explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=162.158.79.47 explain xkcd - User contributions [en] 2026-06-24T21:37:39Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:246:_Labyrinth_Puzzle&diff=186842 Talk:246: Labyrinth Puzzle 2020-02-03T21:19:58Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div>'''SOLUTION 2 DOES NOT WORK''' ONE QUESTION, NOT TWO, AND YOU DONT KNOW WHO THE LIAR IS. one answer of "this is the door" doesnt help beacuse you wont know the answer of the other guy. in which solution one will always get you the same door, and you pick the other one. solution 2 just gives you two different doors. no matter who you ask you will randomly get a door. if the guy says the truth you wont know that hes the truthfull one or not. AGAIN thruthful guy points to a door, the liar would have( if you asked him instead, OR could even ask both) pointed to the other door. again, asking that question does not give you two answers, because you. dont. know. who. the. liar. is. <br /> <br /> Just ask which color is the sky.. {{unsigned|‎175.110.37.200}}<br /> :Oh, although the strip doesn't explicitly say so; in those riddles you can normally only ask one question. --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:00, 27 January 2013 (UTC)<br /> ::There's another (more traditional) three-guard variation where one guard always tells the truth, one guard always tells a lie and the third alternates between pure truth and pure lie (and you don't know which flip they're currently flopped upon). But you ''still'' only get to ask one question of one guard. Have fun with that one. My personal solution certainly has a degree of convolution, but I've heard other workable answers. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 02:24, 21 June 2013 (UTC)<br /> ::: I hope no-one considers this a spoiler to say but there is a trivial solution to the 3 guards problem, whether third guard is a spear handler or one that flips between truth and false hood, just try "Did you know that the pub in the village behing the freedom door is serving free beer all day, as long as their stocks last?" Then follow the guards through whichever door they use. Alternatively substitute beer for another commodity the guards may desire. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.175|141.101.98.175]] 00:59, 7 November 2016 (UTC)<br /> :::@‎175.110.37.200, you would know which one lies but you would not know which door leads out. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 23:13, 10 October 2013 (UTC)<br /> ::::Eh, well, even if you had a perfect question to ask in this case, a lot of good would that do you: it'd only reveal the truth behind the setup, that ''none'' of the doors lead out. :p -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.210|173.245.51.210]] 08:20, 8 November 2013 (UTC)<br /> :::::Well yes it says that in the title-text. But good pick-up. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 02:31, 6 February 2014 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One question, of one guard. I really like the original form of this riddle. It's a bit of a trick, though. It is crucial that the guards "know" each other's rules, but this is not even implied. And if it was stated in the question, that would probably be a good enough clue to get you to the answer. Of course, once you know the answer it seems trivial, but I wonder what percentage of people actually worked it out for themselves? Another good one is Monty Hall, even though that is pure, straightforward probability. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:11, 17 January 2014 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :With two guards, they wouldn't need to know each others role. If they know their own role - which they do - each can infer the role of the other. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.137|162.158.34.137]] 13:01, 21 April 2016 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :I think somebody needs a hug! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:11, 17 January 2014 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The whole problem with this entire riddle is that if they are both liars you are screwed! Nothing in the riddle establishes a fact that they aren't liars. Now if there was a known truth teller in the riddle that explains the nature of the guards or the narrator does it, then the above solution works. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.28<br /> <br /> As you aren't given a limit to the number of questions, you can just ask each guard if they're the stabby guard. If two say yes, the third one is the truthful guard and you can ask him which way the exit is. If two say no, the third one is the lying guard and you can ask him where the exit isn't. No tricky questions so the stabby guard shouldn't stab you.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.195|162.158.255.195]] 18:14, 14 August 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I have a solution, but you need to ask multiple questions: <br><br /> ''If the Stab Guard tells the truth:'' <br><br /> Ask each guard, firstly, "Are you the Stab Guard?" <br><br /> Truth Guard will answer "No." <br><br /> Stab Guard will answer "Yes." <br><br /> Liar Guard knows the answer is no, but, because he lies, will answer "Yes." <br><br /> The one who said no is the Truth Guard, so you can ask him which door leads to freedom. <br><br /> ''If the Stab Guard lies:'' <br><br /> Point to the guard on the left, and ask each guard, "Does that guard lie?" <br><br /> If that guard is Truth Guard, then Truth Guard will answer "No," while Stab Guard and Liar Guard answer "Yes." <br><br /> If that guard is a liar, then Truth Guard will answer "Yes," while Stab Guard and Liar Guard answer "No." <br><br /> Whichever guard gives a unique answer is Truth Guard, so you can ask him which door leads to freedom. [[User:NickOfFørvania|NickOfFørvania]] ([[User talk:NickOfFørvania|talk]]) 23:37, 3 November 2015 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :It's been solved on puzzling.stackexchange.com (given a specific definition of a tricky question): http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/43092/xkcd-inspired-logic-puzzle [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 12:14, 24 September 2016 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I remember a book where the main character kicked one guard in the face and asked if it hurt. {{unsigned ip|162.158.252.137}}<br /> <br /> There's another unspoken rule: That the lie is either a yes or a no. If you asked the liar something, he could lie and say, "I don't know," which would leave you with nothing. Also, as Stabby MacStabberson does not appear to have any restrictions on what he tells you (that is, he has the choice between truth or falsehood,) there's no sure way out even if he wasn't tasked with stabbing you.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.69|162.158.255.69]] 05:32, 30 April 2016 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Who said the Stab Guard has a true sense of complex? He could just stab you anytime. [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 00:37, 16 March 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Here's a solution, but it's quite stupid, and might not work, depending on if the guards appreciate their mothers:<br /> Just ask a random guard, point to another, and say this: "That guard told me your mom was wearing their shirt last night!"<br /> Then stand back, and let the chaos ensue.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.126|108.162.216.126]] 16:14, 25 November 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> "What would you say is the way out?" It doesn't seem tricky, but it's actually a meta-question. The guard knows what they would say is the way out. If the guard tells the truth, they would say the correct door. The guard tells the truth about telling the truth and says the correct door. If the guard lies, they know they would lie about what the correct door is. The guard lies about lying and says the correct door. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 21:19, 3 February 2020 (UTC)</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2112:_Night_Shift&diff=169699 Talk:2112: Night Shift 2019-02-15T23:10:50Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> Lot of vandals, lately... :( {{unsigned ip|162.158.75.10}}<br /> :Yeah, like you! Stop deleting my edits![[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.215|108.162.246.215]] 17:19, 15 February 2019 (UTC) <br /> ::I think you're doing it wrong. That or your IP address changed between your edits & your comment here. There are no edits from your IP address in the history for this page. If you sign your posts by finishing with "<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>" it's easier to track the changes & know for sure if someone's messing with you. <br /> ::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:33, 15 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> :::The user's IP is very similar to the one that posted "(This mode also causes your phone to broadcast EM radiation at the frequency of human thought, allowing Jewish interests control over your brain and psyche)". Statements like that should really be couched in phrasing that indicates they are contested beliefs rather than agreed-upon facts. I really feel marketing interests are of all variety of religious persuasions. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] <br /> ::::Agreed; This site is a reference document, & as such should strive to provide verifiable facts (not opinion) & to include citations when providing contested information. Also, the user seems to be accusing Jewish peoples in particular, which could easily cross the line into hate-speech. In my opinion, ''any'' business has a financial interest in deception, manipulation &\or obfuscation; I believe the most plausible conspiracy is one motivated by greed, not religious affiliation. At the very least, the claim that electronic devices contain circuits specifically designed to emit electromagnetic waves which influence our behavior, should be accompanied by citations of a peer-reviewed journal or other appropriate source. It would be pretty hard to hide such a design completely, since 1) electronic devices must register their circuit diagrams prior to approval for sale & 2) such designs would require significant numbers of people involved in order to reach full production, much less widespread production via numerous brands manufactured all over the world. Most conspiracy theories of this type fall apart under the simple challenge of "how many people would have to be keeping it a secret?" In this case, people from all variety of commercial organizations, religions, locations, & lifestyles would have to be in on it; seems unlikely in the extreme, before even getting into the technical challenges such a plan would face.[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 19:31, 15 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> :::::I think if an opinion is common, it could be relevant to mention, especially if it's something Randall may have been exposed to as the comic could be referencing it. But it shouldn't be stated as fact if it's controversial. I don't think this site usually requires peer-reviewed citations, although links that support things are always nice. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 23:10, 15 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> ::I don't see lots of vandals or many deleted edits. But if critical things happen please mention it in the [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests|Admin requests]] section at the Community portal. And please don't forget to sign your comments. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:59, 15 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> ::Please stop this chaotic discussion and do not move earlier replies like mine to the bottom! And please understand that all anonymous IP addresses just belong to a proxy, even you can appear by this IP when not signed in. Vandalism happens, look at Wikipedia, but it always turns out that it's better just to revert those edits rather than try to talk to those editors. They don't listen. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:23, 15 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This one in particular also falls apart on the “why would they do it that way?” front. If people ''did'' build mind-control circuitry into phones, why would they tie that feature to white balance? All three of the pixel colors (red, green, and blue) are still in use in both modes, just in different amounts. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.29|172.68.142.29]] 20:50, 15 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The new phrasing of altering one's neurochemistry is technically correct, as the pixels of an electronic display do project the EM radiation that is responsible for the light we see. The joke could use some context that this is technically true of displays, although many believe there are interests that wirelessly alter their thoughts, and that this view is generally heavily disregarded. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 18:42, 15 February 2019 (UTC)</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:564:_Crossbows&diff=169590 Talk:564: Crossbows 2019-02-14T16:02:44Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div>I thought they were just going to shoot the Cueball without the crossbow or they would kill the slowest guy in the lab.<br /> <br /> Is there ''any'' evidence for involvement of velicoraptors in this comic?[[User:Guru-45|Guru-45]] ([[User talk:Guru-45|talk]]) 17:24, 29 July 2013 (UTC)<br /> :I did add the incomplete tag. Physicists are unsure on gravity? I also can't see any hints for Velociraptors at the comic. The explain does need a major review. When I have enough time I will give a try.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:57, 29 July 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The "explanation" is really bad and contains many errors. The first sentence "Physicists are unsure of most of the forces that govern our everyday lives" is extremely vague; "attraction" is a certain sign of a force (i.e. the force pulls two particles together instead of pushing them apart), "gravity" is a certain type of force (like electromagnetism or the nuclear forces). The Higgs Boson is not a force, it wasn't theorized in the late 1900s, and it acts on the scale of fundamental particles which are several orders of magnitude smaller than atoms. The LHC was not set to be released, but to be activated. No serious particle physicist expected that the experiments at the LHC would have drastic ramifications. That accelerator had a malfunction shortly after its first activation had nothing to do with the Higgs Boson. etc. I Think this needs to be completely rewritten. --[[Special:Contributions/37.209.61.239|37.209.61.239]] 15:46, 19 August 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Err yes. This piece was a train wreck which I turned into a rundown shack. It needs a few more citation links (for the confirmation, and to Cueball and Randall), a few more examples of infestations, and a more fleshed out explanation of why a crossbow in particular (and if velociraptors come in). --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 21:38, 20 August 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The point of this was missed completely by this explanation. The physics Nobel price has never been avarded to more than three people and is only awarded to people alive when the price is given. As the discovery of the Higgs certainly will give a Nobel price to someone, and there are more than three people working in that particular lab on the Higgs, they prepare for some kind of battle royale until there are less than three researchers left, such that they can be awarded the price. {{unsigned ip|176.11.125.174}}<br /> <br /> I did add the incomplete tag again because a summarize of some theories doesn't help.