explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2386: Ten Years

2020-11-17T10:30:59Z

162.158.89.223: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2386
| date = November 16, 2020
| title = Ten Years
| image = ten_years.png
| titletext = The ten-year cancerversary is traditionally the Cursed Artifact Granting Immortality anniversary.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CURSED ARTIFACT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]]'s then-fiancée, now wife, was diagnosed with cancer in late 2010, a matter he has discussed in the comic [[:Category:Cancer|multiple times before]]. It has been 10 years since her diagnosis and treatments.

This comic is a continuation of [[1141: Two Years]] and [[1928: Seven Years]], which are shown as the first 16 panels, slightly grayed out.

The first of the new panels shows Randall and his wife at a "Rabbit Rescue", interacting with buns ([[:Category:Buns|a recurring theme]] of xkcd). The purpose of such events is to get rescued (often surrendered or seized) rabbits or other animals used to interacting with each other and with unfamiliar humans under controlled circumstances, to help them be more suitable as pets and hopefully entice visitors to adopt them. Randall facetiously asks his wife if she thinks the rabbits have socialized enough, even though he and his wife are there for the sake of their own enjoyment (and she indicates that she would like to spend more time patting a bun on its head).
In the next panel, Cueball is pushing Megan in a handcart, which is presumably stolen. (As evidenced by the off panel person asking if anybody has seen the handcart.)
The third new panel shows Cueball and Megan exploring a mountain, they appear to have found something interesting, due to Megan pointing her finger towards something off panel.
The fourth panel shows Cueball and Megan siting on the edge of a pier, looking at the night sky. This is a typical romantic nighttime activity.
The fifth new panel shows Cueball and Megan sitting on a hill. They converse about how they did not believe that Megan would make in 10 years, which according to [[881: Probability]] wasn't unlikely but couldn't either be taken for granted (77% probability).

=== Trivia ===

Cursed artifacts which cannot die were recently mentioned in [[2332: Cursed Chair]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
'''From [[1141: Two Years]]'''
:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit on a bed, Randall's fiancée is talking on the phone. The person she is talking to, a doctor holding a clipboard, is shown inset.]
:Randall's fiancée: Oh god.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit together while Randall's fiancée, now bald, is receiving chemotherapy. They are both on their laptops.]
:IV pump: ... Beeep ... Beeep ... Beeep ...

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (who is wearing a knit cap) are paddling a kayak against a scenic mountain backdrop.]

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée sit at a table, staring at a cell phone. There is a clock on the wall. Her head is stubbly.]
:Randall's fiancée: How long can it take to read a scan!?

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are back at the hospital again, Randall's fiancée receiving chemo. They are playing Scrabble.]
:Randall: "Zarg" isn't a word.
:Randall's fiancée: But ''caaaancer.''
:Randall: ...Ok, fine.

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée (wearing a knit cap) are listening to a Cueball-like friend. A large thought bubble is above their heads and it obscures the friends talk. The text below, split in three is the only part there can be no doubt about:]
:Friend: So next year you should come visit us up in the mounta
::a
::and
:Randall and Randall's fiancée (thinking): '''"Next year"'''

:[Randall and Randall's fiancée are getting married, with a heart above their heads. Randall's wife's hair is growing back.]

:[Randall and Randall's wife (wearing a knit cap) stand on a beach, watching a whale jump out of water.]
:''Fwoosh''

'''New to [[1928: Seven Years]]'''

:[Randall and Randall's wife (with her hair noticably longer) are walking through a forest.]

:[Randall's wife is sitting down, not in the forest anymore.]
:Randall's wife: My toe hurts and I found a report of a case in which toe pain was an early sign of cancer spreading.
:Randall: Wait—didn’t you stub your toe yesterday?
:Randall's wife: Yes, but what if this is unrelated?

:[Randall and his wife are going spelunking. The guide is gesturing deeper into the cave while Randall and his wife are climbing down.]

:[Randall's wife stands on a rock above an alligator in a swamp, photographing the alligator. Randall is on a balcony behind safety railings.]
:Randall: When they estimated your survival odds, I think they made some optimistic assumptions about your hobbies.

:[Randall's wife sits on an examination bed, listening to a doctor holding a clipboard.]
:Doctor: This is probably nothing.
:Doctor: But given your history, we should do a full scan.
:Doctor: We'll call with the results in a few days. Try not to worry about it until then!

:[Randall and his wife stand above a deep pond full of fish and other objects. Randall's wife is piloting a wired underwater camera with lights.]

:[Randall and his wife are standing next to each other. Randall's wife has shoulder-length hair covering most of her face.]
:Randall's wife: Hard to believe—six years ago, I was bald. But today, after a long struggle, I finally look like the little girl from ''The Ring''.
:Randall: That's, uhh... good?
:Randall's wife: ''Hissssss''

:[A line of six people, including Randall and his wife, stand and watch the solar eclipse.]

'''New to Ten Years''':
:[Randall and his wife are sitting in a room with five bunnies sitting around and on them. The Poster on the wall reads: Rabbit rescue.]
:Randall: Do you think they're socialized enough?
:Randall's wife: This one might need some more head pats.

:[Randall pushes his wife on a hand cart.]
:Someone off-panel: Has anyone seen the hand cart?
:Randall's wife: Wheee!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Buns]]

2159: Comments

2019-06-06T02:17:45Z

162.158.89.223: /* Explanation: Mary. */

{{comic
| number = 2159
| date = June 5, 2019
| title = Comments
| image = comments.png
| titletext = NPR encourages you to add comments to their stories using the page inspector in your browser's developer tools. Note: Your comments are visible only to you, and will be lost when you refresh the page.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a AN OUTRAGED INTERNET USER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic represents a news article that shows how easy it is to dominate the comment section of an article by creating shill comments to support any desired narrative of the community's opinion. The joke here is that this is precisely what has occurred for this article. The top five comments are assorted ways of affirming the article's text. However, the final commenter seems freaked out that a comment she wrote was in an article. It's possible that she is just an innocent victim of this who's legitimately scared, but it could also be that she is a shill for the opposite side that wasn't fast enough to post.

The link in one of the comments is to [[1019: First Post]], which also refers to manipulating comments to change public opinion of a topic.

The last of the comments may be from the user "Mary" who in the NPR article was explicitely cited to have said that the comments have been to violent. But it is unclear how this is possible given that this article claims to have been published after the comments having been turned off.

The title text refers to the ability to change webpages using in-browser tools, like "Inspect Element," to change the HTML of a page, and thus the contents of it. However, because all of the changes to the HTML are temporary and only on the machine they were made on, anyone else loading the page will not see them, and refreshing the page causes the changes to be replaced with the real content. This would mean that no other users would be able to see the comments, and news sources could not use them to influence public opinion.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Single panel comic depicting a screenshot of an Internet article, showing the article title, lines of wavy characters representing the article text, and several comments from readers of the article with their profile pictures.]

:Backlash: Internet users are ''outraged'' over news stories using a handful of random comments to support arbitrary narratives!

:[Close-up of Megan:]
::I can't believe how easy it is to create an impression of peer consensus.

:[Close-up of Hairy:]
::This dynamic is so easily manipulated and it freaks me out. xkcd.com/1019

:[Full picture of Hairbun:]
::Everytime I share something and a friend responds "Haha, did you see the top comments..." it just reminds me how influential these things are in shaping the impressions of even relatively internet-savvy readers.

:[Close-up of Cueball on a black background:]
::NPR got rid of comments in 2016 when they realized they all came from a handful of visitors posting hundreds of times a month.

:[Full picture of two guys, Cueball and Hairy:]
::Eventually social norms will adapt to this stuff, but it needs to hurry up.

:[Close-up of Ponytail:]
::I have nine followers and created my account last month; how am I being quoted in this news article??

==Trivia==
One of the comments to the article references an earlier xkcd comic [[1019:_First_Post|1019: First Post]], which compares the cost of buying election ads on news sites versus paying college student to wait for news articles and submit the first comments to every news article.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2122: Size Venn Diagram

2019-03-13T11:44:27Z

162.158.89.223:

The word league is in a diamond-shaped region, which probably connotes to the baseball diamond.

I think Randall kind of missed an opportunity with the title text: he should have used the new terms as a way to fill the blank areas in the diagram, for instance 'Great Emerald' for the currently empty set Great+Small+Little+Large.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.221|141.101.99.221]] 14:31, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:No, I think the diagram itself is meant to be completely correct. But I didn't check all 100+ combinations. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 14:57, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
::Yes, I believe the diagram is correct now, but as per the title text Randall will start using new combinations of terms, probably to get their usage mainstream and move the location of the words in the diagram. I'm saying he should have created terms that would fill some blank areas. For instance, his Large Dipper would make Dipper appear in the Big+Little+Large area where we already have League.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.95|141.101.99.95]] 15:16, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:::I understood what you said (the first time around) and agree. Randall's title text is to acknowledge or engage the patterns he's discovered in the comic (as usual), and he could do that more thoroughly by making up words that would make the chart more balanced. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.100|162.158.78.100]] 16:27, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:He could also have placed “man” between “little” and “big” just to reference the movie ☺

Any such diagram will inevitably have small lacunae. But "Friendly Giant" is a particularly large one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.172|162.158.63.172]] 15:21, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Endian? Scott? Tits?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.112|108.162.219.112]] 15:23, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:Yeah, what about Little Endian? It's missing! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.156|172.68.143.156]] 19:28, 11 March 2019 (UT

Besides the transcript of what's in each category, what about a table to explain ''why'' the items categorized as they are, like:
{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Big
!Great
!Large
!Little
!Small
|-
|Island
|Hawaii
|Cork Harbor, Ireland
|Antilles
|movie
|novel, movie
|-
|Pox
|n/a
|syphilis
|n/a
|n/a
|disease
|-
|White
|BC ski resort
|shark
|pig
|n/a
|butterfly
|}
{Unsigned|172.69.62.160}
:Yeah, it seems reasonable, I like it. Add it [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 15:57, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
::Second but leave the unused cells blank dont put N/A in the cell. [[User:M|M]] ([[User talk:M|talk]]) 16:15, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

I don't know why, but the shape of this diagram feels really satisfying to me. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 16:29, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:For me it’s just hard to look at. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:41, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:Came here to say exactly that. The symmetry is really pleasing. I've been considering how effective adding colours would be as well. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 17:55, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:: I beg to differ. xkcd finally went pear-shaped. (runs for his life) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 11:44, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
::It looks like these style Venn diagrams are generated by http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/Venn/ ... haven't tried it myself. Don't know if they invented it or took it from elsewhere. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.149|162.158.79.149]] 21:17, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
:::This particular geometric configuration for five category Venn diagrams was popularized by [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32440128/nice-looking-five-sets-venn-diagrams Adrian Dusa's venn package for R]. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.179|172.68.142.179]] 17:55, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

:Could it be because they look like eggplants? Kind of like the eggplant emojis? [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 15:45, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Again I wonder if he does these sorts of comics just to see how far we'll take it [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 16:51, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Uhhh...isn’t the bottom part just the transcript?[[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:08, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Shouldn't this go in the Venn Diagram category? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.95|172.68.132.95]] 00:10, 12 March 2019 (UTC)
:Done. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.182.154|172.68.182.154]] 17:58, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Can anyone make the table's cells be more regular in size across columns? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.95|172.68.132.95]] 00:54, 12 March 2019 (UTC)
:Done [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.35|141.101.104.35]] 15:28, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

I am disappointed that he only referenced the "little big planet" game but not the "little big adventure" one. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.187|141.101.96.187]] 08:04, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Large Frog is an [https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/8743/large-frog-new-version artwork], apparently. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.200|162.158.155.200]] 22:56, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Why Are we so sure that planet being in both the little and big categories is a reference to the game? [[User:V|V]] ([[User talk:V|talk]]) 01:23, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

2122: Size Venn Diagram

2019-03-11T21:19:58Z

162.158.89.223: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2122
| date = March 11, 2019
| title = Size Venn Diagram
| image = size_venn_diagram.png
| titletext = Terms I'm going to start using: The Large Dipper, great potatoes, the Big Hadron Collider, and Large Orphan Annie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Large Terror. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:Symmetrical_5-set_Venn_diagram.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|{{w|Branko Grünbaum}}'s multi-set Venn diagram strategy from 1975, less symmetric than Randall's.]]
This comic is a {{w|Venn diagram}} illustrating the complete set of possible intersections of five different size adjectives: "little, "large", "small", "great" and “big”. Each unique intersection contains a short list of nouns that can be preceded by each of its intersecting adjectives.

For example, "flying fox" (a type of bat) appears at the intersection of "large", "small", and "great", because the species {{w|large flying fox}}, {{w|small flying fox}}, and {{w|great flying fox}} all exist, but there is no such species as a "big flying fox" or a "little flying fox". Similarly, humans have organs named the {{w|small intestine}} and {{w|large intestine}}, but no "little intestine", "great intestine", or "big intestine".

Some descriptors are applied in combination to their noun, rather than individually; for example, "planet" is placed in both the "little" and "big" groups in reference to the 2008 video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''.

In the title text, Randall declares that he will start intentionally using term combinations that don't appear in the above diagram, presumably to confuse people.

A similar concept can be seen in [[181: Interblag]], but in a tabular form rather than a Venn diagram.

