually when swinging from a vine. || 10
|-
| 48-Across || '''E'''v'''e'''r'''y''' o'''t'''h'''e'''r letter of Jimmy Wales’s birth state || The birth state of {{w|Jimmy Wales}}, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is Alabama. Taking every other letter of '''A'''l'''a'''b'''a'''m'''a''' gives "Aaaa". || 4
|-
| 49-Across || Warthog’s postscript after “They call me ''mister'' pig!” || Pumba in ''{{w|The Lion King}}'' yells "aaaaaaaaaa" while charging at the hyenas who insulted him. || 10
|-
| 50-Across || Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2'' || The call which Elsa hears in ''{{w|Frozen 2}}'' is a sequence of four notes which resemble the requiem music "{{w|Dies Irae#Music|Dies irae}}". The sequence is sung entirely with an open rounded vowel sound, or a soft "a" sound. || 4
|-
| 51-Across || Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run'' || In ''{{w|Run Lola Run}}'', Lola ({{w|Franka Potente}}) [https://youtu.be/OTSz1w-cuZM?si=2vc51WCWvn20Hjoo&t=116 screams loud enough to affect the outcome] of a roulette wheel where she has just bet all her money on Black 20. The scream could be transcribed as "AAAAAAAAAA" || 10
|-
| 1-Down || Game featuring “a reckless disregard for gravity” || ''{{w|AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity}}'' - notably the title is commonly extended in promotional material beyond 6 As. || 6
|-
| 2-Down || 1010101010101010101010102→16 || 10101010 10101010 10101010 in binary is equivalent to "AAAAAA" in hexadecimal. || 6
|-
| 3-Down || Google phone released July ’22 || The {{w|Pixel 6a}} was released in July 22. Stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAAA" ('A'×6) || 6
|-
| 4-Down || It’s five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce || Five times better than {{w|A1 steak sauce}} would be A5, stylized in this puzzle as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 5-Down || ToHex(43690) || The decimal number 43690 converted to hexadecimal is AAAA. || 4
|-
| 6-Down || Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure'' || A drawn-out 'Aaaaahhhh' rising in pitch, from a song by Queen and David Bowie. || 15
|-
| 7-Down || Full-size Audi luxury sedan || Second of three Audi references. As mentioned previously, the A8 referenced here is their full-size luxury sedan. || 8
|-
| 8-Down || Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey || The "fast path" is just to select the first option over and over again. Usually the options are labeled A, B, C, and D (or more) - choosing the first option for every question would be answering entirely with As. || 7
|-
| 9-Down || 12356631 in base 26 || Randall is expressing base 26 using the letters of the alphabet with 1=A, in which case 1235663110 = AAAAAA26. (It's unclear how one would express the digit 026 this way.) || 6
|-
| 10-Down || Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus || A reference to the music video for Kirin J Callinan's song “{{w|Big Enough}}”, which features rocker {{w|Jimmy Barnes}} in a cowboy hat screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while in the sky over mountain scenes. || 15
|-
| 11-Down || Ruby Rhod catchphrase || Ruby Rhod is a radio host in the film ''{{w|The Fifth Element}}''; he has a scene with a memorable scream. || 5
|-
| 12-Down || badbeef + 9efcebbb || In hexadecimal, badbeef and 9efcebbb add together to equal AAAAAAAA (195,935,983, 2,667,375,547, and 2,863,311,530 in decimal respectively). || 8
|-
| 13-Down || In Wet Leg’s ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing || In the song "{{w|Ur Mum}}" by {{w|Wet Leg}}, the bridge starts with "Okay, I've been practicing my longest and loudest scream", which is apparently eight As long. || 8
|-
| 14-Down || Refrain from Nora Reed bot || The "Endless Scream" bot on social media, made by Nora Reed, posts "AAAAAAAAAAA" (with or without an h) at varying lengths. || 8
|-
| 20-Down || Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith’s walls || In ''Mario'' games you typically use the A button to jump. In games where you don't press a button to move (e.g., games with a joystick), then the button presses required to ascend a vertical structure would probably all be A. This clue might have been inspired by the {{w|A-button challenge}} / [https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/A_Button_Challenge A Button Challenge], which tallies the number of A presses needed to beat ''Super Mario 64''. Additionally, {{w|Minas Tirith}} is a fictional city in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' with seven concentric rings, each with a wall around it and higher than the last ring. Presumably, it takes seven jumps to get to the highest area of the city, so the answer is "AAAAAAA". || 7
|-
| 24-Down || Vermont historic route north from Bennington || {{w|Vermont Route 7A}}, or AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 26-Down || High-budget video game || A high-budget video game is usually referred to as a Triple-A game, or AAA. || 3
|-
| 28-Down || Unorthodox Tic-tac-toe win || {{w|Tic-tac-toe}} is usually won by getting either three Xs or three Os in a row, making XXX and OOO normal Tic-tac-toe wins. One could achieve a win of AAA by making the unorthodox choice of playing with the letter A instead of X or O. Alternatively, Randall is envisaging the grid as defined by rows 1, 2, 3, and columns A, B, C, so an AAA win would be simply playing in the first column each time - a strategy which should be obvious and easy to stop, even for young children who have not yet worked out that ''any'' route to winning can be blocked. || 3
|-