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:14, 22 August 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think it's more likely to be option number 2, as they talk about how Cueball hasn't yet done the maths. If it was just a Nobel prize, they would've already known they were close to a breakthrough, without having to do any calc. Obviously the maths reveals the possibility of some sinister mutation as explained in point 2. Just a random opinion floating through. [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 10:31, 23 August 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> No 2 might also be a reference to the quote by an American physicist that the LHC might discover dragons (see eg<br /> http://blog.iandavis.com/2008/09/15/the-lhc-may-discover-dragons/). I still like explanation 1 best though, even dispute the math thing. Maybe it just refers to counting the lab members? [[Special:Contributions/85.164.251.29|85.164.251.29]] 17:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> I'm glad people are not complaining about the explanation anymore (I did put more effort into this baby than any page yet). I do not, however, think we can proceed any further until we get something straight from the horse's mouth, i.e. a clear indication from Randall of which way this comic was to be interpreted.<br /> <br /> Until then, this explanation has explained all it can, and I thus see it as complete. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 03:42, 24 August 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think it just might be pointing at all the inside jokes a group of people have and the nuances the newbies have to put up with in order to be "IN" the group. Might also be a precursor to {{xkcd|794}}, although seemingly unrelated. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.217|173.245.55.217]] 15:51, 10 December 2013 (UTC)BK201<br /> <br /> I vote for the results of this experiment being society changing. Or #2. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 17:16, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think the only point is that cueball doesn't understand why they have crossbows, I think the possible explanations as to why they have them don't really matter. [[user:halfhat]] 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I don't think explanation #1 is correct. In the last panel Megan says "he has until Tuesday", suggesting that he has a chance to "get it" and thus avoid "something". But just having a chance would seem to suggest that they don't plan on shooting/killing each other. Having "until Tuesday" would seem to indicate that Cueball has a chance to prepare, likely for explanation #2 - the "Half-Life" scenario. That's my 2 cents. =8o) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:14, 28 January 2014 (UTC)<br /> <br /> With the Nobel prize teams being up to three members, perhaps they're doing an intellectual survival of the fittest. If the third member of the team isn't up to speed then kill him and replace him. Poor guy... {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.75}}<br /> <br /> I think this comic is a callback to [[476: One-Sided]], since it mentions a crossbow as well. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.124|108.162.241.124]] 21:45, 28 April 2016 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This panel includes numerous clues its explanation one. Unfortunately, its all rather *logical*.. which is only thematic with other xkcd panels. There is no need to reference any other cartoon , the use of crossbows is incidental.<br /> <br /> 1. HE SAID it will be solved by tuesday. Logically this implies HE analzyed the thought processing rate of humans brains and the higgs puzzle,and determined it will be done by tuesday.<br /> 2. Since it will be done by tuesday, the people who are the only possible people to do it by tuesday will be the ones<br /> 3. Where does someone assess the speed someone thinks at ??? Only the perfect logicians puzzles.. "Three perfect logicians, who think at the same rate, are given a puzzle. They sit stumped for three seconds. Then they all deduce the solution at the same time." Ok so the solution is the one that takes three seconds for all three to not solve, and then they solve it.. (its absurd but the material the joke references doesn't itself have to be sensible, it just has to be a well known thing. )<br /> 4. ERGO He said they are perfect logicians who think at the same rate.<br /> 5. ERGO when both of the other people in the lab have crossbows, its clear that both of the other people have deduced they are the perfect logicians that HE SAID they are !<br /> 6. "Perhaps he is slow at MATHS". That is, he can solve logic at the same rate, but he is only slow at math. THis is where I get the "think at the same speed from".. he is slow at math.. he thinks at the same speed.. two sides of the same coin.. a reference to the "perfect logicians who think at the same speed". <br /> <br /> 7. Therefore they have no doubt that their solution (to being the one creditted with the observation of Higgs particle or effect.) .. the crossbow.. is a perfectly logical solution. Because HE said .<br /> <br /> The joke is that when you treat what HE SAID as the utter truth, you have to form conclusions like this... <br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.11|172.68.118.11]] 05:39, 13 November 2016 (UTC)<br /> :Add the following to the actual page... <br /> but Randy's panel was released in the week that Higgs' prediction was going to fail... <br /> <br /> If Peter Higgs can say that the aims will be met within a year, he must have done two things. 1. Analyzed the complexity, and hence the exact number of steps, of the problem to meet the aims. and 2. That the people meeting the aims will carry out those steps at some specific rate, at least... Meaning definitely never slower.<br /> <br /> <br /> Further, what does it mean for the other guy to say "Maybe he is slow with the math". Speed of thought , and the assumption that people think at the same rates, is part of the logic puzzle that starts "Three perfect logicians who think at the same rate are given a puzzle".... The two with crossbows have deduced that they are the perfect logicians who think at the same rate. Because they have accepted what Peter Higgs said about tuesday to be true, and to refer to them. Their lab is going to have detected the Higgs thingy by Tuesday.<br /> <br /> What does it mean that both of the other two lab people have crossbows ? They both think the same, they both have them at the same time... they are the perfect logicians who think at the same rate.. the mouse other text "I hate being the slowest person in the lab".. really points at the idea that these two have deduced that since they both thought of crossbows, it must be the one logical solution ... (whereas real humans deduce that murdering other top scientists just to claim the Nobel prize is completely wrong... ) Its proof that there is a problem when you raise "what Peter Higgs predicted" to be "Must be absolutely true since Peter Higgs said it"....<br /> <br /> <br /> Before the full text of this explanation was entered, there were alternatives, which may be read just in case they somehow gained similar merit. {{unsigned|Leong}}<br /> <br /> I... I undid Leong's edits. This article went from trainwreck, to run-down shack, to abandoned cottage, to a nice little bungalow, to a rather fine suburban townhouse. Then M. Leong threw a train at it. I was, suffice to say, rather shocked at how appalling the explanation was. The fact that there were major edits (totaling nearly 1,500 characters added and God knows how many actually changed) several ''years'' after the comic's release was a red flag. [[User:Papayaman1000|Papayaman1000]] ([[User talk:Papayaman1000|talk]]) 08:08, 20 November 2016 (UTC)</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2111:_Opportunity_Rover&diff=169571 2111: Opportunity Rover 2019-02-14T01:15:40Z

<p>162.158.79.47: possessive "its" has no apostrophe</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2111<br /> | date = February 13, 2019<br /> | title = Opportunity Rover<br /> | image = opportunity_rover.png<br /> | titletext = Thanks for bringing us along.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete| Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic is a paean to the {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity rover}}, and its nearly 15 year mission in which it sent back publicly available photos and research from Mars to Earth. The evening prior to this comic uploading (Feb 12, 2019), Nasa's JPL sent their [https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/opportunity-did-not-answer-nasas-final-call-and-its-now-gone-to-us/ final data request] to the rover, in hopes that it would respond. When it did not, the rover was declared to be officially lost.<br /> <br /> The comic starts with a straw-person argument, as White Hat is lamenting that "Kids these days..." look at the world through their camera phones (and thus don't experience it directly). To this Randall appears to counter that sharing and showing to others is an exciting part of the joy. The comic ends by thanking Rover (and NASA) for allowing the general public to receive the pictures and data and shows some "followers" which represents everyone on Earth listening to the words from Rover as it described (and shared) the incredible experiences it had on Mars in its 15 Earth-year lifetime. Note, perhaps the reference to "dust devil" suggests these may have been the last such descriptions as that may refer to the deadly global dust storm that likely killed the Rover and ended the mission.<br /> The title text shows gratitude for the rover, which brought everyone on Earth, including Randall along in its journey by sending images of the journey to Earth.<br /> <br /> The Opportunity rover also appeared in [[1504: Opportunity]], while its twin rover Spirit also had a dedicated comic in [[695: Spirit]]<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[White Hat is watching while two people in the background hold their phones to use their cameras.]<br /> :Some people complain that we see the world through our cameras.<br /> :White Hat: Kids these days...<br /> <br /> :[Cueball points to the left with his hand while shouting.]<br /> :But for me, the really exciting part of finding something new<br /> :Cueball: ''Wow, you gotta come see this!''<br /> :has always been showing it to others.<br /> <br /> :[A space probe is approaching a planet.]<br /> :Exploring an entire new world<br /> :would already be the adventure of a lifetime.<br /> :Imagine having the chance to share every new sight<br /> <br /> :[A queue of seven people is seen following a rover.]<br /> :with seven billion friends.<br /> :Rover: ...and here's a trench I dug with my wheel, and here's where a dust devil went ''right'' past me, and over there is the biggest cliff I've ever seen, and this is...<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br /> [[Category:Mars rovers]]<br /> [[Category:Space]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2109:_Invisible_Formatting&diff=169378 2109: Invisible Formatting 2019-02-08T17:44:26Z

<p>162.158.79.47: FIXED</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2109<br /> | date = February 8, 2019<br /> | title = Invisible Formatting<br /> | image = invisible_formatting.png<br /> | titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> A''' '''fast''' '''way''' '''to''' '''select''' '''a''' '''word''' '''in''' '''many''' '''systems''' '''is''' '''to''' '''double-click''' '''it,''' '''which''' '''also''' '''selects''' '''the''' '''following''' '''space.''' '''After''' '''applying''' '''formatting,''' '''one''' '''may''' '''select''' '''only''' '''the''' '''word''' '''to''' '''remove''' '''this''' '''formatting,''' '''by''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''with''' '''the''' '''mouse,''' '''which''' '''leaves''' '''the''' '''space''' '''formatted.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.<br /> <br /> In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.<br /> <br /> If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].<br /> <br /> Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:<br /> *Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.<br /> **By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.<br /> *Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.<br /> *A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.<br /> *If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.<br /> *Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document above some maximum file size threshold.<br /> <br /> Randall’s background in {{w|computer programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he thinks is better somehow.<br /> <br /> Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer]. In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes in place of the characters.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A text editor, with [...]. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not </span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not '''</span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is next to the "to".]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...<br /> :Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.<br /> <br /> :[The word "not" is highlighted.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not</span> '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is not bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not</span>''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is gone. There is an arrow pointing to the bolded space with a dashed box around it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Arrow: Hidden bold space<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2109:_Invisible_Formatting&diff=169377 2109: Invisible Formatting 2019-02-08T17:43:31Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */ YOU MISSED SOME MORE. DO NOT DO THIS AGAIN, 162.158.79.47</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2109<br /> | date = February 8, 2019<br /> | title = Invisible Formatting<br /> | image = invisible_formatting.png<br /> | titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> A''' '''fast''' '''way''' '''to''' '''select''' '''a''' '''word''' '''in''' '''many''' '''systems''' '''is''' '''to''' '''double-click''' '''it,''' '''which''' '''also''' '''selects''' '''the''' '''following''' '''space ''' '''After''' '''applying''' '''formatting,''' '''one''' '''may''' '''select''' '''only''' '''the''' '''word''' '''to''' '''remove''' '''this''' '''formatting,''' '''by''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''with''' '''the''' '''mouse,''' '''which''' '''leaves''' '''the''' '''space''' '''formatted.