===List of items in the diagram===
The following table lists all size/noun combinations that the Venn diagram can generate, with a description of each.
{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Big !! Great !! Large !! Little !! Small
|-
|'''Aunt'''
|
| [[wiktionary:great-aunt|sister of one's grandparent]]
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bang Theory'''
|currently-accepted {{w|Big Bang|scientific theory}} that explains the origin of the universe; also a {{w|The Big Bang Theory|TV sitcom}}|| || || ||
|-
|'''Barrier Reef'''
|
|{{w|Great Barrier Reef|world's largest coral reef system}}, off the coast of Australia
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bear Lake'''
|A {{w|Big Bear Lake, California|lake and the community around it}} in the mountains of southern California.
|{{w|Great Bear Lake}}, Northwest Territories is the largest lake entirely in Canada, and the fourth-largest in North America.
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bend'''
| {{w|Big Bend|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend National Park|US National Park}} in Texas
| {{w|Great Bend (disambiguation)|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend, Kansas|city in Kansas}} and the description of the S-shaped curving of the {{w|Nile River}} in Egypt and Sudan
|
|
|
|-
|'''Billed Seed Finch'''
|
|{{w|Great-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1851
|{{w|Large-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1789
|
|
|-
|'''Blue'''
|nickname for [https://www.ibm.com IBM] and the {{w|New York Giants}}, also [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250 a movie]
|
|{{w|large blue|various different butterflies}}
|
|{{w|small blue|butterfly}}, smallest found in the UK
|-
|'''Blue Heron'''
|
|{{w|Great Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures 91–137 cm (36–54 in) long
|
|{{w|Little Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures about 60 cm (24 in) long
|
|-
|'''Board'''
| Nickname for the {{w|New York Stock Exchange}} || || || ||
|-
|'''Cardiac Vein'''
|
|{{w|Great cardiac vein}}
|
|
|{{w|Small cardiac vein}}
|-
|'''Circle'''
|
|{{w|Great circle|Largest possible circle}} that can be drawn on a sphere; the {{w|equator}} is an example of one on the Earth
|
|?
|?
|-
|'''Claims Court'''
|
|
|
|
|{{w|Small claims court|Judicial court}} that handles cases involving only relatively small amounts of money
|-
|'''enchilada'''
|[[wiktionary:big enchilada|important person]] || || || ||
|-
|'''Depression'''
|
|{{w|Great Depression|Period of prolonged economic downturn}} that affected the world economy in the 1930's
|
|
|
|-
|'''Dipper'''
|{{w|Big Dipper|Subset collection of stars}} in the constellation {{w|Ursa Major}}
|
|
|Another name for the constellation {{w|Ursa Minor}}
|
|-
|'''Emerald'''
|
|
|?
|?
|?
|-
|'''End'''
|?
|?
|
|
|?
|-
|'''Eyed Conger'''
|eel
|
|eel
|
|eel
|-
|'''Flying Fox'''
|
|{{w|Great flying fox}}
|{{w|Large flying fox}}
|
|{{w|Small flying fox}}
|-
|'''Foot'''
|The well known folk-lore monster ''{{w|Bigfoot}}''
|
|
|Main character in the ''{{w|Land Before Time}}'' film series
|''{{w|Smallfoot (film)|Smallfoot}}'' is an animated film that inverts the Bigfoot legend, focusing on a group of yetis that tell stories about humans.
|-
|'''Forest Bat'''
|
|
|bat
|bat
|
|-
|'''Format'''
|
|
|{{w|Large format|anything larger than 4x5 inches in photography}}
|
|
|-
|'''Foundation'''
|?
|
|?
|?
|
|-
|'''Frog'''
|?
|
|?
|?
|?
|-
|'''Game'''
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, usually referring to the African {{w|big five game}} (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, cape buffalo); can also refer to the NFL's {{w|Super Bowl}}
|{{w|Great Game|19th Century geopolitical competition}} between the British and Russian Empires over control of Afghanistan
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, such as bears or moose
|
|Small animals hunted for sport or food, such as rabbits or ducks
|-
|'''Hadron Collider'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Hadron Collider|particle accelerator}}
|
|
|-
|'''Hearted'''
|?
|?
|?
|
|
|-
|'''House on the Prairie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little House on the Prairie|novel}} (later made into a TV show)
|
|-
|'''Intestine'''
|
|
|gut
|
|gut
|-
|'''Island'''
|{{w|Big Island|largest island in Hawaii}}
|{{w|Great Island|in Cork Harbour, Ireland}}
|{{w|Large Island|island in the Antilles, owned by Grenada}}
|{{w|Little Island|several islands named such}}, plus a song in ''{{w|Randy Newman's Faust}}''
|{{w|Small Island (novel)|novel which was made into a movie}}
|-
|'''League'''
|Nickname for top-level competition
|?
|
|{{w|Little League Baseball|Youth baseball organization}}
|
|-
|'''Lies'''
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a [[wiktionary:big lie|form of propaganda]]
|
|{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}, a novel made into a TV series; also a {{w|Little Lies|Fleetwood Mac song}}
|
|
|-
|'''Magellanic Cloud'''
|
|
|galaxy
|
|galaxy
|-
|'''Millimeter Telescope'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Millimeter Telescope|radio telescope}}
|
|
|-
|'''One'''
|Nickname for any large natural disaster that is expected to happen in the future, such as a tsunami or an earthquake in California
|Nickname for {{w|Wayne Gretzky}}, considered by many to be the greatest ice hockey player of all time
|
|?
|?
|-
|'''Orphan Annie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Orphan Annie|comic strip}}
|
|-
|'''Planet'''
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|-
|'''Potatoes'''
|
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small potatoes|something relatively unimportant]]
|-
|'''Pox'''
|
|an old name for {{w|syphilis}}
|
|
|{{w|smallpox|a deadly disease}} which was effectively eradicated by 1977
|-
|'''Professor'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Professor|rap artist}}
|{{w|Little Professor|educational math toy}} (also "Little Professor Syndrome", an informal name for autism)
|
|-
|'''Richard'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Richard|musician}}
|
|-
|'''Room'''
|
|?
|
|?
|?
|-
|'''Screen'''
|another name for movies
|
|
|
|another name for TV
|-
|'''Sister'''
|[[wiktionary:big sister|older female sibling]]
|
|
|[[wiktionary:little sister|younger female sibling]]
|
|-
|'''Soldiers'''
|
|
|
|?
|{{w|Small Soldiers|1998 movie}} about sentient animated toys at war
|-
|'''Sur'''
|{{w|Big Sur|coastal region of California}} famed for its mountain scenery
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Terror'''
|
|{{w|Great Terror|One of two periods of violent political repression}}; one during {{w|Reign of Terror|the French Revolution}} between 1793 and 1794, the other in {{w|Great Purge|the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin}} between 1936 and 1938
|
|
|
|-
|'''Time'''
|major
|
|
|
|minor
|-
|'''Toothed Aspen'''
|tree (bigtooth)
|
|tree
|
|
|-
|'''Wall of China'''
|
|{{w|Great Wall of China|Series of fortifications}} over 13,000 miles long that served to protect various Chinese empires from raids and invasion from their north
|
|
|
|-
|'''White'''
|{{w|Big White Ski Resort|ski resort in British Columbia}}
|{{w|Great white shark|species of shark}} or a {{w|Great White|rock band}}
|{{w|Pieris brassicae|a butterfly}} or {{w|Large White pig|a common breed of pig}}
|
|{{w|Dixeia|multiple species}} of {{w|Pieris rapae|butterflies}} are known as small whites
|-
|'''Wonder'''
|
|
|
|?
|?
|-
|'''World'''
|?
|?
|
|?
|Ride at Disneyland
|}

==Transcript==


:Big: Bang Theory, Enchilada, Board, Sur
:Little: Orphan Annie, House on the Prairie, Richard
:Large: format, Millimeter Telescope, Hadron Collider
:Small: claims court, potatoes
:Great: Barrier Reef, Wall of China, Depression, Terror, aunt

:Big/Great: Bend, Bear Lake
:Big/Small: time, screen
:Big/Little: Dipper, Planet, lies, sister
:Little/Great: Blue Heron
:Little/Large: Professor, Forest Bat
:Big/Large: Toothed Aspen
:Large/Small: intestine, Magellanic Cloud
:Little/Small: wonder, soldiers
:Small/Great: pox, cardiac vein
:Large/Great: Billed Seed Finch

:Big/Large/Great: hearted
:Big/Small/Great: end
:Big/Little/Small: foot
:Big/Little/Great: league
:Little/Large/Great: (none)
:Big/Little/Large: foundation
:Big/Large/Small: Eyed Conger, Blue
:Little/Large/Small: emerald
:Little/Small/Great: circle, room
:Large/Small/Great: flying fox

:Big/Large/Small/Great: game, white
:Big/Little/Small/Great : world, one
:Big/Little/Large/Great : (none)
:Big/Little/Large/Small : frog
:Little/Large/Small/Great : (none)

:Big/Little/Large/Small/Great: Island

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2119: Video Orientation

2019-03-07T22:21:05Z

162.158.89.223: /* Pro/Contra Vertical Video */ new section

[IMG]http://i64.tinypic.com/2co1zio.png[/IMG]
More readable:I think this could be done with text too.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.154.64|172.68.154.64]] 13:41, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Obligatory prior art in this commentary space: [https://vimeo.com/313458699 Glove and Boots: Vertical Video Syndrome] (apparently they decamped from Youtube to Vimeo last month, the original c. 2013 video was Bt9zSfinwFA). [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 14:21, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

The title text seems to be a reference to AL, the A.I in ''2001 : A Space Odyssey'' which cause a few problems to the crew and mainly communicate through a round lens. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.171|172.69.226.171]] 14:27, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Or 2002 movie The Ring [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.221|141.101.96.221]] 14:32, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::I presumed it was a reference to summoning circles. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.160|172.69.62.160]] 15:28, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:::My first thought was a reference to Matt Parker of standupmaths and his spherical camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgyI8aPctaI [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.67|162.158.62.67]] 18:17, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:::I think the same... Isn't it some Terry Pratchett quote? or may be from other fantasy? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.2|162.158.94.2]] 18:32, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:It was HAL, not AL in Space Odyssey. Move the letters forward one, and it's IBM. Deliberate Easter egg. {{unsigned ip|162.158.38.94}}
::I thought it was something that wasn't planned by the author? But yeah, still makes for an interesting Easter egg. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:09, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
:::You are correct. Clarke has always insisted that the letter-shift from IBM was coincidence and that he would've picked a different name had they known at the time. HAL has always stood for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer". ({{w|HAL 9000#Origin of name|source}}). [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:37, 6 March 2019 (UTC)
A circular screen is great for that retro-look, like a [https://picclick.com/1950s-ZENITH-PORTHOLE-Television-18-Circular-TV-Screen-113317154719.html 1950's Zenith Porthole TV]. I seem to remember seeing circular screens on some really old sci-fi shows as well. As well as one use of a [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/ThisIslandEarth triangular screen]. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:37, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I thought the circular format was a reference to SnapChat's camera glasses and people's mistrust of "surveillance glasses". I am probably wrong. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:57, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Fails in the obvious- Horizontal is better because you can send the video in to the TV news for your 15 seconds of fame without looking like a douche who doesn't know how to rotate their phone. And why isn't there a setting for "always landscape" anyway?[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:48, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

:I have to agree... the fact that most non-mobile screens are oriented horizontally being left out was kind of a big miss. A vertical video looks like crap on a TV or Computer Monitor (Ironically unless it's an old 3:4 one, where the difference is a lot more minor.) -Graptor [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.220|172.69.62.220]] 15:34, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

:I assume that inside your phone camera there's a "retina" chip in the same dimensions as your screen, so if your phone is upright (portrait) then the picture is portrait shape too. But, sure, they could make the camera rotate inside the phone... that would work for switching between selfie / other people modes, too. But no, then your selfies would be upside down... or... can I get back to you? :-) Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.200|162.158.155.200]] 11:14, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Ironically, when I first read the comic on my phone (portrait), I did not realise there was a third "CONS" column. [[User:ColinHogben|ColinHogben]] ([[User talk:ColinHogben|talk]]) 15:20, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:that never would have happened with a circular screen ~ ocæon 01:44, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Not that good of an explanation, even if I wrote some of it. Actually, especially since I wrote some of it. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:54, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Thanks 90.10 [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:08, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I have never had problems holding my smartphone in landscape, or my camera in portrait. I just can't understand the use of portrait to film anything but one for two people's faces just because you hold the device that way to make a phone call (on the v rare occasion they do). Hey but I was born in the 50's [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:57, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I don't think the 50x150 view comment is right. I'd suggest removing it or backing it up with a source. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.16|162.158.146.16]] 23:14, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

I feel like there's an awesome joke to be made about Battlefield Earth here...
[[User:Glassvein|Glassvein]] ([[User talk:Glassvein|talk]]) 02:44, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

== Anti-Semitic trolling ==
Edited to remove the anti-Semitic tag and content. {{unsigned|Elusis}}
:Dealing with the same thing. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:30, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::Maybe we should replace the Google CAPTCHA with an IQ test? That should get rid of the 5-year old troll.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.171|172.69.226.171]] 18:33, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:::But then they’d say IQ was rigged by the communistic jewish theocracy. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:48, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::::This replies aren't helpful. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:00, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Thanks for removing that content, but please do not remove the entire incomplete tag that soon. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:00, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
My advice for now: Just revert that content silently, that unregistered user always has to solve a captcha while a registered user easily can revert it. Without any discussion that IP will get tired sooner or later. Nonetheless many thanks to everybody keeping an eye on this destructive edits. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:00, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
:Yes, just '''revert''', do not try to edit it out or you'll miss some little bit stuffed here or there - but look at the revision history before to check out if someone haven't added useful stuff in between troll's edits. In this case you need to edit it out, just be careful. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.150|162.158.90.150]] 17:28, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

Can you do me a favour and stop censoring my edits? If your position has any merit (it doesn't), you could defeat me in debate (you can't). {{unsigned ip|162.158.106.6}}
:There is no censorship here. And please do us a favor and sign your comments. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:19, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
::::Fuck you, shill. Soon the truth will be revealed, whether you want it to be or not. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.240|162.158.106.240]] 21:32, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
Please no censorship on comments like this in a talk page unless it's really vandalism. I have reverted the two "deleted troll stuff" remarks back to the original. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:59, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
:With the language being used, the comments were, indeed, vandalism. Re-removed them. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.82}}
::Bad language isn't vandalism - but your action editing comments written by others is vandalism. This is a talk page and everybody can say anything, but some nonsense like this require a proper reply. This is not the explanation page. And further more deleting comments gives the writer an argument about censorship which in this case would be correct. Do you want that writer having a correct argument?
::BTW: Please do not forget to sign your comments. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:21, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

but guys, the stuff he's saying is '''bold and dynamic''' @_@[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.23|172.69.33.23]] 00:51, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

==Table==
may the pro con table be replicated and expanded upon? the realworld aplications of horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and circular screens would be comparable the same way. ocæon 01:54, 5 March 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Ocæon}}
: so my first contibution and i screwed up formatting, heh, i have no clues to fixing that.. anyway angular filming with cameras goes well beyond dutchy, nobody else remember early handheld rap music videos? and circular screens also gave a pro which is not yet noted at all please don't make me add it! ocæon 18:34, 5 March 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Ocæon}}
::You did start your first line with a space which formats the text as a quote. And please sign your comments with at least <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> or use the sign button at the top of the editor. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:52, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