| 29-Down || String whose SHA-256 hash ends “…689510285e212385” || <code>printf AAAAAAAA <nowiki>|</nowiki> sha256sum</code> outputs <code>c34ab6abb7b2bb595bc25c3b388c872fd1d575819a8f55cc689510285e212385</code>.
Note that this 'clue' would be normally be ''particularly'' difficult, in isolation, as the nature of a {{w|hash function}} means that it is possible for multiple inputs to produce a given output, and that finding any of these (and definitely identifying ''all'' of them, to ensure you have the correct original) would require a {{w|brute-force attack}}; i.e. a test of all possible initial states to discover which of them might be viable candidates. Even more problematic is that we are only given a partial hash string, meaning we are possibly talking of a multiple of full hashes, each of them with a possible multiplicity of original plaintexts behind them. However, given the context of this puzzle, it's reasonable to guess that a sequence of 8 As might be the answer, and indeed its hash does match the clue given.
 The number of possible hashes in the clue is 1664/1616, i.e. 1648, or approximately 6x1054, although there really is no reason (aside from the fundamental impracticality) to try to solve this problem from each and every 'hash end'. Instead you would 'only' check every combination of 8 letters (presuming no digits, punctuation or whitespace would be inserted, that no “foreign”/accented characters are present and that uppercase is universally presumed, is 268; i.e. ~208 {{w|billion|short-scale billion}} possibilities) and discover which (one?) of these sufficiently matches the hash fragment given. Testing a hundred of these every second, it would take a little over 66 ''years'' to complete the task of checking every single possibility (rather than stopping at the first confirmed answer, which might well be the initial one in this particular case).
 In the context of a crossword such as this, however, you can significantly reduce this search by having established (or at least sufficiently narrowed down) the answers to the various across-clues which intersect with ever character of it (this form of crossword grid being of the {{w|Crossword#American-style crosswords|dense type}}, with no singly-clued spaces as with the more open lattice-types), reducing the necessary checks drastically. This could mean, having solved at least some of the perpendicular answers, that you have enough information to 'guess' at some likely answer, and then merely need to ''confirm'' that whatever guess(es) you make will resolve themselves into the clue-answer provided. (Much as you might with a more normally difficult clue, where you merely have to satisfy yourself that the surprise answer is at least justified as resulting from the original hint.)
| 8
|-
| 30-Down || Arnold’s remark to the Predator || A reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFYPVxHKdc this scene] from ''{{w|Predator (film)|Predator}}'', starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. || 8
|-
| 31-Down || The vowels in the fire salamander’s binomial name || The vowels in {{w|Salamandra salamandra}} are aaaaaaaa. || 8
|-
| 32-Down || Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line || The iconic scene in ''{{w|Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho}}'' is the shower scene, in which {{w|Janet Leigh}} gives a long piercing scream as she is murdered. This can be written as 8 As if one wishes. || 8
|-
| 34-Down || Seven 440Hz pulses || A sound with a frequency of 440 Hz is a middle "A" note. Seven such pulses would be AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 37-Down || Audi luxury sports sedan || Third of three Audi references. The A6, the one referenced here, is their executive car. Actually, the A7, their executive liftback sedan, would fit the prompt of "luxury sports sedan" better, but 37-Down only has room for six As. || 6
|-
| 38-Down || A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks || Eggs can be [https://www.saudereggs.com/blog/egg-grading-system/ "graded on a variety of aspects"], with grades B, A, or AA. Eggs with a reasonably firm yolk are graded A, so having half a dozen of them gives you AAAAAA eggs. || 6
|-
| 39-Down || 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad || A "{{w|multi-tap|multitap keyboard}}" is a text entry system for mobile phones. Most numbers are associated with three letters, and tapping the same number multiple times in rapid succession selects the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd letter. 2 is "A", 22 is "B", 222 is "C", 3 is "D", etc. 2-2-2-2-2-2 translates to "AAAAAA". (If pressed quickly enough, this input may accidentally wrap around the letter list twice and simply result in a "C".) || 6
|-
| 40-Down || .- .- .- .- .- .- || .- is {{w|Morse Code}} for A. It reads out as AAAAAA. || 6
|-
| 42-Down || Rating for China’s best tourist attractions || China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism provides ratings for many tourist attractions in China on a scale from A to AAAAA, with AAAAA being the best. Examples of well-known tourist attractions with the AAAAA rating include the {{w|Forbidden City}}, sections of the {{w|Great Wall of China}}, and the {{w|Terracotta Army}}. || 5
|-
| 43-Down || Standard drumstick size || 5A is a common, middle-range size for drumsticks (the sticks used to play drums, not the drumsticks that get eaten). Here, it's written as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 45-Down || “The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain” rhyme scheme || An AAAA {{w|rhyme scheme}} means each of the four lines ends with the same sound. Furthermore, the sound in question is the standard vocalization of the letter A. {{w|The Rain in Spain}} is a song from the musical {{w|My Fair Lady}}. || 4
|}