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.<br /> <br /> In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.<br /> <br /> If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].<br /> <br /> Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:<br /> *Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.<br /> **By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.<br /> *Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.<br /> *A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.<br /> *If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.<br /> *Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document above some maximum file size threshold.<br /> <br /> Randall’s background in {{w|computer programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he thinks is better somehow.<br /> <br /> Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer]. In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes in place of the characters.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A text editor, with [...]. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not </span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not '''</span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is next to the "to".]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...<br /> :Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.<br /> <br /> :[The word "not" is highlighted.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not</span> '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is not bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not</span>''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is gone. There is an arrow pointing to the bolded space with a dashed box around it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Arrow: Hidden bold space<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2109:_Invisible_Formatting&diff=169372 2109: Invisible Formatting 2019-02-08T17:39:10Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */ USED NBSP TO PREVENT LINE BREAKAGE AT CRUCIAL LOCATION IN ORDER TO AID READER UNDERSTANDING OF ARTICLE</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2109<br /> | date = February 8, 2019<br /> | title = Invisible Formatting<br /> | image = invisible_formatting.png<br /> | titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> A'''.'''fast'''.'''way'''.'''to'''.'''select'''.'''a'''.'''word'''.'''in'''.'''many'''.'''systems'''.'''is'''.'''to'''.'''double-click'''.'''it,'''.'''which'''.'''also'''.'''selects'''.'''the'''.'''following'''.'''space.'''.'''After''' '''applying''' '''formatting,''' '''one''' '''may''' '''select''' '''only''' '''the''' '''word''' '''to''' '''remove''' '''this''' '''formatting,''' '''by''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''with''' '''the''' '''mouse,''' '''which''' '''leaves''' '''the''' '''space''' '''formatted.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.<br /> <br /> In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.<br /> <br /> If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].<br /> <br /> Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:<br /> *Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.<br /> **By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.<br /> *Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.<br /> *A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.<br /> *If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.<br /> *Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document file above some maximum file size threshold.<br /> <br /> Randall’s background in {{w|computer programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he thinks is better somehow.<br /> <br /> Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer]. In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes in place of the characters.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A text editor, with [...]. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not </span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not '''</span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is next to the "to".]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...<br /> :Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.<br /> <br /> :[The word "not" is highlighted.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not</span> '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is not bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not</span>''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is gone. There is an arrow pointing to the bolded space with a dashed box around it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Arrow: Hidden bold space<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2109:_Invisible_Formatting&diff=169371 2109: Invisible Formatting 2019-02-08T17:37:32Z

<p>162.158.79.47: REMOVE DUPLICATE WORD</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2109<br /> | date = February 8, 2019<br /> | title = Invisible Formatting<br /> | image = invisible_formatting.png<br /> | titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> A'''.'''fast'''.'''way'''.'''to'''.'''select'''.'''a'''.'''word'''.'''in'''.'''many'''.'''systems'''.'''is'''.'''to'''.'''double-click'''.'''it,'''.'''which'''.'''also'''.'''selects'''.'''the'''.'''following'''.'''space.'''.'''After''' '''applying''' '''formatting,''' '''one''' '''may''' '''select''' '''only''' '''the''' '''word''' '''to''' '''remove''' '''this''' '''formatting,''' '''by''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''with''' '''the''' '''mouse,''' '''which''' '''leaves''' '''the''' '''space''' '''formatted.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.<br /> <br /> In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.<br /> <br /> If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].<br /> <br /> Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:<br /> *Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.<br /> **By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.<br /> *Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.<br /> *A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.<br /> *If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.<br /> *Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document file above some maximum file size threshold.<br /> <br /> Randall’s background in {{w|computer programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he thinks is better somehow.<br /> <br /> Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer]. In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes in place of the characters.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A text editor, with [...]. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not </span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not '''</span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is next to the "to".]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...<br /> :Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.<br /> <br /> :[The word "not" is highlighted.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not</span> '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is not bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not</span>''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is gone. There is an arrow pointing to the bolded space with a dashed box around it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Arrow: Hidden bold space<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2109:_Invisible_Formatting&diff=169369 2109: Invisible Formatting 2019-02-08T17:35:28Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */ WIKI PEDIA LINK FIX</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2109<br /> | date = February 8, 2019<br /> | title = Invisible Formatting<br /> | image = invisible_formatting.png<br /> | titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> A''' '''fast''' '''way''' '''to''' '''select''' '''a''' '''word''' '''in''' '''many''' '''systems''' '''is''' '''to''' '''double-click''' '''it,''' '''which''' '''also''' '''selects''' '''the''' '''following''' '''space.''' '''After''' '''applying''' '''formatting,''' '''one''' '''may''' '''select''' '''only''' '''the''' '''word''' '''to''' '''remove''' '''this''' '''formatting,''' '''by''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''with''' '''the''' '''mouse,''' '''which''' '''leaves''' '''the''' '''space''' '''formatted.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.<br /> <br /> In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.<br /> <br /> If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].<br /> <br /> Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:<br /> *Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.<br /> **By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.<br /> *Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.<br /> *A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.<br /> *If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.<br /> *Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document file above some file maximum file size threshold.<br /> <br /> Randall’s background in {{w|computer programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he thinks is better somehow.<br /> <br /> Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer]. In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes in place of the characters.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A text editor, with [...]. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not </span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not '''</span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is next to the "to".]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...<br /> :Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.<br /> <br /> :[The word "not" is highlighted.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not</span> '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is not bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not</span>''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is gone. There is an arrow pointing to the bolded space with a dashed box around it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Arrow: Hidden bold space<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2109:_Invisible_Formatting&diff=169368 2109: Invisible Formatting 2019-02-08T17:32:32Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */ MINOR WORDING</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2109<br /> | date = February 8, 2019<br /> | title = Invisible Formatting<br /> | image = invisible_formatting.png<br /> | titletext = To avoid errors like this, we render all text and pipe it through OCR before processing, fixing a handful of irregular bugs by burying them beneath a smooth, uniform layer of bugs.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> <br /> A''' '''fast''' '''way''' '''to''' '''select''' '''a''' '''word''' '''in''' '''many''' '''systems''' '''is''' '''to''' '''double-click''' '''it,''' '''which''' '''also''' '''selects''' '''the''' '''following''' '''space.''' '''After''' '''applying''' '''formatting,''' '''one''' '''may''' '''select''' '''only''' '''the''' '''word''' '''to''' '''remove''' '''this''' '''formatting,''' '''by''' '''clicking''' '''and''' '''dragging''' '''with''' '''the''' '''mouse,''' '''which''' '''leaves''' '''the''' '''space''' '''formatted.''' '''Since''' '''in''' '''most''' '''fonts''' '''the''' '''word''' '''space''' '''looks''' '''identical''' '''between''' '''the''' '''bold''' '''and''' '''the''' '''regular,''' '''this''' '''has''' '''no''' '''effect''' '''on''' '''how''' '''the''' '''end''' '''user''' '''will''' '''read''' '''the''' '''document,''' '''but''' '''could''' '''theoretically''' '''cause''' '''a''' '''problem''' '''on''' '''later''' '''occasions.''' '''[[Randall]]''' '''worries''' '''about''' '''this.<br /> <br /> In the pictured case, he does not appear to have selected the word by double-clicking, since the cursor is depicted past the end of the word instead of on top of it. It appears instead that he has clicked and dragged the mouse cursor to select it, a method which also makes it easy to accidentally select a trailing space. The word space is a relatively thin character, which makes it hard to avoid and to notice, and most people don’t worry about whether they selected it. Therefore, selecting a trailing space is a common behavior, regardless of the method used.<br /> <br /> If later the same word is highlighted to have the bold removed, but this time without including the space, the space would retain its bold formatting. Since it is an invisible character, there is no easy way to tell it is still bold—even if it is slightly longer in the bold font, this may be hard to notice. This is the situation the comic is highlighting—[[559: No Pun Intended|no pun intended]].<br /> <br /> Occasions where a hidden bold space may be a problem include:<br /> *Wikis. In the first paragraph of this article, every space is a hidden bold space. From the editing view, all the spaces look <code><nowiki>like''' '''this</nowiki></code>. This will annoy all future editors of this article, due to the hidden apostrophes which are formatting the spaces. They may also accidentally introduce bold words.<br /> **By default, MediaWiki attempts to prevent this by not including the trailing spaces in the bold formatting when you click the “bold” button, so someone has to manually type the formatting apostrophes to do this.<br /> *Editing that adds some text at the location of the space will make this text bold.<br /> *A situation where formatted text is not allowed, and is rejected, but the user failed to strip formatting from the spaces, and this is noticed.<br /> *If a font has the word space look different between the bold and the regular, perhaps to make it so bold words are spaced closer to each other, the spacing will look inconsistent if there is a hidden bold space.<br /> *Unnecessary extra formatting will usually unnecessarily increase file size, which may put the document file above some file maximum file size threshold.<br /> <br /> Randall’s background in {{w|programming}} could be what makes him more attentive to these types of technical problems, and therefore the reason for his worries.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Randall says that he “fixes” this by running the text through {{w|Optical character recognition|OCR}}, which turns physical copies or images into text. This would usually ruin even more formatting, and add inaccuracies to the text. This way, no one can tell which bugs were introduced by him and which ones by the OCR, which he thinks is better somehow.