"I'm not turning my phone sideways" -- seems like someone never plays any games on his phone. Heck, even docs and sheets are better in horizontal orientation than vertical orientation. As for the "don't trust anyone speaking from inside a circle," it made me think of (1) the little peepholes on doorways to see who's out there and (2) The Oval Office. While that's not technically a circle, it's somewhat related... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.153|162.158.74.153]] 08:28, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

"The title text quip about circular video would be a reference to having a demon trapped inside a summoning circle" Oh really? You know this how? Google certainly didn't show anything like that; indeed, there was a lot about "circle of trust" and I don't trust this comment. I'd say [citation needed] or change it to "circle of trust". ( DON'T CENSOR ME, MAN! ;^) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.70|162.158.214.70]] 11:00, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
:Circle of trust seems to be a clothing brand? I do not see any relevance on that. Nevertheless I think the demon thing should, if at all, be one of few alternative explanations. It might just be a nonsense statement, or could be related to a fisheye objective, binoculars, or to the looking holes in appartment doors. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 11:07, 5 March 2019 (UTC)

wow this circle is sure disliked alot considering randall says it solves the aspect ratio problem. if it's a trust issue then what happens in the case that two people hold a conversation via circular televideophones? ocæon 22:14, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Maybe Randal and someone he knows have those Alexa video things that are circular and people talk out of... [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 22:32, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

== Randalls favorite video orientation ==

What makes people think he likes the horizontal orientation more? Looking at the comic it seems to me he likes the vertical orientation more. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.87|172.69.54.87]] 10:05, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

:the pro for vertical suggests it has reached a tipping point for widespread social acceptance, but whether it's pro status is an assertion or a path of least resistance remains unclear. it leaves us free to project on the issue. ocæon 22:28, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

== Pro/Contra Vertical Video ==

The explanation so far seems to suggest that he thinks vertical video is obviously bad, and even compares it to the "Norm" type file comic. "claiming that an obviously bad idea keeps being done by accident 'so we might as well just accept it'". However, I think this is not true at all, and the comic aligns much more to the comics which talked about common misconceptions (Frankenstein) or commonly used bad grammar ("could care less"). On many of these comics, he seems to have the opinion that the people who insist on the "correct" way should stop insisting and just accept the change. I think this one relates much more to those, and he is pro vertical video [which I'm not, so this is not an interpretation based on personal preference], instead of relating to the "Norm" comic where he obviously is just joking. The point of the comic is "stop fighting it". And nowhere in the comic he claims that horizontal video is obviously better, like the explanation says so far.

2117: Differentiation and Integration

2019-02-27T22:01:43Z

162.158.89.223: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2117
| date = February 27, 2019
| title = Differentiation and Integration
| image = differentiation_and_integration.png
| titletext = "Symbolic integration" is when you theatrically go through the motions of finding integrals, but the actual result you get doesn't matter because it's purely symbolic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BESSEL FUNCTION? Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic provides a {{w|flowchart}} purporting to show the process of differentiation, and another for integration.

{{w|Derivative|Differentiation}} and {{w|Antiderivative|Integration}} are two major components of {{w|calculus}}. As many Calculus 2 students are painfully aware, integration is much more complicated than the differentiation it undoes.

However, Randall dramatically overstates this point here. After the first step of integration, Randall assumes that any integration can not be solved so simply, and then dives into a step named "????", suggesting that it is unknowable how to proceed. The rest of the flowchart is (we can assume deliberately) even harder to follow, and does not reach a conclusion. This is in contrast to the simple, straightforward flowchart for differentiation. The fact that the arrows in the bottom of the integration part leads to nowhere indicates that "Phone calls to mathematicians", "Oh no" and "Burn the evidence" are not final steps in the difficult journey. The flowchart could be extended by Randall to God-know-where extents.

It should be noted that Randall slightly undermines his point by providing four different methods, and an "etc", for attempting differentiation with no guidelines for selecting between them. (The "etc" in particular should not be here, as lists like this should name every single element without relying on the reader to be able to fill in unstated parts.)

===Differentiation===
'''{{w|Chain rule}}'''

For any <math> \frac{d}{dx}f(x)=f'(x)</math> and <math> \frac{d}{dx}g(x)=g'(x) </math>, it follows that <math> \frac{d}{dx}(f(g(x)))=f'(g(x))*g'(x)</math>.

'''{{w|Power Rule}}'''

For any <math> f(x)=x^a </math>, it follows that <math> \frac{d}{dx}f(x)=a*x^{a-1} </math>.

'''{{w|Quotient rule}}'''

For any <math> \frac{d}{dx}f(x)=f'(x)</math> and <math> \frac{d}{dx}g(x)=g'(x) </math>, it follows that <math> \frac{d}{dx} \frac{f(x)}{g(x)}=\frac{f'(x)g(x)-f(x)g'(x)}{(g(x))^2}</math> if <math>g(x)\ne 0</math>.

'''{{w|Product rule}}'''

For any <math> \frac{d}{dx}f(x)=f'(x)</math> and <math> \frac{d}{dx}g(x)=g'(x) </math>, it follows that <math> \frac{d}{dx}(f(x)*g(x))=f'(x)*g(x)+f(x)*g'(x)</math>.

===Integration===
'''{{w|Integration by parts}}'''

The "product rule" run backwards. Since <math>(uv)' = uv' + u'v</math>, it follows that by integrating both sides you get <math> uv = \int u dv + \int v du</math>, which is more commonly written as <math>\int u dv = uv - \int v du</math>. By finding appropriate values for functions <math>u, v</math> such that your problem is in the form <math>\int u dv</math>, your problem ''may'' be simplified.

'''{{w|Integration by substitution|Substitution}}'''

The "chain rule" run backwards. Since <math> d(f(u)) = (df(u))du</math>, it follows that <math>f(u) = \int df(u) du</math>. By finding appropriate values for functions <math>f, u</math> such that your problem is in the form <math>\int df(u) du</math> your problem ''may'' be simplified.

'''{{w|Cauchy's integral formula|Cauchy's Formula}}'''
???

'''{{w|Partial_fraction_decomposition#Application_to_symbolic_integration|Partial Fractions}}'''

'''Install Mathematica'''

{{w|Mathematica}} is a modern technical computing system spanning most areas. One of its features is to compute mathematical functions. This step in the flowchart is install and use Mathematica to compute to do the integration for you.

'''{{w|Riemann integral|Riemann Integration}}'''
The Riemann integral is a definition of definite integration. Elementary textbooks on calculus sometimes present finding a definite integral as a process of approximating an area by strips of equal width and then taking the limit as the strips become narrower. Riemann integration removes the requirement that the strips have equal width, and so is a more flexible definition. However there are still many functions for which the Riemann integral doesn't converge, and consideration of these functions leads to the Lesbegue Integral. Riemann integration is not a method of calculus appropriate for finding the anti-derivative of an elementary function.

'''{{w|Stokes' Theorem}}'''
???

'''{{w|Risch Algorithm}}'''
The Risch Algorithm is a complex procedure that reduces the process of symbolic integration to purely algebraic steps. It is implemented in Computer Algebra software, such as Mathematica.

'''{{w|Bessel function}}'''
???

'''{{w|Symbolic integration}}'''
Mentioned in the title text. ???

''' Burn the evidence '''
In a parody of detective novels, this may refer to the burning of your work to avoid the shame of being unable to solve the integration problem.
Alternatively, this could be an ironic hint to the fact that in order to find the integral, it may even be necessary to break the law or upset higher powers, so that the negative consequences of a persecution can only be avoided by destroying the evidence.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Two flow charts are shown.]

:[The first flow chart has four steps in simple order, one with multiple recommendations.]
:DIFFERENTIATION
:Start
:Try applying
::Chain Rule
::Power Rule
::Quotient Rule
::Product Rule
::Etc.
:Done?
::Yes
::No
:Done!

[The second flow chart begins like the first, then descends into chaos.]
:INTEGRATION
:Start
:Try applying
::Integration by Parts
::Substitution
:Done?
:Haha, Nope!

:[Chaos, Roughly from left to right, top to bottom, direction arrows not included.]
::Cauchy's Formula
::????
::???!?
::???
::???
::?
::Partial Fractions
::??
::?
::Install Mathematica
::?
::Riemann Integration
::Stokes' Theorem
::???
::?
::Risch Algorithm
::???
::[Sad face.]
::?????
::???
::What the heck is a Bessel Function??
::Phone calls to mathematicians
::Oh No
::Burn the Evidence


{{comic discussion}}

1889: xkcd Phone 6

2019-02-20T18:51:32Z

162.158.89.223:

{{comic
| number = 1889
| date = September 13, 2017
| title = xkcd Phone 6
| image = xkcd_phone_6.png
| titletext = We understand your privacy concerns; be assured that our phones will never store or transmit images of your face.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the sixth entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], and once again, the comic plays with many standard tech buzzwords, and horribly misuses all of them, to create a phone that sounds impressive but self-evidently isn't to even the most ignorant customer. The previous comic in the series [[1809: xkcd Phone 5 ]] was released 7 months before this one and the next [[2000: xkcd Phone 2000]] was released 8 and a half months later.

This comic was released the day after Apple announced their new {{w|iPhone 8}} and the higher-end {{w|iPhone X}} (pronounced iPhone 10) with facial recognition features.

===List of features (clockwise from center/top)===

; Front camera (centered for eye contact during video chat)
: A front camera has become a common feature of smartphones. The camera lens is located on the same side of the phone's case as the main screen, making it possible to capture the image of the user's face looking at the screen and display the interlocutor's face on the screen simultaneously, enabling video chat. However, as the camera is usually located above the screen, when the user looks at the displayed image of the other person they direct their eyes at the center of the screen and not at the camera's lens. This makes it appear on the other end of the chat as if the person talking was looking down and not making eye-contact, which can be an uncomfortable situation for many people. For this reason, professionals involved in movie or TV-making, like actors or reporters, are trained to look straight into the camera's lens while talking, which creates impression of looking straight at the viewer's face. During a video chat, however, looking into the lens of an above-screen camera does not allow one to see the interlocutor's face clearly because it is then in the peripheral field of vision.

: To solve this conundrum, Randall proposes locating the camera lens right in the middle of the screen. The user looking at the the other person's face on the screen would then also be looking at the lens, creating an impression on the other end of the chat that they are looking straight at the other person. This is absurd, since the lens would then take place of some of the center pixels of the screen, which would probably mean that it could not display the center part of the captured image of the other person's face. This could include features such as eyes and/or lips, which play an important part in non-verbal communication. Locating the camera lens in this way would probably also interfere with the touch-screen function. It would probably make other applications on the phone difficult to use, since virtually no user interface is designed to accommodate a blind spot in the center.

: The idea of having the camera in the middle of the screen is only currently absurd, however, as advances in technology may eventually enable such a feature to work without disturbing the appearance or function of the phone's display, unlike the visual disturbance clearly indicated in the comic. For instance, previous technological advancements have improved the functionality of the display, starting with adding touch sensing. The touch sensitive hardware of the phone is located in a thin layer above the hardware, that generates the image for the display, and capacitive touch sensing technology is less obtrusive than previous resistive sensing. While it has yet to be released to market, certain manufacturers are aiming to place a phone's fingerprint reader underneath the screen, for seamless functionality. Although it may be difficult at this point, figuring out a way to have a camera capture images through the array of pixels on the screen is not completely beyond imagination.

; Full-width rear camera
: Historically, there has been an 'arms race' among phone manufacturers to increase the 'size' of the rear camera, in terms of the number of pixels they can capture. This is not typically accompanied by equivalent increases in physical size, though. Phone cameras tend to have lenses which are quite small, and round or square -- measuring the same in width as in height. On this phone, the 'full-width' lens appears to be a long, thin strip, like an oval or rectangle shape. This could allow the camera to gather a lot more light, potentially working in low light situations. However the lens would be more vulnerable to damage and dirt. Unless a very large sensor was used, focusing the image could be a problem, since cell phones are typically not very deep.

; CDC partnership - phone automatically administers seasonal flu vaccine to cheek every year
: U.S. {{w|Centers for Disease Control and Prevention}} is a government agency tasked with addressing public health concerns, such as infectious diseases, including seasonal flu. A common way of limiting the spread of an infectious disease is {{w|Vaccine|vaccination}}, which most often involves administering a specially prepared vaccine via an {{w|intramuscular injection}}, though researchers have investigated other delivery systems, including aerosol, or microneedle injection. Uptake of vaccination is often poor, and many governments routinely use various different campaigns and techniques to try to encourage more people to get themselves vaccinated.

: This feature implies that the phone would automatically perform some form of injection once a year, administering a vaccine via a small aperture while the user is holding the phone to his or her cheek during a call. However, the placement of this component is dubious, as it would line up with the user's ear, rather than their cheek, during a phone call. It may be designed to detect the fraction of a second during which your cheek would be in the appropriate position (perhaps after a phone call, as you may be dropping the phone from your ear), and administer it at that moment; this would conveniently prevent disturbances to a majority of conversations.

: A further absurdity to this feature is that the vaccine is different every year, in order to account for various mutations causing different, and typically new, strains of the virus, which is the reason it has to be administered yearly. The CDC bases the combination of strains on a best-guess of what will be the most significant strains in circulation over the upcoming year, so in order to have the current year's vaccine, the user would have to physically load the new version into the phone for later administration, or there would have to be a mechanism to synthesize the concoction on-board the phone, and an associated logistics framework and digital standards for OTA delivery of specifications for the year's vaccine.

; 12-function
: Most smartphones can be used for more than twelve different things{{Citation needed}}. However, this may refer to the twelve basic functions of algebra (identity, squaring, cubing, square root, logarithm, exponential, reciprocal, sine, cosine, greatest integer, absolute value, and logistic), or the twelve function keys on a modern keyboard (more than the ten on the original IBM PC keyboard). Alternatively, it may be a reference to calculators: basic models are sometimes referred to as four function calculators (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), and complex scientific calculators may advertise 250 or more functions.