==Transcript==
:[A square 15x15 crossword puzzle is shown. Only 21 of the 225 squares are black. The black squares are in a pattern that are 180 degree rotationally symmetrical. Three black squares down from the 11th column and similarly three black squares up from the 5th column. Three black squares out from the right in row 7 and then two more black squares diagonally up from the end. Similarly three black squares out from the left in row 9 with two more black squares diagonally down from the end. A single black square is three above the first black square on the diagonal going down to the right and similarly there is a black square three under the first of the diagonal squares going down to the left. (Row 6 column 12 and Row 10 column 4). Finally there are three black squares on a diagonal crossing over the central point by going up from the left through the central point (Row 8 column 8). There are numbers at the top of every column (except the one that is a black square) and similarly at the left edge of all rows (except the one that is a black square). There are also numbers at the bottom of every black segment (except the one that reaches the bottom) and all rows after black segments except the one that reaches the right edge. In total all numbers from 1 to 51 are written. They are written in reading order from 1 to 51.]
:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

:[Below the square there are two columns of clues for each number that belongs to across (rows) and to the right there is one column of clues for each number that belongs to down (columns). Both segments have an underlined and bold title above the clues. ]
:<big>'''Across'''</big>
:1. Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote
:11. IPv6 address record
:15. "CIPHERTEXT" decrypted with Vigenère key "CIPHERTEXT"
:16. 8mm diameter battery
:17. "Warthog" attack aircraft
:18. '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for "inability to visualize"
:19. An acrostic hidden on the first page of the dictionary
:21. Default paper size in Europe
:22. First four unary strings
:23. Lysine codon
:24. 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution
:25. Top bond credit rating
:26. Audi coupe
:27. A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted
:29. Unofficial Howard Dean slogan
:32. A 4.0 report card
:33. The "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball" (vowels only)
:34. 2018 Kiefer song
:35. Top Minor League tier
:36. Reply elicited by a dentist
:38. ANAA's airport
:41. Macaulay Culkin's review of aftershave
:43. Marketing agency trade grp.
:44. Soaring climax of Linda Eder's ''Man of La Mancha''
:46. Military flight community org.
:47. Iconic line from ''Tarzan''
:48. '''E''''''v''''''e''''''r''''''y'''''' o''''''t''''''h''''''e''''''r''' letter of Jimmy Wales's birth state
:49. Warthog's postscript after "They call me ''mister'' pig!"
:50. Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2''
:51. Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run''