<br /> <br /> Popular modern word processing programs have features which may make it easier to notice improperly formatted invisible characters. In the tutorials linked here, one may learn how to view invisible characters in [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/show-or-hide-formatting-marks-c2d8a607-5646-4165-8b08-bd68f9d172a0 Microsoft Word], [https://support.apple.com/kb/PH23650?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US Pages] and [https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Nonprinting_Characters LibreOffice Writer]. In the older word processor {{w|WordPerfect}}, one could do this with the “Reveal Codes” feature, which showed you character codes in place of the characters.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A text editor, with [...]. The word "not ", including the following space, is highlighted in blue. There is a cursor below it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not </span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not '''</span>have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is next to the "to".]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would '''not '''have to mo...<br /> :Thought bubble: ...Nah, the bold is too much.<br /> <br /> :[The word "not" is highlighted.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">'''not</span> '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Select<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is on the bold option and the selected word is not bolded.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would <span style="background:#64D5FF">not</span>''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Action: Click<br /> <br /> :[The cursor is gone. There is an arrow pointing to the bolded space with a dashed box around it.]<br /> :Text: ...ere, but would not''' '''have to mo...<br /> :Arrow: Hidden bold space<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :When editing text, in the back of my mind I always worry that I'm adding invisible formatting that will somehow cause a problem in the distant future.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2107:_Launch_Risk&diff=169145 Talk:2107: Launch Risk 2019-02-06T08:01:49Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> Gave a short explanation, but I think it would be good to mention probability based logical fallacies and https://what-if.xkcd.com/55/. Don’t know how to link without it looking bad. This is my first page! [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:28, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Revised to a more extensive explanation including the fallacy that the second astronaut apparently realizes in mid-reply. [[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]])<br /> <br /> What are the odds that one or both astronauts are female? I see "he" being used to refer to the second astronaut, but we don't actually know the sex of either one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.135|162.158.74.135]] 17:56, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> : Fixed [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.95|108.162.246.95]] 18:07, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This seems wrong, at least with the lightning explanation. I believe the joke is that since he already is an astronaut, being hit by lightning doesn’t seem unlikely. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:03, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Would be nice to add something about risk perception of common vs. uncommon and dramatic vs. more mundane seeming events. e.g. in US, lifetime chance of death from flu, 1 in 63; from automobile accident 1 in 84; from lightning 1 in 79,746; from shark attack, 1 in 3,748,067 https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/odds/compare-risk/death/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.166|108.162.245.166]] 18:52, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> :I find it strange that 1 in 63 citizens die from flu, while 1 in 84 die in auto accidents. Those sound like old numbers to me. <br /> :[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:44, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The risk to be killed as an astronaut should be add somewhere (it is easy to find number of death/total number of astronaut) if someone want to make the morbid calculation. [[User:Xavier Combelle|Xavier Combelle]] ([[User talk:Xavier Combelle|talk]]) 18:55, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> From some impatient Googling and Wikipedia scanning there have been just over 360 people in space and 18 deaths (excepting training including Apollo 1). That puts the death rate at just over 3%. <br /> <br /> These were mostly Shuttle as the crews were larger. However,the title is Launch Risk, so the figure would be less than half that, but still about 1.5%. Furthermore, if you ignore the Space Planes the Launch Risk is probably very low. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:07, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ::Many of those 360 have been in space multiple times reducing the risk further. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.70|172.68.110.70]] 07:30, 6 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> We should get a better source for the lightning info: The current citation is confirmed as a biased source owned and controlled by socialist Jews.<br /> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.220|108.162.245.220]] 19:10, 4 February 2019 (UTC) <br /> :I ''would'' like to hear some statistics on lightning-related death rates, as compiled by anarchist Buddhists. <br /> :[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:44, 4 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'd say that part of the joke was the phrasing. The astronaut's friend said "You're more likely to be struck by lightning than selected as an astronaut," which isn't very reassuring; if the friend had said "You're more likely to be killed by a lightning strike than to die in spaceflight," it might have been a consolation (albeit a fallacious one).<br /> <br /> Removed the shark death rate statistic, since it was 1) not typical, 2) not comparable to the other statistics in the paragraph. The statistic given was the percent of shark attacks that are fatal. It used reporting from one beach in Brazil, noted for having particularly high death rate statistics [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_attack]. The other rates listed are lifetime chance of death from particular cause - a totally different statistic.<br /> <br /> The rocket closly resembels Soyuz. Might be this comic releted to recent Soyuz launch accident? If it is so, the one who is trolling is russian cosmonaut. And it also meeans some meta-trolling.<br /> :It could be a Soyuz, thought it looks like the conical part just below the escape tower has windows. Soyuz has just a closed fairing. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.182.58|172.68.182.58]] 11:38, 5 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> :Nah, the booster shape is completely wrong. I think it might be Gaganyaan / GSLV-III. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 08:01, 6 February 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Launch pads usually have lightning protection systems, as a lightning strike on an assembled rocket would be bad news. See https://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/38831.pdf for example</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2107:_Launch_Risk&diff=169131 2107: Launch Risk 2019-02-05T17:55:56Z

<p>162.158.79.47: revert vandalism</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2107<br /> | date = February 4, 2019<br /> | title = Launch Risk<br /> | image = launch_risk.png<br /> | titletext = Don't worry--you're less likely to die from a space launch than from a shark attack. The survival rate is pretty high for both!<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This comic deals with statistics based on a large population, such as all Americans, when the people in question are in a smaller group with vastly different statistics, such as astronauts.<br /> <br /> A capsule is about to be launched into space. On the left side, there is an announcement: "T-MINUS 20...19..." The "T" stands for the time at which the rocket is scheduled to be launched. T minus 20 indicate 20 seconds before the launch, so it's basically a countdown for 20 seconds before the rocket is launched. In the capsule, one astronaut asks another how they are feeling. The second one admits that they feel nervous. The first one offers the supposedly reassuring observation that they are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be selected as an astronaut. Such "more likely to be struck by lightning" comparisons are commonly used to illustrate that a particular risk is very remote, and thus should not be considered particularly frightening. <br /> <br /> The second one agrees with the first one for a moment, but then realizes that something is wrong with the argument. He says "Oh, that's a good-" which is likely "Oh, that's a good comforting comparison". Presumably, they realize that the likelihood of being ''selected as an astronaut'' is a moot point -- they are there because they ''already have'' been selected as an astronaut. That's why the first one's intention is more likely trolling than being really caring about the second one's nervousness. His words are only causing more confusion for the second one, that highlights the humorousness of the comic. The relevant concern is the risk level faced by an astronaut, given that they already hold that position. Unfortunately, the historical record shows that this risk is somewhat high, certainly far above the minuscule risk of being struck by lightning.<br /> <br /> The lifetime odds of being struck by lightning are approximately 1 in 14,600 (approximately 10% of those struck by lightning are killed) [https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds How Dangerous is Lightning?]. <br /> <br /> The title text refers to another common comparison, the risk of a shark attack. In addition to shark attacks being rather rare, they are also not as likely to kill the victim as is commonly assumed. Most people attacked by sharks, and most people launched into space, live through the experience. However, it remains true that both are considerably riskier than most common activities like car accident (1 in 583 deaths) or unintentional poisoning (1 in 70 deaths).<br /> ([https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-mortality-risk])<br /> Of the 557 people who who have been in Earth orbit, 18 (3%) have died in related accidents, not specifically at launch([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents], [https://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/stats.php Astronaut/Cosmonaut Statistics]). Of the 93 incidents logged for 2018 in the [http://www.sharkattackfile.net/index.htm Global Shark Attack File], 4 (4.3%) were fatal, but the statistic has been higher in the past when there has likely been less education against provoking sharks.<br /> <br /> A tall rocket, such as depicted would be more likely to be struck by lightning than nearby structures. However launch controllers monitor weather carefully to reduce the chances of attempting to launch when lightning is likely.<br /> <br /> A spacecraft launch can trigger lightning, by creating a conductive path through charge bearing clouds. Apollo 12 was struck by triggered lightning twice during launch phase. Thankfully backup systems allowed the flight to proceed. For more information, see [https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/9-12/features/F_Lightning_and_Launches_9_12.html NASA: Lightning and Launches]<br /> <br /> The perceived value of risk is a recurring topic and is also featured in [[795: Conditional Risk]] and [[1252: Increased Risk]].<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A rocket is about to launch.]<br /> :Astronaut 1: How you feeling?<br /> :Astronaut 2: Honestly, pretty nervous.<br /> :Astronaut 1: I know it seems dangerous, but just remember: you're more likely to be struck by ''lightning'' than to be selected to become an astronaut.<br /> :Astronaut 2: Oh that's a good-<br /> :Astronaut 2: ...Wait.<br /> :Countdown: T-Minus 20...19...<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> [[Category:Statistics]]<br /> [[Category:Space]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2099:_Missal_of_Silos&diff=168968 Talk:2099: Missal of Silos 2019-02-02T02:16:02Z

<p>162.158.79.47: Replaced content with "Soon the world will go boom, like this wiki."</p> <hr /> <div>Soon the world will go boom, like this wiki.</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2012:_Thorough_Analysis&diff=168967 Talk:2012: Thorough Analysis 2019-02-02T02:15:08Z

<p>162.158.79.47: Replaced content with "All of teh comments are gone forever"</p> <hr /> <div>All of teh comments are gone forever</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2012:_Thorough_Analysis&diff=168966 2012: Thorough Analysis 2019-02-02T02:14:42Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div><noinclude>:''"2012", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2012", see [[998: 2012]].''</noinclude><br /> {{comic<br /> | number = 2012<br /> | date = June 27, 2018<br /> | title = Thorough Analysis<br /> | image = thorough_analysis.png<br /> | titletext = The likely shape of the bells was determined through consultation with several bellringing experts at the Tower of London. Transcripts of those interviews are available in Appendix VII.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> 9/11 did not happen morons<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[The comic panel consists of the beginning of a research paper written in gray, with the last line being slightly cut at the bottom by the panels frame indicating that the text continues below.]<br /> :<span style="color:gray">1. Introduction</span><br /> <br /> :<span style="color:gray">The December 1811 earthquake near New Madrid, Missouri reportedly caused church bells to ring in Charleston, South Carolina.</span><br /> <br /> :<span style="color:gray">But did it?</span><br /> <br /> :<span style="color:gray">The original bell tower has been lost, but a computer model of the church building was created from archival plans and forensic masonry analysis. Genetic testing of the timber from local trees related to those used in the bell tower shows a weakness in the</span><br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :My favorite genre of scientific papers are exhaustive 100-page treatises that answer some minor question with the obsessive thoroughness of the 9/11 Commission Report.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Science]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2103:_Midcontinent_Rift_System&diff=168964 2103: Midcontinent Rift System 2019-02-02T02:13:51Z