; Dishwasher safe
: Waterproofing has become a much-pushed feature of many recent smartphones, with manufacturers competing on the claimed resilience of their models. A phone that was truly dishwasher safe would be ahead in this race, as it would have to be able to withstand high-pressure jets of water, high temperatures, and caustic effects of detergent over significant periods. This is often listed as a selling point of items used for preparing, serving, or storing food, such as plastic containers or crockery, which a normal person might want to clean using a dishwasher, but it seems excessive for phones, which are rarely cleaned with anything more than a quick wipe, and most people would not intentionally attempt to clean in a dishwasher.

; GPS transmitter
: Many smartphones have a receiver for the {{w|Global Positioning System}}, which allows a phone to compute its position based on signals from the constellation(s) of GPS satellites. However, a device with a "GPS transmitter" would broadcast signals that would interfere with the GPS receivers of all devices nearby. This might be used in some form of differential GPS, broadcasting signals from a known location to allow more precise determination of other locations, or such a system might be used to confuse or control devices, such as drones, which navigate using GPS.

; 3-G acceleration
: This is a mixture of three unrelated concepts with similar names. In computer graphics, "{{w|Graphics processing unit|3-D acceleration}}" refers to GPU hardware that speeds up handling of three-dimensional data, such as shapes rotating in space. In physics, "3 Gs of acceleration" refers to speed increasing at a rate of 3 times the acceleration of Earth's gravity, or approximately 30 m/s². In cellular networks, {{w|3G}} refers to a standard for data communication. GPUs, accelerometers, and compatibility with 3G networks are all normal features of modern smartphones. "3-G acceleration", however, is not a real term, and doesn't describe any meaningful feature of a phone. It appears to suggest that either the phone is capable of self-propelling with 3 Gs of acceleration, which doesn't seem particularly useful, or, perhaps more feasibly, that it has some way of increasing the data transfer rate over a 3G connection.

; Portable, solar-heated
: Portability is pretty much the entire point of using a ''mobile'' phone, so advertising portability is rather redundant. Solar ''power'' charging could be a very useful feature on a phone, but solar ''heating'' usually applies to plumbing, where a water tank is heated by the sun and used to supply hot water to taps. Technically, as the sun heats up everything it shines on, the phone is in fact solar heated. However, since avoiding overheating is a particular challenge in smartphone design, deliberately capturing solar energy simply in order to heat the device would seem rather counter-productive.

; Pore-cleaning strip
: Pore-cleaning strips are sticky strips designed to be applied to the skin and then pulled away to remove dirt and oils from the pores, with the intention of reducing spots and improving the complexion. The location shown for this feature would be inconvenient and irritating, as it would come into contact with the face every time the phone was held to the ear to make a call; something sticky on that location would be very annoying for clean-shaven people and extremely painful for anyone with facial hair. It would probably also result in that strip of the screen becoming obscured by an accumulation of facial gunk. Pore strips have been mentioned before in [[777: Pore Strips]].

: This may act as a sensor for the ''Shroud of Turin-style facial transfer unlock'', whereby the phone would collect the dirt, oils, and microflora from the user's face when it is pressed against the phone, and use it to verify their identity.

; Maximum strength
: Medicines are often sold as "Maximum strength", usually indicating that they contain the highest dose of active ingredients allowed by law, or allowed without a prescription. For phones, there are sometimes "hardened" or "ruggedized" versions, which are designed to survive harsher environmental conditions, such as surviving drops and collisions, excessive water, dust, etc. ''Maximum strength'' here could indicate such a "ruggedized" phone, though this would be hard to achieve with a screen that extended past the edges.

; Never needs sharpening
: Phones do not need to be sharpened in the first place{{Citation needed}}. This is a feature more likely to be found in a knife advertisement -- the slogan is infamous for hawking knives that ''cannot'' easily be sharpened, like a serrated blade -- or a mechanical pencil. Since the screen goes past the edge, it might be sharp enough to cut through things, much like a knife, though the phone would be unsafe to carry and handle if that were the case{{Citation needed}}.

; Can survive up to 30 minutes out of water
: This is a play on the common IP-rating of water resistance, which is typically rated for submersion to a rated depth for 30 minutes. A phone which could only be used or carried for 30 minutes before it needed to be immersed in water would be rather inconvenient, especially if it was still susceptible to short-circuiting, as most electronic devices are when submerged.

: Alternatively, either this phone's target market could be whales, dolphins, or other marine life, such as octopodes, or the feature could be optional. While such a feature would prove to be extremely useful for aquatic customers, the "solar-heated" feature would undoubtedly be inhibited significantly as water depths increased.

; Exclusive Audubon Society app identifies birds and lets you control their flight
: The {{w|National Audubon Society}} is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of nature, and mainly of birds, which also organizes open {{w|birdwatching}} events. There are apps that attempt to identify bird species, for example, from a [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labs.merlinbirdid.app&hl=en_GB photo] or [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.isoperla.birdsongid&hl=en_GB audio recording] of a bird made by the smartphone itself, though the Audubon Society's [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.audubon.mobile.android&hl=en_GB own app] does not offer anything this interactive. An app developed by Offingapp (company that took part in the development of technology) [http://offingapp.com/ app developers company] allowing you to control the bird's flight would be way cooler and might work using the built-in GPS transmitter, confusing their navigation systems. However birds do not use GPS to navigate{{Citation needed}}, and it would fly in the face of the Audubon Society's core activity. This is a reference to {{w|Unmanned_aerial_vehicle|drones}} (which could be thought of as artificial "birds") which are often controlled by a smartphone app. This may also be a reference to [[1425: Tasks]], in which an app that can recognize if a bird is on camera is proposed.

; Extra screen
:Some phones advertise an additional display or display mode, often giving access to basic information, such as battery level and notifications without needing to activate the main screen function. Typically, this would be a low-power mode of operation of the normal screen, or else a form of display on another surface of the phone, such as the side or rear. Here, it seems to be an oddly shaped rectangular extension on the bottom of the main screen. This may have been added to make up for the loss of screen estate due to the center camera.

; Wireless charging port
:A port for {{w|Inductive_charging|wireless charging}} is an oxymoron, since wireless charging has no wires and thus has no need for a port, unless it is required for fuel for a fuel cell (see clean coal, below). This may be a jab at Apple's removal of the headphone port from their previous phones.

; Safe for ages 6-8 months, 10 months, 18 months-3 years, and 12 years and older
:Usually an item is deemed safe for a particular age or older, or (in the case of toys) is recommended for a particular age range. This is unusual in that it's a hodge-podge of age ranges with no apparent reason why some ages are safe and others are not. It may be a parody of drug commercials that list several age ranges for which the drug had to be separately approved.

; Screen goes past the edge
:A parody of the trend of "edge to edge" displays in recent generations of smartphones, or phones whose screens curve partway around the edge of the phone.

; High thread count CPU
:A {{w|Thread_(computing)|CPU thread}} is a task the CPU performs. Several threads may share memory, making them a process. Threads are meant to run in parallel and the operating system distributes the workload on the available hardware execution units. These execution units are sometimes called hardware threads, especially when there is more than one per processing unit (or core). For example, the Intel Core i7 7700 is considered a 4-core, 8-thread CPU. The vague "high thread count" statement could make sense in this context, however, it is most likely a joke about bedding, where it is an actual selling point; the thread count of a textile signifies the density of fibres in the material, and a high thread count is an indicator of a high quality fabric.

; Shroud of Turin-style facial transfer unlock
:The {{w|Shroud of Turin}} contains an image of the body and face of a man, originally believed to be {{w|Jesus Christ}}, before the Shroud was found to be 1200 years too young. Some theories suggest the image was created by interaction with or transfer from the body that was wrapped in the shroud. Presumably, to unlock this phone, the user would have to physically {{w|facepalm|press their face}} against the phone, the way the Shroud-Man's image was allegedly transferred to the shroud. This is probably a reference to the iPhone X's FaceID unlock, which uses a ''photograph'' of your face, augmented with spatial information, to unlock itself, and which had attracted [https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-x-faceid-security/ significant criticism] immediately before this comic came out.

; Fonts developed by NASA
: This may be a reference to many advertisements that claim that their product uses technology developed by NASA in an attempt to make it seem more impressive. NASA technology does often tend to be quite strong and advanced, as they claim at their [https://spinoff.nasa.gov/ spin off] website. Between 1975 and 1992 NASA used the {{w|NASA insignia|"worm" logotype}} in its insignia; it was a special font that omitted the horizontal bar in the capitalized letter A. However, it would not be particularly impressive to use this, since fonts have very little to do with NASA's core operations{{Citation needed}}, and it potentially implies that it would not support many other common, and perhaps more readable, fonts.

: This may also be riffing on the {{w|Writing_in_space|urban legend}} that NASA invested vast amounts of research in developing a pen that could write in space, rather than just using a pencil.

; Includes applicator
: This is found on the packaging for many products, such ast tampons, cosmetics, and paints. An applicator for a phone would be absurd, since the phone cannot be applied, spread, inserted, or attached to something else. However, this may be referring back to the aforementioned yearly vaccine.

; Burns clean coal
: Clean coal is coal that is burned so that it does not give off as much soot, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, or other pollutants as "normal" coal, or methods of burning coal that give off relatively less pollutants. This may be advertised by energy companies trying to appear to be using clean energy, due to pollution concerns. Coal burning power plants are usually quite large, so a traditional coal fired thermal-electric plant in a cell phone would be absurd. {{w|Fuel cell|fuel cells}}, which produce electricity by oxidizing some fuel, can be small enough to fit in a cell phone, but they do not typically burn coal. The cordless charging port might be a receptacle for refueling the phone, using liquid or a fuel cartridge.

; Pre-seasoned
:Pre-seasoned typically refers to cast iron cookware which is ready to use out of the box, as opposed to needing to season it with oil and heat. It can also refer to packaged meats which are ready to cook without needing to be seasoned with herbs and spices, or timber that has been dried and is ready for use. A more technical definition of 'seasoning' means operating devices, usually calibrated standards or battery cells, for a while in the factory, to make sure the device meets constant performance requirements without deviating or diminshing too much. In this sense it could apply to the battery of the phone.

; Broad-spectrum SPF 30
:The xkcd phone somehow gives a {{w|sunscreen|sun protection factor}} (SPF) 30 level of protection from sunlight, meaning that it blocks all but 1/30 of skin-burning UVB radiation from sunlight, though it is not clear whether it is the user or the phone itself which is protected. Phones do not typically require protection from sunlight{{Citation needed}}. On the other hand, if, when placed between the user and the sun, the phone allows >3% of the radiation through, this would be remarkably more translucent, and therefore less effective, than most phones (which allow much less than 1% of UVB, or any other visible or near-visible wavelength, through). It would also be an inefficient method of protection, since it would only be able to protect a relatively small patch of skin.

; College-ruled
:College-ruled is a style of notebook paper having narrower than normal lines, in order to fit more text per page. That the phone is college-ruled suggests that there are lines permanently displayed on the screen, which could obscure any images on the screen, and make any text that doesn't line up with the lines hard to read. Defective screens can show similar patterns; for example, the iPhone 6 "touch disease" causes regularly spaced vertical lines to appear on top of the screen. Here, it is possible that the manufacturer is trying to pass off screen defects as features.

; Sterile packaging
:Useful for medical supplies, less so in a phone. There are numerous studies and resulting 'news' articles looking at the number of bacteria, fecal samples, and so forth, that can be found on the typical phone, typically with a sensationalist take on how you will be 'shocked' to discover this. However, sterile packaging would do little to counter this, since most of this contamination is accumulated after the user removes the phone from the packaging and begins using it.

; Radium backlight
:The discovery of the radioactive element radium sparked a brief fad in which manufacturers of consumer products began coating them with a paint containing radium and a radioluminescent substance, such as zinc sulfide, which converted the radiation from the radium into visible light. In particular, some clock and watch makers painted the faces or hands of their timepieces, allowing the time to be read at night without an external power source for the light. However, it was eventually realized that regular exposure to radium could result in radiation poisoning, particularly for the workers assembling and painting the products. A radium-based backlight would therefore be both potentially dangerous (especially for an object carried on one's person much of the time) but also largely useless, as the radioluminescent light is rather dim compared to conventional phone back lights.

; 4K pixels (50×80)
:"4K" typically denotes a screen with a width of ~4000 pixels, such as 4K TVs, which have 4096×2160 pixels, or about 8.8 million pixels total. That would be an outstanding resolution for a cell phone. Here, however, the "fine print" in parentheses clarifies that 4000 is actually the total number of pixels, not the width, which would be remarkably low resolution for a smart phone. As a comparison, the old Commodore VIC-20, with a resolution of 176 × 184, would have over 8 times the pixels of this phone. It is more comparable to the screen resolution of the sturdy Nokia 3310, which boasted a total of 4032 pixels, positioned 84 × 48.

===Version===
In the caption below the phone [[Randall]] presents many different version numbers:
*The number 6 is in correct order of all the xkcd phones
*The {{w|Roman numerals|Roman numeral}} VIII refers to the newly announced {{w|iPhone 8}} and jokes about the Roman numeral X below
*Version number 10 is the current version of Microsoft Windows
*The {{w|iPhone X}} was announced together with the iPhone 8 by Apple on September 12, 2017, a day before this comic was released. Apple clarified that X is meant to be read as the Roman numeral for 10, so for additional absurdity two xkcd phones share the same number, using different numerals
*The number 26 refers to the number of letters in the English alphabet
*In the year 1876 {{w|Alexander Graham Bell}} received the U.S. Patent No. 174465 for the {{w|invention of the telephone}}, but there is still a {{w|Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy|controversy}} whether {{w|Elisha Gray}} was the first to present a working telephone.

The "nonconsecutive version number war" referenced below the version names refers to several recent phones, and possibly operating systems, released consecutively with nonconsecutive version numbers, including:
*The iPhone X (or Ten) which will be released shortly after the iPhone 8
*The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was released after the Note 5
*The Oneplus 5 was released after the OnePlus 3T
*The ZTE Axon 7 was released after the original Axon, skipping numbers 2-6.
*Microsoft Windows 10 was released after Microsoft Windows 8, officially skipping Microsoft Windows 9
Randall's ludicrous naming scheme aims to 'defeat' all of these by eclipsing them. By counting parallel version numbers xkcd defeated Apple 6:2.

The symbols at the end are ™ for trademark, ® for registered trademark, and © for a copyright protection. The degree symbol ° after the letter C could be a play with degree Celsius. The use of all four symbols after the phrase is ridiculous, as ™ and ® indicate trademarks with opposite registration statuses, slogans can't be copyrighted, and the degree symbol usually has no meaning when applied to text.