:<big>'''Down'''</big>
:1. Game featuring "a reckless disregard for gravity"
:2. 1010101010101010101010102→16
:3. Google phone released July '22
:4. It's five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce
:5. ToHex(43690)
:6. Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure''
:7. Full-size Audi luxury sedan
:8. Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey
:9. 12356631 in base 26
:10. Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus
:11. Ruby Rhod catchphrase
:12. badbeef + 9efcebbb
:13. In Wet Leg's ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing
:14. Refrain from Nora Reed bot
:20. Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith's walls
:24. Vermont historic route north from Bennington
:26. High-budget video game
:28. Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win
:29. String whose SHA-256 hash ends "...689510285e212385"
:30. Arnold's remark to the Predator
:31. The vowels in the fire salamander's binomial name
:32. Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line
:34. Seven 440Hz pulses
:37. Audi luxury sports sedan
:38. A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks
:39. 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad
:40. .- .- .- .- .- .-
:42. Rating for China's best tourist attractions
:43. Standard drumstick size
:45. "The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain" rhyme scheme

==Trivia==
*This comic got a [[Header_text#A_Crossword_Puzzle|comic-specific header text]] after the first day it was up.
**This was because one of the comics Randall lists as one of those he enjoys, [https://www.buttersafe.com/ Buttersafe], had already posted a similar comic back in 2011: [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ Crosswords].
**Randall had forgotten this, but now pays tribute to this, stating that he must have been accidentally inspired by that comic.
*[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] posted a link to a picture of the solved crossword puzzle in the [[Talk:2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Solved_puzzle_picture|comments]] and allowed it to be included here:
[[File:2957_A-Crossword_Puzzle-Solved.png|500px|center]]
*All the black squares are in a symmetrical pattern, which is generally the case for crossword puzzles in the US and UK. See description of the pattern in the [[#Transcript|transcript]].
*Crosswords have been mentioned previously in [[2896: Crossword Constructors]].
*Out of 60 clues in the puzzle, 10 are references to screaming or yelling, making the puzzle approximately 17% screams.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Video games]]

2965: Chili Tornado Quake

2024-08-03T00:57:52Z

162.158.167.87: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2965
| date = July 29, 2024
| title = Chili Tornado Quake
| image = chili_tornado_quake_2x.png
| imagesize = 302x252px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SCALED CAROLINA REAPER-CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]], as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], is reporting on a tornado that struck a chili pepper processing plant during an earthquake, and he rates the event as 55,000 on the (fictional) Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale.

The Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale combines several unrelated scales:
* The '''{{w|Richter scale}}''' is a historic (but still well known) logarithmic scale for rating the intensity of {{w|earthquakes}} that typically range from about 3 to 9.5.
* The '''{{w|Fujita scale}}''' rates the intensity of damage caused by {{w|tornadoes}} which ranges from 0 to 5.
* The '''{{w|Scoville scale}}''' rates the spiciness of food, such as {{w|chili peppers}}, from 0 (not spicy) all the way up into the millions.

The joke is that combining these scales is nonsensical and silly; the effects of each are not interrelated in any meaningful way.