<p>162.158.79.47: Replaced content with "This wiki sucks this comic sucks all of you suck"</p> <hr /> <div>This wiki sucks this comic sucks all of you suck</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2104:_Biff_Tannen&diff=168963 2104: Biff Tannen 2019-02-02T02:13:23Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Transcript */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2104<br /> | date = January 28, 2019<br /> | title = Biff Tannen<br /> | image = biff_tannen.png<br /> | titletext = I can't help myself; now I want to read a bunch of thinkpieces from newspapers in Biff's 1985 arguing over whether the growth of the region into a corporate dystopia was inevitable.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ehfipuhriughwgrgiorwhguia<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> hfeiohgeir<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> reguhg<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Get edited motherfuckers<br /> <br /> Ma</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2104:_Biff_Tannen&diff=168960 2104: Biff Tannen 2019-02-02T02:12:50Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2104<br /> | date = January 28, 2019<br /> | title = Biff Tannen<br /> | image = biff_tannen.png<br /> | titletext = I can't help myself; now I want to read a bunch of thinkpieces from newspapers in Biff's 1985 arguing over whether the growth of the region into a corporate dystopia was inevitable.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ehfipuhriughwgrgiorwhguia<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> hfeiohgeir<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> reguhg<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Get edited motherfuckers<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[Cueball talks while walking up behind White Hat, who is reading in an armchair.]<br /> :Cueball: You know, in the universe where Biff Tannen took Marty McFly’s sports almanac back in time, the people wouldn’t have any counterfactuals to work with. <br /> :Cueball: Their world would be ''the'' world.<br /> <br /> :[In a frame-less panel White Hat turns his head to look at Cueball as he keeps talking.]<br /> :Cueball: They would have spent decades debating which structural problems enabled the rise of BiffCo, the decline of the city, and general social decay. <br /> :Cueball: Everyone would find reasons it confirmed their pet theory.<br /> <br /> :[White Hat turns his head back to his book.]<br /> :Cueball: I'm going to write a book set in that universe. I'll call it ''Hill Valley Elegy''.<br /> :White Hat: ... I ''hate'' you.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Fiction]]<br /> [[Category:Time travel]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2105:_Modern_OSI_Model&diff=168959 2105: Modern OSI Model 2019-02-02T02:09:28Z

<p>162.158.79.47: Replaced content with "And randall is an idiot. Again. Fucking cunttitters."</p> <hr /> <div>And randall is an idiot. Again. Fucking cunttitters.</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2105:_Modern_OSI_Model&diff=168958 2105: Modern OSI Model 2019-02-02T02:08:55Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2105<br /> | date = January 30, 2019<br /> | title = Modern OSI Model<br /> | image = modern_osi_model.png<br /> | titletext = In retrospect, I shouldn't have used each layer of the OSI model as one of my horcruxes.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> Xpand!2<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :'''Modern OSI Model'''<br /> <br /> :[A light gray shape that surrounds seven stacked dark gray rectangles, all with labels.]<br /> <br /> ::Application (Facebook) [supported by the light gray shape on both sides]<br /> <br /> ::Presentation [pulling out would collapse the tower]<br /> <br /> ::Session [pulling out would collapse the tower]<br /> <br /> ::Transport [supported on both sides]<br /> <br /> ::Network [pulling out would collapse the tower]<br /> <br /> :Google & Amazon [label of the light gray shape]<br /> <br /> ::Data link [supported on both sides]<br /> <br /> ::Physical [supported on both sides]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2103:_Midcontinent_Rift_System&diff=168657 Talk:2103: Midcontinent Rift System 2019-01-28T12:59:20Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> <br /> Needs an explanation of the rift system itself. What is it? When did it form? How did conservatives feel about it at the time?<br /> (It’s definitely not a reference to Palladium Rifts, which would be a whole different thing!)<br /> [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:12, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If Black Hat runs, I vote for him. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.35|141.101.104.35]] 15:15, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Has anyone else thought of all the new beach front property that would be created? Lex Luthor would be proud. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.166|108.162.245.166]] 15:32, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> :I have always thought the US ought to have a large shallow inland sea.<br /> :[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:38, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> “''It is unclear why would anyone vote for such a thing, but people directly affected (the Midwest) are likely to vote against Black Hat.''”<br /> :In the interests of accuracy, it should be noted that 2016 showed that it being unclear why anyone would vote for a thing doesn’t stop them from doing so, eagerly. Even when they are are going to be directly affected very adversely. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.19|162.158.107.19]] 18:00, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Actually we ended up with a large shallow outlandish president instead. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.42|162.158.106.42]] 18:31, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The reason why people vote to abandon European Union in BRexit is obvious: they think that institutions of European Union would create laws, decisions etc which would hurt them even worse than BRexit. Now, you may not agree with this, but you can’t say it’s completely unfathomable. – [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:55, 25 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> There is an North American Midcontinent Rift as described at the start of the comic. See for example https://eos.org/features/new-insights-into-north-americas-midcontinent-rift or the Wikipedia page about it. Someone much more knowledgeable about geology than I am probably ought to update the explanation. [[User:D Gary Grady|D Gary Grady]] ([[User talk:D Gary Grady|talk]]) 02:39, 26 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I was thinking the giant crowbar is just an illustration trick, and it would be likely done with explosives or something. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.131|108.162.212.131]] 12:45, 26 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> :The crowbar would work, provided it was big enough and one had been able to resolve Archimedes' dilemma — Δώσε μου μια θέση να σταθώ, και θα μετακινήσω τη γη.[[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 09:10, 27 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> ::Hmm ... I guess you'd want your fulcrum and standing position to be affixed to the half of the earth that you want to stay put relative to you. You could probably find a fulcrum on the earth. You're likeliy in a space suit with a strong tether. You'd have to some how get the end of the crowbar deep inside the rock under the soil, or you'd just dig a trench. I'm suspecting it would have to be _really_ deep to actually split the continent and not just knock some huge rock chunks out like when blasting is done to reshape the landscape. You'd then have to travel far enough in outer space in order to move the rock with enough significance to produce the size of rift desired, and I don't expect things to get too much easier as the rock breaks because you are almost trying to shift entire tectonic plates. I'm thinking you'd run into major issues traveling far enough to push the crowbar, but this could be resolvable with machines. A remaining issue would be placing the crowbar deep enough to actually shift a plate. We've dug incredibly deep holes, but I'm not sure quite _that_ deep. The final issue is that a material would be needed that is strong enough to withstand the inner forces that would be required to shift an entire tectonic plate. The lever would have to be incredibly thick in order to withstand all the strain involved with the relatively-weak metals we have. At that point it would be so heavy and wide that countering its friction could be a monumental feat. I think that leverage is probably one tool for this job, but that other creative tools would need to be combined with it to actually succeed. I don't believe Archimedes! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 12:59, 28 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> As a Cascadian Separatist, I'm all for this plan. Near as I can tell, the only thing the east coast does for the west coast is spend money. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:00, 26 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Should mention that it's also known as the Keweenawan Rift, pronounced QAnon Rift.</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2102:_Internet_Archive&diff=168560 2102: Internet Archive 2019-01-25T01:56:01Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2102<br /> | date = January 23, 2019<br /> | title = Internet Archive<br /> | image = internet_archive.png<br /> | titletext = The fact that things like the npm left-pad incident are so rare is oddly reassuring.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The {{w|Internet Archive}} is a project that is invaluable for internet research. It is a public archive of information, including public domain books and music. It also runs the {{w|Wayback Machine}}, an archive of backups of web pages all over the Web at various times that can be used to see past versions of a page, even if that site has since shut down. The Internet Archive accepts submissions of any type of information, including new backups of web pages and newly-made public domain content.<br /> <br /> Ponytail and Cueball first remark upon how weird the concept of the Internet Archive is, commenting that it would seem like an implausible concept if not for the fact that it already existed.<br /> <br /> This revisits a point that Randall made in [[2085: arXiv]]: in the title text for that comic, he wrote,<br /> <br /> :''Both arXiv and archive.org are invaluable projects which, if they didn't exist, we would dismiss as obviously ridiculous and unworkable.''<br /> <br /> Our culture has an overarching theme of equating profit with success, so when efforts succeed due to inherent public benefit, this can often yield surprise.<br /> <br /> They then become more philosophical, and wonder about invaluable systems that are maintained by a just a few individuals, meaning that they could disappear if any of those people stopped doing what they were doing. They relate this to the function of the {{w|human body}}, which does contain many {{w|List of systems of the human body|systems}} whose function and inner workings are unknown to the average person.<br /> <br /> Again, as in [[2085: arXiv]], the two try not to "jinx things" by drawing attention to the improbability of this system working perfectly. In arXiv, when Megan exclaims that being able to post research papers as free PDFs on arXiv "makes no sense at all", Ponytail responds, ''"Shhh, you'll jinx it!"'' Here, Cueball tells Ponytail, "Probably best not to think about it." This is ironic as the inclusion of this information in a popular comic like XKCD is drawing attention to it.<br /> <br /> As an example of "invaluable systems maintained by just a few individuals", the title text refers to the "[https://blog.npmjs.org/post/141577284765/kik-left-pad-and-npm npm left-pad incident]", a 2016 incident where a package for the {{w|npm (software)|npm}} package manager was un-published (i.e., removed from the software library) by its author. As this particular package was used by many projects, both directly and indirectly, this caused a severe disruption in the software world. Randall is relieved that cases like this do not occur more frequently.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Ponytail and Cueball are walking to the right.]<br /> :Ponytail: The Internet Archive is so weird. If it didn't exist, it would sound totally implausible.<br /> :Cueball: ''Seriously.''<br /> <br /> :[Ponytail and Cueball continue walking to the right.]<br /> :Cueball: Do you ever worry about how reliant we are on systems that someone happens to maintain for some reason but which could disappear at any time?<br /> <br /> :[Ponytail and Cueball are seen in silhouette from a distance.]<br /> :Ponytail: Yeah - the same thing freaks me out about having a body.<br /> :Cueball: I know, right?? I don't even know what half these parts ''do''!<br /> :Ponytail: And yet if they stop, we die!<br /> :Cueball: Probably best not to think about it.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Biology]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br /> [[Category:Internet]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2097:_Thor_Tools&diff=168016 2097: Thor Tools 2019-01-11T21:21:30Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Transcript */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2097<br /> | date = January 11, 2019<br /> | title = Thor Tools<br /> | image = thor_tools.png<br /> | titletext = CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Add a list of the tools in the comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{w|Thor}} is a god of lightning and thunder in Norse mythology. His signature weapon is a magic hammer called {{w|Mjölnir}}. He's likely best known for his role in {{w|Thor (Marvel Comics)|Marvel comics and films}}, which his appearance here seems to be referencing.<br /> <br /> This comic is listing various hand tools in order of utility and viability as a weapon, besides Thor's actual, enchanted hammer. Hammers are heavy, blunt, and can do large amounts of damage to an opponent, whereas a plane is sharp, but only in one place, and will only inflict surface wounds. <br /> <br /> Some of these tools require power, which would require Thor to stay near an outlet or have a power source, such as the circular saw, or jackhammer. However, being the god of lightning may circumvent this. Thor would also need compressed air for the nail gun, only allowing Thor so many shot before reloading the air tank at an outlet.<br /> <br /> The nail gun and staple gun would also require nails or staples respectively to function as a weapon. Although Mjölnir is believed to return to Thor if thrown, it's not clear how similar system could work with nails and staples.<br /> <br /> In the title text, Munroe says the the order should be reversed. There are a few interpretations of this:<br /> * Randall proposes that Thor armed with a plane or digital calipers would be much more fearsome than with a hammer.<br /> * The "value" of the more strange-seeming items would be much higher than his tradition hammer, perhaps more gory or more humorous.<br /> * "Best" and "worst" are to be interpreted for Thor's enemies rather than Thor himself.