In the title text Randall recognises privacy concerns about the facial recognition feature. A picture of a face will only be used for facial recognition, but never stored on the device nor transmitted to the internet. A ''small'' side effect may be that the famous selfie pictures aren't possible anymore, as well as video calls.

==Transcript==
:[A smartphone is shown, the screen is slightly wider than the case, in the middle is a photo lens, and at the right bottom a small extra part is added to the screen.]
:[On top a bracket ranges nearly over the entire width of the case. The text reads:]
:Full-width rear camera
:[The label at the photo lens is:]
:Front camera (centered for eye contact during video chat)
:[The label on the extra part says:]
:Extra screen
:[At the bottom below the case a label reads:]
:Wireless charging port

:[The labels left to the phone are:]
:4k pixels (50x80)
:Radium backlight
:Sterile packaging
:College-ruled
:Broad spectrum SPF 30
:Pre-seasoned
:Burns clean coal
:Includes applicator
:Fonts developed by NASA
:Shroud of turn-style facial transfer unlock
:High thread count CPU
:Screen goes past the edge
:Safe for ages 6-8 months, 10 months, 18 months-3 years, and 12 years and older

:[The labels right to the phone are:]
:CDC partnership: Phone automatically administers seasonal flu vaccine to cheek every year
:12-function
:Dishwasher safe
:GPS transmitter
:3-G acceleration
:Portable, solar-heated
:Pore-cleaning strip
:Maximum strength
:Never needs sharpening
:Can survive up to 30 minutes out of water
:Exclusive Audubon Society app identifies birds and lets you control their flight

:[Text below the phone:]
:Introducing
:'''The xkcd Phone 6, VIII, 10, X, 26, and 1876'''
:''We didn't start this nonconsecutive version number war, but we will not lose it.''™®©°

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]

Talk:2113: Physics Suppression

2019-02-20T10:08:41Z

162.158.89.223:

That's how mafia works. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.111|172.69.134.111]] 16:51, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
:But White Hat didn't mention anything about a Mafia...? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.153|162.158.74.153]] 14:31, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
::No, but to suppress people publishing their results, a body like the mafia would be needed, is what Megan jokes about. And then takes an example (and one more in title text) about annoying results that did not get suppressed. Her example turned out to win a noble prize, the title text was later shown to be an error. But a mafia might have stopped both sets of results to have not been published. Basically proving that you can not suppress such results wether relevant or not. If White Hat's model is not taken serious it is probably because he has no data to back it up. Wild claims demands extraordinary well documentation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:53, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
:::A "mafia" isn't the only candiate. "Inquistions" have also worked well for suppression, but (AFAIK) have less of a history of intramural violence. I think the image of a cabal of cloaked physics monks torturing dark energy heretics into recantation would have been striking enough, but RMMV (Randall's Mileage May Vary). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.23|172.69.70.23]] 17:12, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
::::if you need to spell out your initialism in full, you may not realize they're intended as shorthand.

:::Another fictional candidate may be "science by political committee" system — sending physicists that contest the "official" and "politically correct" theories and models to "corrective labour camps", where they would be forced to perform physical (sic!) work, until their untimely demise... Oh, wait, that actually happened! (See the fate of [[wikipedia:Nikolai Vavilov|Nikolai Vavilov]]) -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.27|162.158.93.27]] 12:28, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

::::When did this site get like this? This may not be you specifically, but there’s been a lot more conspiracy theories as of late, and even some anti-semetism. I keep seeing “SOON THE TRUTH WILL BE REVEALED”. Knock it off please, you aren’t cool, just edgy, a vandal, and an annoyance. Also, to no ones surprise, the Russians and Nazis did bad things in WWII. Also, what the hell does politically correct physics death camps have to do with a Russian botanist who Stalin didn’t like? I’ll stay on topic if you do. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:06, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

:::::I've never seen anybody on this site so upset about completely-imagined content of the parent comment. What the fuck is "edgy" about posting a link to Wikipedia? In what way does speculation about in-universe organizations count as being a "vandal?" And in what universe did 162.158.93.27 ever say "SOON THE TRUTH WILL BE REVEALED?" Are you hallucinating? Do you need to adjust your medication? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.88|172.68.34.88]] 21:26, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

::::::The page was vandalized twice with the whole of the text replaced with "SOON THE TRUTH WILL BE REVEALED" (see below, and view edit history). Another IP editor replied to the comment below and seemed to imply it was them making the edits, even though the addresses don't match. So, it seems plausible that multiple IP users are actually the same (the two mentioned below, and the one mentioned above), since the tone and content of their comments are pretty similar. I believe this is what is being referred to.[[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 21:34, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

:::::::@Netehrin5 @Cgrimes85: I am the author of Feb 19 12:28 comment. First of all, it is my choice to either post "anonymously" or create an account, which is meaningless anyway as I could create many under any nick I choose. (IP address is somewhat random, blame today's ISPs, shortage of address space and complicated structure of today's Internet. In fact, 162.158.* belongs to [[wikipedia:Cloudflare|Cloudflare]] which means the originator of the content could be virtually anybody. Do some research before drawing conclusions.) Please stop insinuating that a particular edit of discussion space is related to some other edit of page space when you don't and can't have any proof, and specifically that the texts and purposes of edits are obviously unrelated. But to the point: Randall is trying to posit that suppressing valid science is next to impossible today, but it does not mean it had not been tried in the past with mixed success and – sadly – tragic fates of the involved. I have just provided one quite well-known end relatively recent example, there are many more. The reason I've posted it (in somewhat sarcastic form) in the discussion space is that in my opinion it just did not deserve being included in the main text — that's what discussion space is for! -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 10:08, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Dark energy isn't a direct consequence of the cosmological constant. The cosmological constant could potentially have been 0 or even negative. There's nothing that currently implies that it should be a positive number. That's exactly why it is annoying. If general relativity dictated it, people would just praise this as another result showing relativity is true. But since it doesn't, it needs an explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.6|172.68.65.6]] 21:16, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

:Dark energy IS the conspiracy! Quantum Inertia is being suppressed by [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/436874/does-quantized-inertia-theory-violate-conservation-of-momentum Physics Exchange]! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.59|162.158.91.59]] 08:41, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

While it could be true that White Hat is ignored because of the lack of supporting data, Albert Einstein was in a similar situation when coming up with his Theory of Relativity. [[User:Mad max|Mad max]] ([[User talk:Mad max|talk]]) 06:56, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

== IP editor deleting all content ==

IP User 162.158.106.252 is deleting the entire page for some reason. [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 18:20, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

:That's because you are censoring me, so I'm showing you the same. Soon the truth will be revealed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.160|108.162.245.160]] 18:24, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

::Please look up the definition of the word censor, conspiracy theory, science, and wiki.[[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:34, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

::That individual is obviously trying to suppress the explanation -- they must be with the Physics Mafia. However the powers that be here likely have the larger powers of Ban. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 21:56, 19 February 2019 (UTC)
https://xkcd.com/1357/[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.58|162.158.214.58]] 02:14, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

::Pet Conspiracy Theory - that individual is Randall, adding some meta lulz. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.150|162.158.90.150]] 09:40, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2105: Modern OSI Model

2019-01-30T12:35:43Z

162.158.89.223: Add comment about jenga tower

Randall seems to be saying that a startup doesn't need to create a new computer system to service their customers, all they have to do is put up a Facebook page which uses Google to find products and then has Amazon deliver them. The middle layer "Transport" is a joke because Amazon literally ships physical boxes, but the OSI model is not about actual boxes; it's about information and the way the information is presented to the user vs what goes on behind the scenes.
But I don't get the part about the horcruxes. Is it just the fact that there are seven of them? Or is there some subtle connection I'm missing here? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.180|162.158.106.180]] 05:50, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
:(Spoilers alert) Voldemort uses signifying objects of his life, heritage and his school's founders as horcruces. When the OSI layers are used as horcruces, one problem would be that Google/Amazon would have taken control of two horcruces, the other that some of the layers are frayed at the sides. Randall should not have put his horcruces in living standards - that was a very dangerous move. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 07:54, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Is there a meaning of the widths of the layers - not a block or a triangle/pyramid? Are there more layers than the named ones? Or the named ones multiple times? This would correspond to the design of ever more layers, virtualizations, abstractions and overall complexity of computer systems as time moved forward. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 07:49, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
:It looks like a jenga tower to me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 12:35, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

I think Google & Amazon are the grey blob that is slowly absorbing all of the layers [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.114|141.101.107.114]] 07:55, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
: Excellent remark! Google & Amazon are inserted between the Data Link and Network layers, and while it seems like an eight layer from the shape profile, they do not sit in their own bordered rectangle. Another view point is maybe Randall tried to display the fight between the Infrastructure providers to capture a new layer in gestation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.114|141.101.107.114]] 08:21, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

: Agreed. There is no way that Randall wanted the label for the gray blob to just apply to a couple of layers. It's clearly labelling the entire gray blob as "Google and Amazon". Otherwise, he would have put in another dividing line or two. So all the glue between the layers is being described as "Google and Amazon". Meaning that the layers wouldn't even be able to talk to each other and function correctly without G+A glue between them. Maybe this is "glue" in the technical sense of trivial code which converts from one API to another. The basic point here is that Google lays cable in some places and writes Chrome and owns You Tube, so it's definitely at both ends. I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to say if it owns/writes stuff in the middle. And I'd be surprised if this was true of Amazon. But it's not my place to comment on the veracity of Randall's remarks, I'm just trying to sort out what he's saying.

: That's how I understood it as well. By having there hands in *everything* G+A defeat the whole purpose of having a layered (ie. divided) model, making the 'modern model' just bits and pieces added to G+A code.

Trivia: (Major Spoiler alert) Voldemort originally intended to create six horcruces to divide his soul into 7 (including his own body) pieces. The 6th unintended horcrux is Harry Potter by Voldemort killing his parents. Later on after his revival Voldemort made the snake Nagini to his seemingly 6th horcrux, which was actually his 7th. Does that mean Randall embodies one of the OSI layers from the beginning of his existence? :-) Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 08:01, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

2099: Missal of Silos

2019-01-17T07:51:42Z

162.158.89.223: link to old revision

{{comic
| number = 2099
| date = January 16, 2019
| title = Missal of Silos
| image = missal_of_silos.png
| titletext = Welcome to Wyoming, motto "We'd like to clarify that Cheyenne Mountain is in Colorado."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Cremated by a BOB. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Approximate string matching|Fuzzy, or approximate, string matching}} is a technique used for searching text for specified "strings" of characters. Normal string matching would only find results that fit the search exactly (searching for "''missile''" would find only occurrences of "''missile''"). Fuzzy string matching instead finds results that are "close enough" by some metric (searching for "''missile''" would find "''missile''" but also close variants like "''missal''" or "''missel''"). This is often used in search engines, as typos, misspellings, and inexact searches are commonplace.

{{w|Missile silos}} are often thought to be the first targeting priority in event of a nuclear strike, in hopes of preventing retaliation from the target. If a list of potential nuclear missile targets were stored, and a fuzzy search was looking for "missile silos", the {{w|Missal of Silos}} would most likely be returned as a result and could be made a target.

In Christianity, a {{w|missal}} is a priest's book of instructions, texts and music for the proper celebration of {{w|Mass (liturgy|Mass}}. The Missal of Silos is an 11th-century missal from the {{w|Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos}} in northern {{w|Spain}}; it is famous for being the oldest known {{w|paper}} document in Europe, written at a time when the usual writing material was {{w|parchment}}.

{{w|Cheyenne Mountain}} is a mountain in {{w|Colorado}}, which houses an underground compound (aptly named the {{w|Cheyenne Mountain Complex}}) designed to withstand a nuclear strike, armed with missiles of their own. {{w|Cheyenne, Wyoming}}, on the other hand, is the capital of {{w|Wyoming}}. The residents of Cheyenne, Wyoming would prefer their home isn't the target of a nuclear attack because of confusion with Cheyenne Mountain{{Citation needed}}. However, Cheyenne is the home of {{w|F. E. Warren Air Force Base}}. F. E. Warren is home to a wing of {{w|Minuteman III}} {{w|intercontinental ballistic missiles}}. Presumably it is every bit as much of a target as Cheyenne Mountain.

==Trivia==
The transcript of the Wikipedia article shown on the comic is accurate to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Missal_of_Silos&oldid=857775302 revision made on 2 September 2018], but is dramatically different from the article today; this is because a spurt of editing took place on Wikipedia on the day of the comic, since xkcd and Wikipedia editing have similar target demographics.

This "xkcd-Wikipedia effect" has happened before. One other example of this revolved around [[878: Model Rail]], in which the alt-text mentioned that the debate over the title of the HO/H0 system was disturbingly long, and "coincidentally", the talk page debate got a little longer on that very day.

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

:'''Missal of Silos'''
:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
:The {{w|Missal}} of Silos is the oldest known {{w|paper}} document created in the Christian West; it is 11th century in date.[1]
:The missal is held in the library of the {{w|Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos}} near {{w|Burgos, Spain}}. It is one of a number of liturgical manuscripts...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Spain would like to remind everyone not to use fuzzy string matching in their nuclear strike target lists.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Wikipedia]]

2097: Thor Tools

2019-01-14T13:43:46Z

162.158.89.223: /* List of tools */

{{comic
| number = 2097
| date = January 11, 2019
| title = Thor Tools
| image = thor_tools.png
| titletext = CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add a list of the tools in the comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In Norse mythology, {{w|Thor}} is (in Scandinavian languages) the name of a god of thunder and lightning. His signature weapon is a magic hammer called {{w|Mjölnir}}. In popular culture, he might be best known for his role in {{w|Thor (Marvel Comics)|Marvel comics and films}}, which his appearance here seems to be referencing. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor also wields an axe named Stormbreaker.

Although this hammer was historically a weapon, this comic interprets it as it would more commonly be interpeted today -- as a tool. The comic is listing various hand tools in order of utility and viability as Thor's weapon, besides his actual, enchanted hammer. Hammers are heavy, blunt, and can do large amounts of damage to an opponent, whereas a hand plane is sharp, but only in one place, and will only inflict surface wounds.