Exactly how the final number of 55,000 was calculated is an exercise for Randall. As mentioned above, only the Scoville scale would normally see numbers this high (for example, an 18 on the Richter scale would vaporize the Earth). Allowing for some speculation, it's likely the three base numbers are multiplied, as with {{w|Foot-pound (energy)|similar}} compound-unit calculations, to give the single combined measure (although some nominal types are treated as {{w|Erdős–Bacon number|additive}}). This would be consistent with likely values of the earthquake, tornado, and chilli peppers:
* Richter: Since the building is still there it is not a 9 on the Richter scale, suggesting a maximum around 8. The fracturing of the earth suggests a minimum of 6.
* Fujita: Given the image, this is not a 5 on the tornado scale, suggesting a maximum around 4. The severe damage to the building suggests a minimum of 3.
* Scoville: This would then leave the rest for the Scoville scale. 55,000 divided by estimates of 8 and 3 would give around 1700 Scoville units, a normal value for poblano peppers (Scoville number between about 1000 and 2000). The other two numbers could also be smaller, requiring a higher Scoville rating to reach 55,000 through multiplication, but there are many hotter peppers to make up the difference, such as jalapeño peppers (2500 to 10,000 Scoville units) among others.

In the title text it is mentioned that buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts [due] to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating. The {{w|Mohs scale}} is a scale for mineral hardness which ranges from 1 (e.g. talc) to 10 (diamond), with lower numbers being softer and higher numbers being harder. Chili peppers are strong in a spicy sense, but very soft on the Mohs scale, so if it was only the chilies that hit other buildings it would only be very soft material that would take any damage. Of course there would also be building material hitting nearby houses, thus they would do more damage than the chili, by an amount that would depend upon the relative hardness of the processing plant structure to that of other buildings. The former is frangible enough to have become dislodged from its structure, but may be just as brittle as it is ultimately abrasive, or is composed of thoroughly resilient pieces of material previously held in place by mortar or some other binding of insufficient adhesion or mechanical strength. From either point or failure (or both!), the wind-whipped cloud of debris might then indeed be able to scour more generally well-built structures nearby, even ones actually designed to withstand and absorb such winds/earth movements in their own right.

A number, where the hardness of the materials hitting nearby buildings was taken into consideration, could have been given, adding a fourth number to consider in the scale, but no such number is provided.

Similar comics:
* [[2950: Situation]] - several unlikely scenarios, all at once
* [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]] - also a hybrid multi-disciplinary amalgam of measurements
* [[1794: Fire]] - featuring a multiple-alarm fire in an alarm factory

===Discussion: Is the title text missing a word?===
The title text might be missing the word "due," or it might not be a typo; both scenarios are possible, but the meaning changes.

Since it's impossible to say which scenario is correct, here are the implications of both.

====Scenario 1: No missing word====
The sentence as written means that '''the chili peppers impacted the ''magnitude'' of the scale'''. In other words, buildings made of soft materials were damaged because the Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating was higher than it otherwise would have been as a result of the chili peppers. This suggests that spicier peppers are more likely to damage soft buildings.

The text has a somewhat awkward and unusual phrasing, if this was the intended meaning. If it was intended, Randall is presumably making a pun on the word impact, using it in an unusual way. Discussion about impacts from disasters usually talk about physical impacts, not impacts to abstract measurement systems, so the joke may be about this secondary kind of impact.

====Scenario 2: Missing word====
"Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts '''due''' to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating."

The sentence with "due" means that soft buildings were damaged by chili peppers, since the storm's hardness rating was high enough. This seems more straightforward: harder peppers successfully effacing soft building materials.

==Transcript==
:[Close-up of Cueball, a news anchor, next to an image with a headline above it to the left of him. The image shows of black tornado descending from sky-cover above. It is striking a building that has been damaged near where the tornado hits. Two large chilies can be seen flying through the air in the foreground, with pieces of the building and more chilies flying off further away. Straight beneath the building and going up in the middle of it there is a crack, that divides into three inside the building. The ground is also higher to the right of the point where the crack enters the building. Cueball is speaking which is shown above the image and him.]
:Headline: Breaking news
:Cueball: A tornado that struck a chili pepper processing plant during an earthquake was rated 55,000 on the Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Earthquakes]]