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> [A timeline labeled "Hand tools Thor could have ended up with" with "Best" on the left and "Worst" on the right.] <br /> <br /> [Points on the line are labeled "Hammer", "Axe", "Claw hammer", "Circular saw", "Jackhammer", "Shovel", "Socket wrench", "Bolt cutters", "Hacksaw", "Nail gun", "Staple gun", "Coping saw", "Screwdriver (flat)", "Ball-peen hammer", "Screwdriver (phillips)", "Awl", "Digital Caliper", "Dremel", "Plane"]<br /> <br /> [A figure wearing a winged helmet is seen preparing to use: a Circular saw, a Socket wrench, a Nail or Staple gun, and a Dremel.]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2097:_Thor_Tools&diff=168015 Talk:2097: Thor Tools 2019-01-11T21:20:44Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> <br /> I think the comment about the axis direction is based on how you interpret the terms Best and Worst - either for Thor or those who encounter him. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:15, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> :I agree. That interpretation should be in the explanation instead of the present one.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 19:58, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Many nail-guns use cartridges filled with a combustible material (gunpowder or similar) rather than a supply of compressed air. A blank load of a .22 rimfire pistol cartridge is typical. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder-actuated_tool [[Special:Contributions/50.202.80.200|50.202.80.200]] 18:35, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Is there a possibility that the reversed axis suggests an (aero)plane as the worst weapon? Bad taste rules it out I suppose. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.179|108.162.212.179]] 18:46, 11 January 2019 (UTC) Nic<br /> <br /> I think a lightning staple/nail gun would be pretty dope...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:52, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I've been hit or otherwise injured by most of these, but I do not know of anyone who has been planed, that's how dangerous planes are, everyone knows to be careful. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:17, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> : I'm not sure if you're being humorous or if you have experience with powered board planers. Are they dangerous? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 20:37, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It's a pity he didn't add "Screwdriver (sonic)" to the chart. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:48, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> There are some nailguns that don't use compressed air tanks or combustible materials - they have air compressors in them, powered by drill batteries or wall outlets. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.120|162.158.167.120]] 20:12, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Also, unless that's an electric staple gun, the transcript should say nail gun. Look at how it's being held - as if there's a trigger, not as if there's a big handle on the back. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.120|162.158.167.120]] 20:17, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> : It looks like a staplegun to me, which is the most common of the options. I figure the lever is pressed. But that's a good point, his hand is up towards the top, not down towards the bottom for leverage. (edited from previous comment when I realized I was wrong and wanted to talk nicer) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 20:37, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Interpretations of items (feel free to change if desired): [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 20:37, 11 January 2019 (UTC)<br /> * Adversary being forced into a powered board planer, shreds of flesh spewing out the other side. "OH MY GOD DON'T PLANE ME!"<br /> * Thor throws his flying dremel towards the control board of a distant nuclear bomb on a timer, where it _CUTS THE RED WIRE THE TIMER READS 0:00_<br /> * An evil corporation is marketing a new treatment for depression. Thor marches into a demonstration being broadcast worldwide. Brandishing Mjolnir, his digital calipers, he measures the subject's left eyeball. THE TREATMENT HAS GROWN IT BY TWO THOUSANDTHS OF AN INCH.</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1939:_2016_Election_Map&diff=150725 Talk:1939: 2016 Election Map 2018-01-10T15:43:22Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> <br /> ;Why now?<br /> <br /> So why are we getting this map now instead of a year ago? Has something significant to this area just happened in the U.S.A.? (I am a Canadian so might well have missed something.)<br /> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 16:42, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'm from the midwest in the US and I'm really confused as well... I also don't find anything particularly funny or poignant in this. So yeah, color me confused in the US. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 16:52, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam<br /> <br /> : At a guess, because we're coming up on the anniversary of Trump's inauguration. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 23:26, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think the idea is that this map, while interesting as an object, still sort of fails as a map - it doesn't provide the sort of easily digestible information that a map of this variety is supposed to show. Conceptually, I don't think it's that different than #1138 (Heatmap) - the map more or less shows population density and fails to easily communicate party alignment. As to why it's showing up in the first year of 2018, my best guess is that mid-term elections are this year...? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.238|172.69.69.238]]<br /> <br /> My friend I showed the comic to thinks it could be a general political commentary on the uselessness of these kinds of maps. 1. the map is a year old: useless. 2. there are no numbers: useless. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.76|162.158.75.76]] 17:04, 8 January 2018 (UTC) Sam.<br /> <br /> I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission.html Trump just disbanded the commission on voter fraud]. I think I heard somewhere that this commission was to "prove why Trump should have won the popular vote". I think the map relates to the whole popular vote versus electoral college discussion.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 17:17, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think it might be claiming Trump only won because very many people failed to vote? Either that, or as already mentioned, it's about how useless these maps can be. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 17:20, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The point of the map is that the standard choropleth map for the 2016 election shows the vast majority of us area voting for Donald Trump. (shown on this link http://brilliantmaps.com/2016-county-election-map/) The comic is criticizing the visual accuracy of chloropleth maps in giving a strong understanding of election results (as the majority of voters voted for Hillary). ---- {{unsigned| Widea}}<br /> <br /> If this map is really so correct (as stated in the caption) then it has been a huge job to collect the data so precisely and calculate how to split voters across borders when not fitting. This says to me that this is a very big issue for Randall. Of course he has made it clear many times that he is [[1756: I'm With Her|against Trumps election]] and more or less [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|anything he does]]... I believe there is a lot to learn from this map as opposed to those he mentions in the title text --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:33, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If this map is correct, then there are 252 Trump guys on it and 263 Clinton guys on it, a difference of 11 guys. I don't know how many "other" guys are on it. Just in case someone would like to know. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.4|198.41.230.4]] 20:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One thing that the map does clearly show is that voters of Clinton were clustered in heavily urbanized regions (New England to Delmarva, Miami region, Chicago region, Houston and Austin, and coastal California in particular). Those same Clinton clusters are also home to the most third-party voters. Meanwhile, Trump voters were spread out more evenly and in isolated pockets, and there are very few third-party voters living out in the boonies.<br /> I think the takeaway is that Democratic voters are underrepresented because they are grouped so closely together, and those same populations are also prone to giving rise to anti-two-party sentiment. These two factors combined work against liberalist movements in the United States. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.225|162.158.74.225]] 20:23, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I never realized until now just how few people live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.46|108.162.241.46]] 20:25, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I also think Randal needs a lesson in rural/urban voting, as the placement of many of the red figures on this map are, well, a bit off.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 22:46, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> : Not necessarily. Each figure represents 250,000 votes, and as someone who grew up in a rural area, it takes a lot of land to get that many people. Take those two red figures in northwestern-ish Pennsylvania. Counting only people who are of voting age, assuming about 2% are ineligible to vote, with a state voter turnout of 70%, and the fact that only ~60-70% of the voters in those counties voted for Trump, it takes all '''18 counties''' in that region--every single county north of Pittsburgh and west of State College (the blue figures beside those two red ones)--to come up with about 500,000 Trump voters. That matches up exactly with the map. (The total population of those 18 counties, if you're curious, is a little under 1.5 million, with Erie being the largest at 280k and Cameron the smallest at 5k.) [[User:Eosa|Eosa]] ([[User talk:Eosa|talk]]) 17:19, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The claim about Trump being "obsessed" with how red the map appears seems to just be added to be inflammatory. As far as I know, he just gloated about the map a bit on Twitter on the days following his election. He definitely hasn't kept sharing red maps one year later like Randall, and I think we don't consider Randall obsessed. I'm removing it, and I'd rather this not be added back without a source that clearly shows such an obsession. [01000101] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.25.112|172.68.25.112]] 21:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> : I'm reinstating it. In April, Trump [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html gave reporters a printout of the counties map], saying at the time, "Here, you can take that, that's the final map of the numbers. It's pretty good, right? The red is obviously us." He later [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 framed and hung a similar map in the West Wing]. In a speech in June, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red." He has mentioned the election—which keep in mind he only won because of the Electoral College, not because of the popular vote—one out of every five days over the last year. He is clearly obsessed. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 22:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> :: I toned down the language a bit, to hopefully address concerns about the potentially controversial use of the word 'obsessed'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 08:59, 10 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I count 31 "Green" folks, in addition to whoever counted the red and blues. That means our total is 546 little stick figures. I'm not sure why he picked that number, but it could be the correct number of folks to stick one on the small states of Alaska, Hawiaii, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. He also took the unusual step of counting VOTES instead of population. It'd be fun to have a version with non-voters on it. <br /> <br /> I think Randall has always been a map enthusiast. I read this as an alternative map. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.28|108.162.237.28]] 21:54, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ;136,669,237 votes in 2016<br /> To all the guys who are counting the Cueballs in the map: 546 Cueballs multiplied by 250,000 is 136,500,000 votes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 8 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> My count agrees. Red = 252, Blue = 263, Green = 31 [[User:Ansarya|Ansarya]] ([[User talk:Ansarya|talk]]) 00:48, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The title text is probably referring to this map on wikipedia:[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartlinearlarge.png] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.106|108.162.249.106]] 06:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> "the small impact of the low-population states" Shouldn't it be "high impact"? The vote of a person living in a low-density state has a higher weight than the vote of a person living in a high-density state. <br /> Right? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:21, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> : Actually, Randall's map doesn't show much of anything as regards the relative influence of the states, because it only shows popular votes, and not Electoral College votes, which give proportionately higher representation to the lower population states. So I'd say that sentence should just be removed, or at least completely rewritten to state this as a deficiency of Randall's map (though criticising it for not showing something that it doesn't purport to show in the first place would be a bit unfair).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 09:20, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The table looks weird on a mobile device. The first number column has a way bigger font than the other two. Can be reproduced on a PC by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I (in Chrome), selecting "Nexus 5X" (or similar) at the top and reloading.<br /> <br /> --- Assuming the text above is correct, the count is as follows:<br /> <br /> <source><br /> $ for color in red blue green; do ( cat text | pcregrep -o1 "(\d*) $color" | awk -v c=$color '{s+=$1} END {print c, s}') ; done<br /> red 252<br /> blue 264<br /> green 30<br /> </source>[[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 12:38, 9 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think that this comic might have something to do with [[1902: State Borders]]. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 10:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ; rounding error<br /> Randall's political leanings are obvious, but are we to believe that he picked a ceiling rounding just to get one extra blue guy? One figure is not be noticeable on such a large map. Its an effect of about 0.0018%. Its more likely an artifact of trying to distribute figures across states or an honest mistake. I think that paragraph should be reworked.<br /> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.40|108.162.237.40]] 15:25, 10 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> :I reworded it to state what the exact figure would be and included a note that he rounded both figures up, which I think is interesting trivia in both cases. I don't think anything should be mentioned about a potential bias, for the reasons you state. No one would notice that it's (arguably) off by one unless they obsessively checked every little thing about the map. Randall's choice to round up or down doesn't affect the overall accuracy of the map or whatever point he's trying to convey. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.70|172.69.69.70]] 15:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)<br /> ::I added a possible unbiased reason for the use of ceiling rounding (avoiding the inclusion of partial Cueballs.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] 15:43, 10 January 2018 (UTC)</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1939:_2016_Election_Map&diff=150723 1939: 2016 Election Map 2018-01-10T15:39:46Z