Some of these tools require power, which would generally require Thor to stay near an outlet or keep a battery charging, such as the circular saw, or Dremel. However, being the god of lightning may allow him to circumvent this, by producing electricity for the direct current (D.C.) tools, although he would need an inverter to convert the lightning (D.C.) to alternating current (A.C.) for the tools requiring it. Thor would also need compressed air for the nail gun or jackhammer, only allowing Thor so many shots before reloading the air tank at an outlet, or via a concentrated wind storm.

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.

The usefulness of the nail gun as a weapon might depend on whether it was an older one that can be bump-fired or a newer one that requires a separate trigger pull for each nail.

In the title text, [[Randall]] writes that the order of the axis label should be reversed, making the plane the best tool and Mjölnir the worst. Considering that the title of the comic is "Thor Tools" ("tools", instead of "weapons"), the argument seems to be that a hammer is less useful than the rest, by seeing them as tools and not as weapons.

A few other interpretations of this could be:
* Randall proposes that Thor armed with a plane or digital calipers would be much more fearsome than with a hammer.
* The "value" of the more strange-seeming items would be much higher than his traditional hammer, perhaps more gory or more humorous.
* Thor tends to cause collateral damage, and would cause less with a plane or calipers.
* "Best" and "worst" are to be interpreted for Thor's enemies rather than Thor himself.
* Randall might just find the idea of Thor wielding a Plane as a weapon to be really funny.

The title may be a reference to Gary Larson's ''The Far Side'' comic, ''Cow Tools''.

===List of tools===

All shown tools are explained below:
;Hammer
:A {{w|hammer}} ''is a tool consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object''. Thor was a hammer-wielding god and produced the lighting by using this tool. A {{w|war hammer}} was an actual blunt weapon used for combat in medieval times, and is the original Thor's attribute. There exists a variety of craftsman's hammers designed for specific purposes which can be used as weapons of opportunity to various degrees, depending on the tool's size, weight and material.
;Axe
:An {{w|axe}} or just ax is another old human tool used to split and cut wood, but it also was used as a dangerous weapon in the medieval times. The battle-axes of old were of considerably different design than the woodworking ones, being lighter and having thinner and wider blades. Even though, a woodworking axe could be a formidable weapon of opportunity.
;Claw hammer
:A {{w|claw hammer}} is a hammer tool primarily used for driving nails into other objects, but also for pulling nails from them. This item seems a bit redundant in the presence of a general hammer on the axis, but could be seen as more scary because it has a pointed, curved and split back head (used for pulling nails). In fact, the usefulness of its back head for combat is debatable at least. On the other hand, it is smaller and lighter than some other craftman's hammers, and less scary than a true war hammer, so its place on the axis may be justified.
;Circular saw
:A {{w|circular saw}} is using a, mostly electric powered, fast-revolving toothed disc to cut materials. A stationary version is called a ''table saw'' but the figure of Thor drawn above presents him using a lighter hand-held version making a buzzing sound. Since the power of the saw is far beyond the human power it is quite a dangerous tool and could be fatal to the user himself. However, it would be rather unwieldy in combat, as it is quite heavy and bulky, and usually requires both hands to operate. Also, electric circular saw would be limited by its cord length, however cordless (battery-operated) saws exist today. This item could be a mock reference to a common trope in horror movies or computer games, when a {{w|chainsaw}} (not a circular saw) is used a weapon.
;Shovel
:A {{w|shovel}} is also a historic tool. It can be used to dig into the ground, move snow or dirt, harvest, and much more. Because it has a relatively thin, sharp metal blade at the end of a pole, it can be used as a weapon of opportunity. Indeed, a small (sometimes foldable), sturdy spade was and still is a standard issue item for an infantryman in some countries, intended mainly for entrenching work, but also usable as a weapon – and the soldiers are trained to use it as such, sometimes to a high skill, specifically among special forces. It is rumored that Russian Spetznaz operators are specifically trained to use their spades as throwing weapons. It is therefore more useful in combat than a circular saw - but may be seen as less scary.
;Jackhammer
:A {{w|jackhammer}} is a power tool used to drill and crush hard but brittle materials like stone, concrete etc. It has heavy body with a protruding shaft that makes hard and rapid back-and-forth (and optionally also rotary) movements that drive an implement (a drill, a chisel etc.) into the worked material. Like the circular saw jackhammer is a tool that is powered far beyond single human capabilities. Most jackhammers are very heavy and can be reasonably used only in a facing-down position to work on floors, pavements and other near-horizontal surfaces, nullifying combat application. However, since Thor is purportedly very strong, he may be able to hold it horizontally for some combat...
;Socket wrench
:An handle attached to a {{w|socket wrench}} is mostly used to tighten bolts or nuts. But since it is quite heavy and resembles a hammer it could also be used in a similar fashion. It may be a self-reference to [[538: Security|comic 538]].
;Bolt cutters
:{{w|Bolt cutters}} are cutters with very long handles, typically 2 or 3 feet long, and comparatively tiny jaws. The length of the handles provides the user enough mechanical advantage to sheer through things like bolts, chain links, and lock shackles. Although this tool can cut some fairly tough objects, its usefulness in combat is limited – as far as the cutting action goes at least. On the other hand they are quite heavy and can be used as a blunt weapon.
;Hacksaw
:A {{w|hacksaw}} is a type of hand saw with very small teeth. Hacksaws are well suited to cutting materials like metal and plastic, where the larger teeth of a wood saw would tend to bind or damage the material around the cut. Hacksaw blades are fairly unlikely to seriously injure people, though a hacksaw may be useful against metal baddies like Ultron.
;Nail gun
:A {{w|nail gun}} is a tool for driving nails or other fasteners into various materials ranging from soft wood to hard concrete by a single powerful "shot" to the nail being driven. There are models powered by compressed air, electricity (several types of mechanisms) or explosive charges similar to firearm ammunition (most often compatible with {{w|.22 Short}} blank cartridges). They are normally used by slightly pushing the "nozzle" against an object, disengaging a safety nose contact mechanism, and pulling the trigger. These are quite dangerous tools and can be potentially modified – by removing safety mechanisms – to act similarly to a handgun, shooting nails as high-speed projectiles. It's place in the middle of the axis seems not right compared to the work hazard level of other tools placed left of it. If safety mechanisms are left intact, a nail gun would need to be used in close combat by pressing it against an opponent which would make it difficult to apply, but if applied successfully it would inflict grievous wounds.
;Staple gun
: A {{w|staple gun}} is a tool used to drive {{w|staple|staples}} (C-shaped pieces of hard wire) into relatively soft materials such as wood, plastics and light masonry in order to fix something to them. There exist spring-loaded hand-operated staple guns as well as power ones utilizing either electricity or compressed air. The power discharged during staple action is a lot less than that of a nail gun and would inflict minor skin wounds at most.
;Coping saw
;Screwdriver (flat)
;Ball-peen hammer
;Screwdriver (Phillips)
;Awl
;Digital Caliper
:{{w|Digital calipers}} are an instrument for precisely measuring the dimensions of small objects. Typically, digital calipers can measure inner diameters, outer diameters, and depth. The reason they are considered more formidable than Dremels and planes is likely how supprisingly sharp the calipers are. They need to be sharp to make accurate measurements, but it is not uncommon for people to cut themselves while using a digital caliper.
;Dremel
:Dremel is a brand name (often used in a generic sense) of small {{w|Die grinder|rotary power tools}} that can be used in precise work involving small objects such as engraving, milling, drilling, grinding, cutting, polishing etc. It consists of a relatively small and lightweight body housing a high-speed electric motor driving a shaft equipped with a {{w|Chuck (engineering)|chuck}}. Various implements can be fixed to the chuck – drills, milling cutters of various shapes, small cutting disks, grinding stones, brushes, soft polishing disks etc. Typically the tool is used handheld against an object held in a vice. It can also be mounted in a stand with a {{w|flexible shaft}} attached at the other end of which an implement is fixed in a chuck, allowing for still more precise work. A Dremel would be rather useless in combat, effecting in superficial wounds only. It could be seen as a baby circular saw, therefore much less scary and placed much more to the right of the scale.
;Plane

==Transcript==

:[A wide image is shown in a single frame.]
:Hand tools Thor could have ended up with
:[Below is a small centered horizontal line with arrows at both ends, labeled "Best" to the left and "Worst" on the right.]

:[The rest of the image shows an other horizontal line in the middle, also with arrows at both ends, covering the full width. Items are marked by a dot with a text above or below, and sometimes a figure wearing a winged helmet, above the line, uses a tool mentioned below:]
:Hammer
:Axe
:Claw hammer
:Circular saw
:[Above, the winged helmet guy uses a circular saw:]
:''Bzzzz zzzz''
:Shovel
:Jackhammer
:Socket wrench
:[Above, the winged helmet guy spins the socket of a socket wrench with a tiny sound.]
:Bolt cutters
:Hacksaw
:Nail gun
:Staple gun
:[Above, the winged helmet guy fires staples into the ground in front of him:]
:''Kachunk kachunk''
:Coping saw
:Screwdriver (flat)
:Ball-peen hammer
:Screwdriver (Phillips)
:Awl
:Digital Caliper
:Dremel
:[Above, the winged helmet guy shows a running Dremel to the left:]
:''Bzzzzz''
:Plane

{{comic discussion}}

2097: Thor Tools

2019-01-14T13:42:00Z

162.158.89.223: /* List of tools */

{{comic
| number = 2097
| date = January 11, 2019
| title = Thor Tools
| image = thor_tools.png
| titletext = CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add a list of the tools in the comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In Norse mythology, {{w|Thor}} is (in Scandinavian languages) the name of a god of thunder and lightning. His signature weapon is a magic hammer called {{w|Mjölnir}}. In popular culture, he might be best known for his role in {{w|Thor (Marvel Comics)|Marvel comics and films}}, which his appearance here seems to be referencing. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor also wields an axe named Stormbreaker.

Although this hammer was historically a weapon, this comic interprets it as it would more commonly be interpeted today -- as a tool. The comic is listing various hand tools in order of utility and viability as Thor's weapon, besides his actual, enchanted hammer. Hammers are heavy, blunt, and can do large amounts of damage to an opponent, whereas a hand plane is sharp, but only in one place, and will only inflict surface wounds.

Some of these tools require power, which would generally require Thor to stay near an outlet or keep a battery charging, such as the circular saw, or Dremel. However, being the god of lightning may allow him to circumvent this, by producing electricity for the direct current (D.C.) tools, although he would need an inverter to convert the lightning (D.C.) to alternating current (A.C.) for the tools requiring it. Thor would also need compressed air for the nail gun or jackhammer, only allowing Thor so many shots before reloading the air tank at an outlet, or via a concentrated wind storm.

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.

The usefulness of the nail gun as a weapon might depend on whether it was an older one that can be bump-fired or a newer one that requires a separate trigger pull for each nail.

In the title text, [[Randall]] writes that the order of the axis label should be reversed, making the plane the best tool and Mjölnir the worst. Considering that the title of the comic is "Thor Tools" ("tools", instead of "weapons"), the argument seems to be that a hammer is less useful than the rest, by seeing them as tools and not as weapons.

A few other interpretations of this could be:
* Randall proposes that Thor armed with a plane or digital calipers would be much more fearsome than with a hammer.
* The "value" of the more strange-seeming items would be much higher than his traditional hammer, perhaps more gory or more humorous.
* Thor tends to cause collateral damage, and would cause less with a plane or calipers.
* "Best" and "worst" are to be interpreted for Thor's enemies rather than Thor himself.
* Randall might just find the idea of Thor wielding a Plane as a weapon to be really funny.

The title may be a reference to Gary Larson's ''The Far Side'' comic, ''Cow Tools''.