<p>162.158.79.47: Added possible objective reason for using ceiling rounding.</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1939<br /> | date = January 8, 2018<br /> | title = 2016 Election Map<br /> | image = 2016_election_map.png<br /> | titletext = I like the idea of cartograms (distorted population maps), but I feel like in practice they often end up being the worst of both worlds—not great for showing geography OR counting people. And on top of that, they have all the problems of a chloro... chorophl... chloropet... map with areas colored in.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> *A [https://xkcd.com/1939/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|The way the map was made, as explained in gray text is not yet discussed. Title text: Problem with the pronunciation of the word not mentioned as well as the other type of maps, cartograms (distorted population maps), has not been mentioned either. Also the ref to these type of maps and the pronunciation problem should be below the main explanation of the map, as that is what is the typical way of the explanation of the title text. Also this map is explicitly not either of those two types of map as they are no good for what they try to show, which is the entire point of the comic! Wikilinks could be added to the data on the counting table.}}<br /> <br /> A {{w|choropleth map}}, referenced in the title text, is a map that uses shading or colors to show information about a geographic area, such as a 'normal' election map that shows districts/states colored to the party that won them.<br /> <br /> The United States elects its president not directly by popular vote but by an Electoral College composed of a number of electors, partially proportional to population, from each state. Presently, a "winner-take-all" system is used in most states: the winner of the popular vote in each state receives all of the electoral votes for that state. Though, strictly speaking, the electors are not required to cast their ballots according to this system, many states impose penalties on them if they don't. Technically, the popular vote in each state is to elect a slate of electors who in turn elect the President.<br /> <br /> The news media commonly use maps to represent the progress or results of the election. Because of this winner-take-all system, states won by the Democratic candidate are typically portrayed in one color (blue is currently in wide use), and states won by the Republican candidate in another (currently red). In recent years, this distinction has gone far beyond electoral maps, and states are often referred to as "blue" or "red" by their political leaning in many contexts.<br /> <br /> A choropleth map has many shortcomings. For example, many large Western states have small populations and thus don't make much difference to the electoral vote count, but look like a broad swath of red or blue on the map. The map overall can have the appearance of being very red or very blue, suggesting to the eye an overwhelming victory, when in fact the election can be extremely close. Donald Trump has [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html repeatedly] [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 emphasised] how red the map appears, especially when broken down by county, even though he actually lost the popular vote. In a speech on June 21, 2017, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red."<br /> <br /> In this cartoon, [[Randall]] seems to be pointing out the shortcomings of the choropleth map (or perhaps this overall red-state/blue-state mentality). His map shows more clearly the small impact of the low-population states, as well as how combination of the winner-take-all system with the typical election maps fails to show the sometimes large number of opposition votes in a given state. This map also combines all third-party or independent candidate into one type of marker (green), making it clear that a substantial number of votes went to these candidates.<br /> <br /> A similar map was actually used during the 2016 election [https://ig.ft.com/us-elections/results by the Financial Times] ([https://www.ft.com/content/3685bf9e-a4cc-11e6-8b69-02899e8bd9d1 discussed here]). It made similar use of colorless states for geographic information and color in proportion to population for electoral information. However, the FT map is based on the electoral college, not the popular vote. It in turn is similar to a 2013 map used [https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/interactive/2013/sep/06/australian-election-results-map by The Guardian] for the 2013 Australian election ([https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/sep/06/better-election-results-map discussed here]). Other compromise maps of geographic and electoral information exist, such as maps of geographically accurate but re-scaled states: a 2016 election example [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElectorScaledUS2016.svg is here], indirectly inspired by [https://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9178979/united-states-population a similar vox.com map].<br /> <br /> Shortly after the election Randall made [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several comics]] that could indicate his emotions regarding the result, but references to the election have become fewer and farther apart.<br /> <br /> With a stick figure representing 250,000 votes, Trump would have exactly 251.918544 stick figures and Clinton would have exactly 263.37844 stick figures according to the [https://splinternews.com/here-is-the-final-popular-vote-count-of-the-2016-electi-1793864349 final results]. The map shows 252 Trump stick figures and 264 Clinton stick figures, meaning Randall used ceiling rounding instead of conventional rounding. This is possibly to avoid including partial Cueballs in the map.<br /> <br /> ===Table===<br /> {| class = "wikitable sortable"<br /> !State<br /> !Red<br /> !Blue<br /> !Green<br /> !Total<br /> |-<br /> | Alabama || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Alaska || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Arizona || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10<br /> |-<br /> | Arkansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | California || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 35 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 58<br /> |-<br /> | Colorado || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10<br /> |-<br /> | Connecticut || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Delaware || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4<br /> |-<br /> | Florida || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 38<br /> |-<br /> | Georgia || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16<br /> |-<br /> | Hawaii || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Idaho || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | Illinois || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 13 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 23<br /> |-<br /> | Indiana || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11<br /> |-<br /> | Iowa || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Kansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Kentucky || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Louisiana || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Maine || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | Maryland || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Massachusetts || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12<br /> |-<br /> | Michigan || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 18<br /> |-<br /> | Minnesota || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12<br /> |-<br /> | Mississippi || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Missouri || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11<br /> |-<br /> | Montana || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2<br /> |-<br /> | Nebraska || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | Nevada || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4<br /> |-<br /> | New Hampshire || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2<br /> |-<br /> | New Jersey || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16<br /> |-<br /> | New Mexico || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | New York || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 20 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 34<br /> |-<br /> | North Carolina || align="right"| 10 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 20<br /> |-<br /> | North Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Ohio || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 21<br /> |-<br /> | Oklahoma || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 6<br /> |-<br /> | Oregon || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Pennsylvania || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 24<br /> |-<br /> | Rhode Island || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | South Carolina || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | South Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Tennessee || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11<br /> |-<br /> | Texas || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 16 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 37<br /> |-<br /> | Utah || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 4<br /> |-<br /> | Vermont || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Virginia || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16<br /> |-<br /> | Washington || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 14<br /> |-<br /> | Washington DC || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | West Virginia || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Wisconsin || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12<br /> |-<br /> | Wyoming || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-class="sortbottom"<br /> ! Total || align="right"| 252 || align="right"| 264 || align="right"| 30 || align="right"| 546<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Could benefit from reformatting, feel free to remove though if it's finished.}}<br /> :[A map of the United States, with Hawaii and Alaska offset, is shown. Across the states red, blue and green Cueball like stick figure are scattered about, much more on each coast, and very few in the central parts, especially in the mid west. There are about the same amount of red and blue stick figures. There are not many green, but they are represented almost in any state with more than 10 stick figures. Above the map there is a large bold title. Below that there is a legend description explaining the red, blue and green Cueball stick figure with labels of who they represents next to them. Below this, in light gray text, are two lines of explanation of how the map was created:]<br /> :<big>'''2016 Election Map'''</big><br /> :Each figure represents 250,000 votes<br /> :[Red stick figure:] Trump<br /> :[Blue stick figure:] Clinton<br /> :[Green stick figure:] Other<br /> :<span style="color:gray">Votes are distributed by states as accurately as possible while keeping national totals correct.</span><br /> :<span style="color:gray">Location within each state is approximate.</span><br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]<br /> [[Category:Large drawings]]<br /> [[Category:Maps]]<br /> [[Category:Politics]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1939:_2016_Election_Map&diff=150721 1939: 2016 Election Map 2018-01-10T15:31:39Z