===List of tools===

All shown tools are explained below:
;Hammer
:A {{w|hammer}} ''is a tool consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object''. Thor was a hammer-wielding god and produced the lighting by using this tool. A {{w|war hammer}} was an actual blunt weapon used for combat in medieval times, and is the original Thor's attribute. There exists a variety of craftsman's hammers designed for specific purposes which can be used as weapons of opportunity to various degrees, depending on the tool's size, weight and material.
;Axe
:An {{w|axe}} or just ax is another old human tool used to split and cut wood, but it also was used as a dangerous weapon in the medieval times. The battle-axes of old were of considerably different design than the woodworking ones, being lighter and having thinner and wider blades. Even though, a woodworking axe could be a formidable weapon of opportunity.
;Claw hammer
:A {{w|claw hammer}} is a hammer tool primarily used for driving nails into other objects, but also for pulling nails from them. This item seems a bit redundant in the presence of a general hammer on the axis, but could be seen as more scary because it has a pointed, curved and split back head (used for pulling nails). In fact, the usefulness of its back head for combat is debatable at least. On the other hand, it is smaller and lighter than some other craftman's hammers, and less scary than a true war hammer, so its place on the axis may be justified.
;Circular saw
:A {{w|circular saw}} is using a, mostly electric powered, fast-revolving toothed disc to cut materials. A stationary version is called a ''table saw'' but the figure of Thor drawn above presents him using a lighter hand-held version making a buzzing sound. Since the power of the saw is far beyond the human power it is quite a dangerous tool and could be fatal to the user himself. However, it would be rather unwieldy in combat, as it is quite heavy and bulky, and usually requires both hands to operate. Also, electric circular saw would be limited by its cord length, however cordless (battery-operated) saws exist today. This item could be a mock reference to a common trope in horror movies or computer games, when a {{w|chainsaw}} (not a circular saw) is used a weapon.
;Shovel
:A {{w|shovel}} is also a historic tool. It can be used to dig into the ground, move snow or dirt, harvest, and much more. Because it has a relatively thin, sharp metal blade at the end of a pole, it can be used as a weapon of opportunity. Indeed, a small (sometimes foldable), sturdy spade was and still is a standard issue item for an infantryman in some countries, intended mainly for entrenching work, but also usable as a weapon – and the soldiers are trained to use it as such, sometimes to a high skill, specifically among special forces. It is rumored that Russian Spetznaz operators are specifically trained to use their spades as throwing weapons. It is therefore more useful in combat than a circular saw - but may be seen as less scary.
;Jackhammer
:A {{w|jackhammer}} is a power tool used to drill and crush hard but brittle materials like stone, concrete etc. It has heavy body with a protruding shaft that makes hard and rapid back-and-forth (and optionally also rotary) movements that drive an implement (a drill, a chisel etc.) into the worked material. Like the circular saw jackhammer is a tool that is powered far beyond single human capabilities. Most jackhammers are very heavy and can be reasonably used only in a facing-down position to work on floors, pavements and other near-horizontal surfaces, nullifying combat application. However, since Thor is purportedly very strong, he may be able to hold it horizontally for some combat...
;Socket wrench
:An handle attached to a {{w|socket wrench}} is mostly used to tighten bolts or nuts. But since it is quite heavy and resembles a hammer it could also be used in a similar fashion. It may be a self-reference to [[538: Security|comic 538]].
;Bolt cutters
:{{w|Bolt cutters}} are cutters with very long handles, typically 2 or 3 feet long, and comparatively tiny jaws. The length of the handles provides the user enough mechanical advantage to sheer through things like bolts, chain links, and lock shackles. Although this tool can cut some fairly tough objects, its usefulness in combat is limited – as far as the cutting action goes at least. On the other hand they are quite heavy and can be used as a blunt weapon.
;Hacksaw
:A {{w|hacksaw}} is a type of hand saw with very small teeth. Hacksaws are well suited to cutting materials like metal and plastic, where the larger teeth of a wood saw would tend to bind or damage the material around the cut. Hacksaw blades are fairly unlikely to seriously injure people, though a hacksaw may be useful against metal baddies like Ultron.
;Nail gun
:A {{w|nail gun}} is a tool for driving nails or other fasteners into various materials ranging from soft wood to hard concrete by a single powerful "shot" to the nail being driven. There are models powered by compressed air, electricity (several types of mechanisms) or explosive charges similar to firearm ammunition (most often compatible with {{w|.22 Short}} blank cartridges). They are normally used by slightly pushing the "nozzle" against an object, disengaging a safety nose contact mechanism, and pulling the trigger. These are quite dangerous tools and can be potentially modified – by removing safety mechanisms – to act similarly to a handgun, shooting nails as high-speed projectiles. It's place in the middle of the axis seems not right compared to the work hazard level of other tools placed left of it. If safety mechanisms are left intact, a nail gun would need to be used in close combat by pressing it against an opponent which would make it difficult to apply, but if applied successfully it would inflict grievous wounds.
;Staple gun
: A {{w|staple gun}} is a tool used to drive {{w|staple|staples}} (C-shaped pieces of hard wire) into relatively soft materials such as wood, plastics and light masonry in order to fix something to them. There exist spring-loaded hand-operated staple guns as well as power ones utilizing either electricity or compressed air. The power discharged during staple action is a lot less than that of a nail gun and would inflict minor skin wounds at most.
;Coping saw
;Screwdriver (flat)
;Ball-peen hammer
;Screwdriver (Phillips)
;Awl
;Digital Caliper
:{{w|Digital calipers}} are an instrument for precisely measuring the dimensions of small objects. Typically, digital calipers can measure inner diameters, outer diameters, and depth. The reason they are considered more formidable than Dremels and planes is likely how supprisingly sharp the calipers are. They need to be sharp to make accurate measurements, but it is not uncommon for people to cut themselves while using a digital caliper.
;Dremel
:Dremel is a brand name (often used in a generic sense) of small {{w|Die grinder|rotary power tools}} that can be used in precise work involving small objects such as engraving, milling, drilling, grinding, cutting, polishing etc. It consists of a relatively small and lightweight body housing a high-speed electric motor driving a shaft equipped with a {{w|Chuck (engineering)|chuck}}. Various implements can be fixed to the chuck - drills, milling cutters of various shapes, small cutting disks, grinding stones, brushes, soft polishing disks etc. Typically the tool is used handheld against an object held in a vice. It can also be mounted in a stand with a {{w|flexible shaft}} attached at the other end of which an implement is fixed in a chuck, allowing for still more precise work. A Dremel would be rather useless in combat, effecting in superficial wounds only. It could be seen as a baby rotary saw, therefore much less scary and placed much more to the right of the scale.
;Plane

==Transcript==

:[A wide image is shown in a single frame.]
:Hand tools Thor could have ended up with
:[Below is a small centered horizontal line with arrows at both ends, labeled "Best" to the left and "Worst" on the right.]

:[The rest of the image shows an other horizontal line in the middle, also with arrows at both ends, covering the full width. Items are marked by a dot with a text above or below, and sometimes a figure wearing a winged helmet, above the line, uses a tool mentioned below:]
:Hammer
:Axe
:Claw hammer
:Circular saw
:[Above, the winged helmet guy uses a circular saw:]
:''Bzzzz zzzz''
:Shovel
:Jackhammer
:Socket wrench
:[Above, the winged helmet guy spins the socket of a socket wrench with a tiny sound.]
:Bolt cutters
:Hacksaw
:Nail gun
:Staple gun
:[Above, the winged helmet guy fires staples into the ground in front of him:]
:''Kachunk kachunk''
:Coping saw
:Screwdriver (flat)
:Ball-peen hammer
:Screwdriver (Phillips)
:Awl
:Digital Caliper
:Dremel
:[Above, the winged helmet guy shows a running Dremel to the left:]
:''Bzzzzz''
:Plane

{{comic discussion}}

2097: Thor Tools

2019-01-14T11:44:12Z

162.158.89.223: /* List of tools */

{{comic
| number = 2097
| date = January 11, 2019
| title = Thor Tools
| image = thor_tools.png
| titletext = CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add a list of the tools in the comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In Norse mythology, {{w|Thor}} is (in Scandinavian languages) the name of a god of thunder and lightning. His signature weapon is a magic hammer called {{w|Mjölnir}}. In popular culture, he might be best known for his role in {{w|Thor (Marvel Comics)|Marvel comics and films}}, which his appearance here seems to be referencing. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor also wields an axe named Stormbreaker.

Although this hammer was historically a weapon, this comic interprets it as it would more commonly be interpeted today -- as a tool. The comic is listing various hand tools in order of utility and viability as Thor's weapon, besides his actual, enchanted hammer. Hammers are heavy, blunt, and can do large amounts of damage to an opponent, whereas a hand plane is sharp, but only in one place, and will only inflict surface wounds.

Some of these tools require power, which would generally require Thor to stay near an outlet or keep a battery charging, such as the circular saw, or Dremel. However, being the god of lightning may allow him to circumvent this, by producing electricity for the direct current (D.C.) tools, although he would need an inverter to convert the lightning (D.C.) to alternating current (A.C.) for the tools requiring it. Thor would also need compressed air for the nail gun or jackhammer, only allowing Thor so many shots before reloading the air tank at an outlet, or via a concentrated wind storm.

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.

The usefulness of the nail gun as a weapon might depend on whether it was an older one that can be bump-fired or a newer one that requires a separate trigger pull for each nail.

In the title text, [[Randall]] writes that the order of the axis label should be reversed, making the plane the best tool and Mjölnir the worst. Considering that the title of the comic is "Thor Tools" ("tools", instead of "weapons"), the argument seems to be that a hammer is less useful than the rest, by seeing them as tools and not as weapons.

A few other interpretations of this could be:
* Randall proposes that Thor armed with a plane or digital calipers would be much more fearsome than with a hammer.
* The "value" of the more strange-seeming items would be much higher than his traditional hammer, perhaps more gory or more humorous.
* Thor tends to cause collateral damage, and would cause less with a plane or calipers.
* "Best" and "worst" are to be interpreted for Thor's enemies rather than Thor himself.
* Randall might just find the idea of Thor wielding a Plane as a weapon to be really funny.

The title may be a reference to Gary Larson's ''The Far Side'' comic, ''Cow Tools''.

===List of tools===

All shown tools are explained below:
;Hammer
:A {{w|hammer}} ''is a tool consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object''. Thor was a hammer-wielding god and produced the lighting by using this tool. A {{w|war hammer}} was an actual blunt weapon used for combat in medieval times, and is the original Thor's attribute. There exists a variety of craftsman's hammers designed for specific purposes which can be used as weapons of opportunity to various degrees, depending on the tool's size, weight and material.
;Axe
:An {{w|axe}} or just ax is another old human tool used to split and cut wood, but it also was used as a dangerous weapon in the medieval times. The battle-axes of old were of considerably different design than the woodworking ones, being lighter and having thinner and wider blades. Even though, a woodworking axe could be a formidable weapon of opportunity.
;Claw hammer
:A {{w|claw hammer}} is a hammer tool primarily used for driving nails into other objects, but also for pulling nails from them. This item seems a bit redundant in the presence of a general hammer on the axis, but could be seen as more scary because it has a pointed, curved and split back head (used for pulling nails). In fact, the usefulness of its back head for combat is debatable at least.
;Circular saw
:A {{w|circular saw}} is using a, mostly electric powered, fast-revolving toothed disc to cut materials. A stationary version is called a ''table saw'' but the figure of Thor drawn above presents him using a lighter hand-held version making a buzzing sound. Since the power of the saw is far beyond the human power it is quite a dangerous tool and could be fatal to the user himself. However, it would be rather unwieldy in combat, as it is quite heavy and bulky, and usually requires both hands to operate. Also, electric circular saw would be limited by its cord length, however cordless (battery-operated) saws exist today. This item could be a mock reference to a common trope in horror movies or computer games, when a {{w|chainsaw}} (not a circular saw) is used a weapon.
;Shovel
:A {{w|shovel}} is also a historic tool. It can be used to dig into the ground, move snow or dirt, harvest, and much more. Because it has a relatively thin, sharp metal blade at the end of a pole, it can be used as a weapon of opportunity. Indeed, a small (sometimes foldable), sturdy spade was and still is a standard issue item for an infantryman in some countries, intended mainly for entrenching work, but also usable as a weapon – and the soldiers are trained to use it as such, sometimes to a high skill, specifically among special forces. It is rumored that Russian Spetznaz operators are specifically trained to use their spades as throwing weapons.
;Jackhammer
:A {{w|jackhammer}} is a power tool used to drill and crush hard but brittle materials like stone, concrete etc. It has heavy body with a protruding shaft that makes hard and rapid back-and-forth (and optionally also rotary) movements that drive an implement (a drill, a chisel etc.) into the worked material. Like the circular saw jackhammer is a tool that is powered far beyond single human capabilities. Most jackhammers are very heavy and can be reasonably used only in a facing-down position to work on floors, pavements and other near-horizontal surfaces, nullifying combat application. However, since Thor is purportedly very strong, he may be able to hold it horizontally for some combat...
;Socket wrench
:An handle attached to a {{w|socket wrench}} is mostly used to tighten bolts or nuts. But since it is quite heavy and resembles a hammer it could also be used in a similar fashion. It may be a self-reference to [[538: Security|comic 538]].
;Bolt cutters
:{{w|Bolt cutters}} are cutters with very long handles, typically 2 or 3 feet long, and comparatively tiny jaws. The length of the handles provides the user enough mechanical advantage to sheer through things like bolts, chain links, and lock shackles. Although this tool can cut some fairly tough objects, its usefulness in combat is limited.
;Hacksaw
:A {{w|hacksaw}} is a type of hand saw with very small teeth. Hacksaws are well suited to cutting materials like metal and plastic, where the larger teeth of a wood saw would tend to bind or damage the material around the cut. Hacksaw blades are fairly unlikely to seriously injure people, though a hacksaw may be useful against metal baddies like Ultron.
;Nail gun
:A {{w|nail gun}} is a tool for driving nails or other fasteners into various materials ranging from soft wood to hard concrete by a single powerful "shot" to the nail being driven. There are models powered by compressed air, electricity (several types of mechanisms) or explosive charges similar to firearm ammunition (most often compatible with {{w|.22 Short}} blank cartridges). They are normally used by slightly pushing the "nozzle" against an object, disengaging a safety nose contact mechanism, and pulling the trigger. These are quite dangerous tools and can be potentially modified – by removing safety mechanisms – to act similarly to a handgun, shooting nails as high-speed projectiles.
;Staple gun
;Coping saw
;Screwdriver (flat)
;Ball-peen hammer
;Screwdriver (Phillips)
;Awl
;Digital Caliper
:{{w|Digital calipers}} are an instrument for precisely measuring the dimensions of small objects. Typically, digital calipers can measure inner diameters, outer diameters, and depth. The reason they are considered more formidable than Dremels and planes is likely how supprisingly sharp the calipers are. They need to be sharp to make accurate measurements, but it is not uncommon for people to cut themselves while using a digital caliper.
;Dremel
;Plane

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Please check typos. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A wide image is shown in a single frame.]
:Hand tools Thor could have ended up with
:[Below is a small centered horizontal line with arrows at both ends, labeled "Best" to the left and "Worst" on the right.]

:[The rest of the image shows an other horizontal line in the middle, also with arrows at both ends, covering the full width. Items are marked by a dot with a text above or below, and sometimes a figure wearing a winged helmet, above the line, uses a tool mentioned below:]
:Hammer
:Axe
:Claw hammer
:Circular saw
:[Above, the winged helmet guy uses a circular saw:]
:''Bzzzz zzzz''
:Shovel
:Jackhammer
:Socket wrench
:[Above, the winged helmet guy spins the socket of a socket wrench with a tiny sound.]
:Bolt cutters
:Hacksaw
:Nail gun
:Staple gun
:[Above, the winged helmet guy fires staples into the ground in front of him:]
:''Kachunk kachunk''
:Coping saw
:Screwdriver (flat)
:Ball-peen hammer
:Screwdriver (Phillips)
:Awl
:Digital Caliper
:Dremel
:[Above, the winged helmet guy shows a running Dremel to the left:]
:''Bzzzzz''
:Plane

{{comic discussion}}

2097: Thor Tools

2019-01-14T11:41:27Z

162.158.89.223: /* List of tools */

{{comic
| number = 2097
| date = January 11, 2019
| title = Thor Tools
| image = thor_tools.png
| titletext = CORRECTION: After careful evaluation, we have determined that the axis label on this chart was printed backward.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Add a list of the tools in the comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In Norse mythology, {{w|Thor}} is (in Scandinavian languages) the name of a god of thunder and lightning. His signature weapon is a magic hammer called {{w|Mjölnir}}. In popular culture, he might be best known for his role in {{w|Thor (Marvel Comics)|Marvel comics and films}}, which his appearance here seems to be referencing. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Avengers: Infinity War, Thor also wields an axe named Stormbreaker.