<p>162.158.79.47: Commented out line about potential bias as the line itself might be biased. Didn't fully remove in case people disagree.</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1939<br /> | date = January 8, 2018<br /> | title = 2016 Election Map<br /> | image = 2016_election_map.png<br /> | titletext = I like the idea of cartograms (distorted population maps), but I feel like in practice they often end up being the worst of both worlds—not great for showing geography OR counting people. And on top of that, they have all the problems of a chloro... chorophl... chloropet... map with areas colored in.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> *A [https://xkcd.com/1939/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|The way the map was made, as explained in gray text is not yet discussed. Title text: Problem with the pronunciation of the word not mentioned as well as the other type of maps, cartograms (distorted population maps), has not been mentioned either. Also the ref to these type of maps and the pronunciation problem should be below the main explanation of the map, as that is what is the typical way of the explanation of the title text. Also this map is explicitly not either of those two types of map as they are no good for what they try to show, which is the entire point of the comic! Wikilinks could be added to the data on the counting table.}}<br /> <br /> A {{w|choropleth map}}, referenced in the title text, is a map that uses shading or colors to show information about a geographic area, such as a 'normal' election map that shows districts/states colored to the party that won them.<br /> <br /> The United States elects its president not directly by popular vote but by an Electoral College composed of a number of electors, partially proportional to population, from each state. Presently, a "winner-take-all" system is used in most states: the winner of the popular vote in each state receives all of the electoral votes for that state. Though, strictly speaking, the electors are not required to cast their ballots according to this system, many states impose penalties on them if they don't. Technically, the popular vote in each state is to elect a slate of electors who in turn elect the President.<br /> <br /> The news media commonly use maps to represent the progress or results of the election. Because of this winner-take-all system, states won by the Democratic candidate are typically portrayed in one color (blue is currently in wide use), and states won by the Republican candidate in another (currently red). In recent years, this distinction has gone far beyond electoral maps, and states are often referred to as "blue" or "red" by their political leaning in many contexts.<br /> <br /> A choropleth map has many shortcomings. For example, many large Western states have small populations and thus don't make much difference to the electoral vote count, but look like a broad swath of red or blue on the map. The map overall can have the appearance of being very red or very blue, suggesting to the eye an overwhelming victory, when in fact the election can be extremely close. Donald Trump has [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/heres-the-electoral-map-president-trump-gave-reporters.html repeatedly] [https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/862669407868391424/photo/1 emphasised] how red the map appears, especially when broken down by county, even though he actually lost the popular vote. In a speech on June 21, 2017, he said, "And those maps, those electoral maps, they were all red. Beautiful red."<br /> <br /> In this cartoon, [[Randall]] seems to be pointing out the shortcomings of the choropleth map (or perhaps this overall red-state/blue-state mentality). His map shows more clearly the small impact of the low-population states, as well as how combination of the winner-take-all system with the typical election maps fails to show the sometimes large number of opposition votes in a given state. This map also combines all third-party or independent candidate into one type of marker (green), making it clear that a substantial number of votes went to these candidates.<br /> <br /> A similar map was actually used during the 2016 election [https://ig.ft.com/us-elections/results by the Financial Times] ([https://www.ft.com/content/3685bf9e-a4cc-11e6-8b69-02899e8bd9d1 discussed here]). It made similar use of colorless states for geographic information and color in proportion to population for electoral information. However, the FT map is based on the electoral college, not the popular vote. It in turn is similar to a 2013 map used [https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/interactive/2013/sep/06/australian-election-results-map by The Guardian] for the 2013 Australian election ([https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/sep/06/better-election-results-map discussed here]). Other compromise maps of geographic and electoral information exist, such as maps of geographically accurate but re-scaled states: a 2016 election example [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElectorScaledUS2016.svg is here], indirectly inspired by [https://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9178979/united-states-population a similar vox.com map].<br /> <br /> Shortly after the election Randall made [[1756:_I'm_With_Her#Sad_comics|several comics]] that could indicate his emotions regarding the result, but references to the election have become fewer and farther apart. <br /> <br /> ===Table===<br /> {| class = "wikitable sortable"<br /> !State<br /> !Red<br /> !Blue<br /> !Green<br /> !Total<br /> |-<br /> | Alabama || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Alaska || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Arizona || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10<br /> |-<br /> | Arkansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | California || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 35 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 58<br /> |-<br /> | Colorado || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 10<br /> |-<br /> | Connecticut || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Delaware || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4<br /> |-<br /> | Florida || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 18 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 38<br /> |-<br /> | Georgia || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16<br /> |-<br /> | Hawaii || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Idaho || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | Illinois || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 13 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 23<br /> |-<br /> | Indiana || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11<br /> |-<br /> | Iowa || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Kansas || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Kentucky || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Louisiana || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Maine || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | Maryland || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Massachusetts || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12<br /> |-<br /> | Michigan || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 18<br /> |-<br /> | Minnesota || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12<br /> |-<br /> | Mississippi || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Missouri || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11<br /> |-<br /> | Montana || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2<br /> |-<br /> | Nebraska || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | Nevada || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 4<br /> |-<br /> | New Hampshire || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 2<br /> |-<br /> | New Jersey || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16<br /> |-<br /> | New Mexico || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | New York || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 20 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 34<br /> |-<br /> | North Carolina || align="right"| 10 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 20<br /> |-<br /> | North Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Ohio || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 9 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 21<br /> |-<br /> | Oklahoma || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 6<br /> |-<br /> | Oregon || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | Pennsylvania || align="right"| 12 || align="right"| 11 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 24<br /> |-<br /> | Rhode Island || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| || align="right"| 3<br /> |-<br /> | South Carolina || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 3 || align="right"| || align="right"| 8<br /> |-<br /> | South Dakota || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Tennessee || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 11<br /> |-<br /> | Texas || align="right"| 19 || align="right"| 16 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 37<br /> |-<br /> | Utah || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 4<br /> |-<br /> | Vermont || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | Virginia || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 8 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 16<br /> |-<br /> | Washington || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 7 || align="right"| 2 || align="right"| 14<br /> |-<br /> | Washington DC || align="right"| || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-<br /> | West Virginia || align="right"| 4 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| 5<br /> |-<br /> | Wisconsin || align="right"| 6 || align="right"| 5 || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| 12<br /> |-<br /> | Wyoming || align="right"| 1 || align="right"| || align="right"| || align="right"| 1<br /> |-class="sortbottom"<br /> ! Total || align="right"| 252 || align="right"| 264 || align="right"| 30 || align="right"| 546<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Could benefit from reformatting, feel free to remove though if it's finished.}}<br /> :[A map of the United States, with Hawaii and Alaska offset, is shown. Across the states red, blue and green Cueball like stick figure are scattered about, much more on each coast, and very few in the central parts, especially in the mid west. There are about the same amount of red and blue stick figures. There are not many green, but they are represented almost in any state with more than 10 stick figures. Above the map there is a large bold title. Below that there is a legend description explaining the red, blue and green Cueball stick figure with labels of who they represents next to them. Below this, in light gray text, are two lines of explanation of how the map was created:]<br /> :<big>'''2016 Election Map'''</big><br /> :Each figure represents 250,000 votes<br /> :[Red stick figure:] Trump<br /> :[Blue stick figure:] Clinton<br /> :[Green stick figure:] Other<br /> :<span style="color:gray">Votes are distributed by states as accurately as possible while keeping national totals correct.</span><br /> :<span style="color:gray">Location within each state is approximate.</span><br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]<br /> [[Category:Large drawings]]<br /> [[Category:Maps]]<br /> [[Category:Politics]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1843:_Opening_Crawl&diff=140529 Talk:1843: Opening Crawl 2017-05-30T16:51:48Z

<p>162.158.79.47: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> <br /> Rogue One has no opening crawl. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.22|141.101.98.22]] 20:30, 29 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> :It is also a Star Wars story, i.e. not a part of the trilogy of trilogies... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:41, 29 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I suspect I'm not only one who would prefer reading Heir to the Empire to watching The Force Awakens. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:52, 29 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If I recall correctly, Splinter of the Mind's Eye also contains the first EU inconsistency, with it and a comic from that same year disagreeing about whether Luke can swim. Cool to see that referenced here. -- [[User:Tempystral|Tempystral]] ([[User talk:Tempystral|talk]]) 04:43, 30 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> :Luke can only swim in tepid water. Hence the term, ''lukewarm''. <sub>--[[User:Nialpxe|<span style="color: #000; text-decoration: none;">Nialpxe</span>]], 2017. [[User_talk:Nialpxe|<span style="color: #000; text-decoration: none;">(Arguments welcome)</span>]]</sub><br /> ::Bada-bum, tss [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:07, 30 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I think with this one, people would notice straight away. An opening crawl that starts off with something about the universe, or the political situation, would work. But I think from that quote, the ''first line'' describes direct action, so the audience would be thinking something's wrong before they get into reading it. Need one that starts with setting the scene. Also, you'd need a huge amount of space if you want to film more than a couple of pages. - [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.109|162.158.154.109]] 10:04, 30 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> :I honestly wouldn't notice. Reading the first part of 'Thrawn Trilogy' (book whose text is shown here) I reckon I would think it's a new, artistic, 'spin' on the traditional summary. I would proceed to get lost in the storyline until one woke person starts yelling 'It isn't real! They're just showing us the text from a book!'. The incident will be filmed by multiple people and get 100,000 upvotes on reddit. [[User:Themanhimself11|Themanhimself11]] ([[User talk:Themanhimself11|talk]]) 11:56, 30 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :They might be able to get away with the first line, although there would be some unrest. The moment the first quote shows up, though, is when most of the audience would be clued in. Of course, I wouldn't mind sitting down reading parts of a Star Wars book to a John Williams score. [[User:OldCorps|OldCorps]] ([[User talk:OldCorps|talk]]) 11:29, 30 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I must say, I really like the TvTropes warning. Very useful. [[User:HisHighestMinion|HisHighestMinion]] ([[User talk:HisHighestMinion|talk]]) 10:30, 30 May 2017 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I doubt that the joke actually has anything to do with the old rumors about the Thrawn Trilogy being a source for VII-IX, the Thrawn Trilogy was more likely chosen both for it's longstanding popularity and it's stylistic similarities to the actual crawl texts. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]] <br /> <br /> The joke regarding Splinter in the Mind's Eye probably has less to do with differences in style and more to do with stuff like the Luke/Leia romance subplot in Splinter (obviously written before George Lucas decided to make them twins separated at birth) and similar inconsistencies which would confuse the daylights out of a modern fan.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.47|162.158.79.47]]</div>

162.158.79.47 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1825:_7_Eleven&diff=138845 1825: 7 Eleven 2017-04-17T14:40:44Z

<p>162.158.79.47: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 1825<br /> | date = April 17, 2017<br /> | title = 7 Eleven<br /> | image = 7_eleven.png<br /> | titletext = Really, the only honest 24-hour stores are the ones in places like Arizona and Hawaii, and many of them are still wrong in certain years.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Basic Explanation. Needs more. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> Many stores advertise being open 24/7, which means that they're open all day, every day. The joke here is that a Mars day is 24 hours and 37 minutes, which leads to the 7-11 being closed for 37 minutes each day.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to places in the United States that do not observe daylight savings time, Arizona and Hawaii, suggesting that stores in other places are not truly 24 hours a day year-round. Each year, there is a day those stores are only open 23 hours, and a day where they are open 25 hours.<br /> <br /> The title text points out that even these more accurate locations are not open exactly 24 hours on certain years, most likely referring to years that contain a [[wikipedia:leap second|leap second]].<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> A spaceman goes to 7/11.<br /> He is on mars.<br /> He tries the door handle but to no avail.<br /> He feels infuriated.<br /> He feels cheated.<br /> He tries the handle again.<br /> A bead of sweat beats his brow.<br /> He realizes the true face of horror.<br /> He needs to go to the bathroom.<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

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