Although this hammer was historically a weapon, this comic interprets it as it would more commonly be interpeted today -- as a tool. The comic is listing various hand tools in order of utility and viability as Thor's weapon, besides his actual, enchanted hammer. Hammers are heavy, blunt, and can do large amounts of damage to an opponent, whereas a hand plane is sharp, but only in one place, and will only inflict surface wounds.

Some of these tools require power, which would generally require Thor to stay near an outlet or keep a battery charging, such as the circular saw, or Dremel. However, being the god of lightning may allow him to circumvent this, by producing electricity for the direct current (D.C.) tools, although he would need an inverter to convert the lightning (D.C.) to alternating current (A.C.) for the tools requiring it. Thor would also need compressed air for the nail gun or jackhammer, only allowing Thor so many shots before reloading the air tank at an outlet, or via a concentrated wind storm.

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.

The usefulness of the nail gun as a weapon might depend on whether it was an older one that can be bump-fired or a newer one that requires a separate trigger pull for each nail.

In the title text, [[Randall]] writes that the order of the axis label should be reversed, making the plane the best tool and Mjölnir the worst. Considering that the title of the comic is "Thor Tools" ("tools", instead of "weapons"), the argument seems to be that a hammer is less useful than the rest, by seeing them as tools and not as weapons.

A few other interpretations of this could be:
* Randall proposes that Thor armed with a plane or digital calipers would be much more fearsome than with a hammer.
* The "value" of the more strange-seeming items would be much higher than his traditional hammer, perhaps more gory or more humorous.
* Thor tends to cause collateral damage, and would cause less with a plane or calipers.
* "Best" and "worst" are to be interpreted for Thor's enemies rather than Thor himself.
* Randall might just find the idea of Thor wielding a Plane as a weapon to be really funny.

The title may be a reference to Gary Larson's ''The Far Side'' comic, ''Cow Tools''.

===List of tools===

All shown tools are explained below:
;Hammer
:A {{w|hammer}} ''is a tool consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object''. Thor was a hammer-wielding god and produced the lighting by using this tool. A {{w|war hammer}} was an actual blunt weapon used for combat in medieval times, and is the original Thor's attribute. There exists a variety of craftsman's hammers designed for specific purposes which can be used as weapons of opportunity to various degrees, depending on the tool's size, weight and material.
;Axe
:An {{w|axe}} or just ax is another old human tool used to split and cut wood, but it also was used as a dangerous weapon in the medieval times. The battle-axes of old were of considerably different design than the woodworking ones, being lighter and having thinner and wider blades. Even though, a woodworking axe could be a formidable weapon of opportunity.
;Claw hammer
:A {{w|claw hammer}} is a hammer tool primarily used for driving nails into other objects, but also for pulling nails from them. This item seems a bit redundant in the presence of a general hammer on the axis, but could be seen as more scary because it has a pointed, curved and split back head (used for pulling nails). In fact, the usefulness of its back head for combat is debatable at least.
;Circular saw
:A {{w|circular saw}} is using a, mostly electric powered, fast-revolving toothed disc to cut materials. A stationary version is called a ''table saw'' but the figure of Thor drawn above presents him using a lighter hand-held version making a buzzing sound. Since the power of the saw is far beyond the human power it is quite a dangerous tool and could be fatal to the user himself. However, it would be rather unwieldy in combat, as it is quite heavy and bulky, and usually requires both hands to operate. Also, electric circular saw would be limited by its cord length, however cordless (battery-operated) saws exist today. This item could be a mock reference to a common trope in horror movies or computer games, when a {{w|chainsaw}} (not a circular saw) is used a weapon.
;Shovel
:A {{w|shovel}} is also a historic tool. It can be used to dig into the ground, move snow or dirt, harvest, and much more. Because it has a relatively thin, sharp metal blade at the end of a pole, it can be used as a weapon of opportunity. Indeed, a small (sometimes foldable), sturdy spade was and still is a standard issue item for an infantryman in some countries, intended mainly for entrenching work, but also usable as a weapon – and the soldiers are trained to use it as such, sometimes to a high skill, specifically among special forces. It is rumored that Russian Spetznaz operators are specifically trained to use their spades as throwing weapons.
;Jackhammer
:A {{w|jackhammer}} is a power tool used to drill and crush hard but brittle materials like stone, concrete etc. It has heavy body with a protruding shaft that makes hard and rapid back-and-forth (and optionally also rotary) movements that drive an implement (a drill, a chisel etc.) into the worked material. Like the circular saw jackhammer is a tool that is powered far beyond single human capabilities. Most jackhammers are very heavy and can be reasonably used only in a facing-down position to work on floors, pavements and other near-horizontal surfaces, nullifying combat application. However, since Thor is purportedly very strong, he may be able to hold it horizontally for some combat...
;Socket wrench
:An handle attached to a {{w|socket wrench}} is mostly used to tighten bolts or nuts. But since it is quite heavy and resembles a hammer it could also be used in a similar fashion. It may be a self-reference to [[538: Security|comic 538]].
;Bolt cutters
:{{w|Bolt cutters}} are cutters with very long handles, typically 2 or 3 feet long, and comparatively tiny jaws. The length of the handles provides the user enough mechanical advantage to sheer through things like bolts, chain links, and lock shackles. Although this tool can cut some fairly tough objects, its usefulness in combat is limited.
;Hacksaw
:A {{w|hacksaw}} is a type of hand saw with very small teeth. Hacksaws are well suited to cutting materials like metal and plastic, where the larger teeth of a wood saw would tend to bind or damage the material around the cut. Hacksaw blades are fairly unlikely to seriously injure people, though a hacksaw may be useful against metal baddies like Ultron.
;Nail gun
:A {{w|nail gun}} is a tool for driving nails or other fasteners into various materials from soft wood to hard concrete by a single powerful "shot" to the nail being driven. There are models powered by compressed air, electricity (several types of mechanisms) or explosive charges similar to firearm ammunition (most often compatible with .22 short blank cartridges). They are normally used by slightly pushing the "nozzle" against an object, disengaging a safety nose contact mechanism and pulling the trigger. These are quite dangerous tools, and can be potentially modified – by removing safety mechanisms – to act similarly to a handgun, shooting nails as high-speed projectiles.
;Staple gun
;Coping saw
;Screwdriver (flat)
;Ball-peen hammer
;Screwdriver (Phillips)
;Awl
;Digital Caliper
:{{w|Digital calipers}} are an instrument for precisely measuring the dimensions of small objects. Typically, digital calipers can measure inner diameters, outer diameters, and depth. The reason they are considered more formidable than Dremels and planes is likely how supprisingly sharp the calipers are. They need to be sharp to make accurate measurements, but it is not uncommon for people to cut themselves while using a digital caliper.
;Dremel
;Plane

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Please check typos. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A wide image is shown in a single frame.]
:Hand tools Thor could have ended up with
:[Below is a small centered horizontal line with arrows at both ends, labeled "Best" to the left and "Worst" on the right.]

:[The rest of the image shows an other horizontal line in the middle, also with arrows at both ends, covering the full width. Items are marked by a dot with a text above or below, and sometimes a figure wearing a winged helmet, above the line, uses a tool mentioned below:]
:Hammer
:Axe
:Claw hammer
:Circular saw
:[Above, the winged helmet guy uses a circular saw:]
:''Bzzzz zzzz''
:Shovel
:Jackhammer
:Socket wrench
:[Above, the winged helmet guy spins the socket of a socket wrench with a tiny sound.]
:Bolt cutters
:Hacksaw
:Nail gun
:Staple gun
:[Above, the winged helmet guy fires staples into the ground in front of him:]
:''Kachunk kachunk''
:Coping saw
:Screwdriver (flat)
:Ball-peen hammer
:Screwdriver (Phillips)
:Awl
:Digital Caliper
:Dremel
:[Above, the winged helmet guy shows a running Dremel to the left:]
:''Bzzzzz''
:Plane

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2087: Rocket Launch

2018-12-21T01:26:02Z

162.158.89.223: win

I had to fight the urge to type Care Bare [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]])

This was published during the Arianespace launch livestream, between launch and satellite deployment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpHJoo0h8GQ [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:11, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Looks like it could be an Ariane5 in the comic, it is a 3 stage. Anyone know if Max-CB is a real thing (and before I get any wisecracks, I know there aren't any Care Bears in the clouds) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.214|162.158.63.214]] 20:27, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

: A search for rocketry terminology reveals that Cb stands for Ballistic Coefficient, which is a measure of the ability to coast. It is related to both velocity and air density, which vary throughout a rocket launch, so it makes sense that there might be some point of maximum ballistic coefficient. (Note: I am not a rocket scientist, and this is clearly rocket science, so take this with a grain of salt!) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:13, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
::That point is called "Max-Q". Source: I've seen a lot of rocket launches recently and they always mention it, because it's the second most likely moment to have a failure (first is the launch, of course). [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 07:28, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

: Pontificating further, it is reasonable to conjecture that as a rocket accelerates to higher speeds, the drag from the atmosphere increases with increasing speed, but past a certain point the drag begins to decrease as the air gets thinner. This suggests there is some point somewhere during the launch sequence where aerodynamic drag reaches a maximum value - aka Max Cb. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:26, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

: Finally one I can help with! Okay, I don't think this is ballistic coefficient for several reasons: 1. Ballistic Coefficient is typically noted by the greek letter Beta, not Cb. 2. Ballistic coefficient is mass divided by drag area (drag coefficient times reference area). Basically a shape parameter. So while the mass does change over the course of the flight (burning fuel), the drag area does not. Making this a somewhat useless parameter for a launch vehicle 3. Ballistic Coefficient is typically reported as a static parameter rather than a time-varying parameter, so "Max ballistic coefficient" is a rather unusual metric (and would occur on the launch pad in any case, when mass is highest). Finally, as an aside, objects with high ballistic coefficients tend to fly through the air easily and are not influenced very much by wind (such as rocks or bullets), whereas low-beta objects can by pushed and slowed down a lot by the wind (such as balloons). [[User:Tyanderson91|Tyanderson91]] ([[User talk:Tyanderson91|talk]]) 03:17, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
:: For rockets with side boosters, as the one shown, drag will potentially change dramatically at each staging event; when the side boosters are jettisoned they are no longer dragging on the rocket, and it's possible that the stage will have a higher ballistic coefficient because there's less surface area and not significantly less mass. Chad[[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.84|172.68.47.84]] 10:30, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

r/shittyspacexideas --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.139|173.245.52.139]] 19:53, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

If you trace the dotted lines, it seems that the Boosters are the winners[[User:CCCVVVA|CCCVVVA]] ([[User talk:CCCVVVA|talk]]) 03:02, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

:When I did it, I noticed that the boosters lost. After reading your comment, I traced it again and noticed that the last time they meet, when I saw them not crossing, could actually be interpreted as crossing (though it still seems to me that not crossing is more likely). Wonder if thst's purposeful confusion. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 01:26, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

This was posted on the day SpaceX was supposed to launch the GPS-III-2 satellite, which may be the reason for the mention of GPS [[User:Tyanderson91|Tyanderson91]] ([[User talk:Tyanderson91|talk]])

The max CB is clearly meant to spoof the real problem of rockets hitting birds. Since birds can't fly in the he upper part of the atmosphere, the point of highest likelihood of hitting a bird would presumably be below max-Q and not above it as in the comic. It is worth noting that there are no clouds at the altitude where max CB is shown in the comic, so it seems unlikely that any hypothetical cloud castle would be that high.

EDIT: ok, after checking the numbers it seems like it is technically possible to encounter birds and clouds at heights above max-Q for some rockets, but the position shown in the comic still seems too high. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 04:23, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

I suspect "pursuit phase" refers either to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_predation predation] or to some aspect of air warfare (either involving missiles chasing craft or craft vs. craft). [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 08:08, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

2087: Rocket Launch

2018-12-20T10:08:10Z

162.158.89.223: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2087
| date = December 19, 2018
| title = Rocket Launch
| image = rocket_launch.png
| titletext = NASA tries to coordinate launch timing with the Care Bears' cloud castle, but unfortunately sometimes collisions with stray Care Bears are unavoidable, so they just try to make the fairings sturdy and hope for a glancing impact.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CARE BEAR STARE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic was posted on a week with a notably high number of {{w|rocket launch}}es. Originally, there were to be four {{w|Orbital spaceflight|orbital rocket}} launches from the United States on December 19, 2018 (the publish date for the comic), which would have tied with the prior record for number of orbital rocket launches in one day. While these launches were ultimately delayed, breaking the event, the comic was doubtless under production by then.

Only some of the steps listed are actually typical.

; Liftoff
: The traditional start of a launch, when the rocket leaves the ground. The engines will typically have been ignited a short time before, often one-by-one in a specifically engineered sequence to reduce shock stress on the rocket, but need to throttle up to produce enough thrust to overcome the rocket's weight. Some launch pad configurations physically restrain the rocket (at least to some degree) until the engines are known to produce the required thrust then the rocket is released (e.g. by pyrotechnically crushing restraining bolts such as in NASA Space Shuttle configuration, or by hydraulic actuators opening a sturdy "clamp", such as in SpaceX Falcon 9 configuration). "Liftoff" refers to the moment this happens, making the rocket lift off the ground.
; {{w|Max q|Max-Q}}
: Peak aerodynamic stress. A rocket accelerates from the moment it leaves the ground. The faster a rocket goes, the bigger volume of air it pushes through per second - but the higher a rocket goes, the thinner the air. (Before liftoff, the rocket is not moving, and thus is not pushing through air. Once in orbit, there is essentially no air to push through, so the rocket is not pushing through air. Between those two times, the rocket is pushing through some amount of air, the exact amount increasing before Max Q and decreasing after Max Q.) "Max Q" is the moment where these two factors produce a maximum, and is the point where the rocket's structure must withstand the most air pushing back against it.
; Booster separation
: rockets are designed in {{w|Multistage rocket|stages}}, so they do not have to carry the empty fuel tanks all the way to orbit. (Carrying any mass to orbit is expensive, so the more that can be dropped off earlier, the better.) 3 stages is typical. "Booster separation" marks the point where the first of these stages (the "{{w|Booster (rocketry)|booster}}"), its fuel expended, is typically ejected.
; Max-CB
: Highest chance of collision with {{w|Care Bears}}. This is entirely fictitious. Care Bears are fictitious characters, which have a toy line, television series, and movies. The existence of a basketball sneaker named the "Nike Air Force Max CB" may or may not be relevant.
; Main stage separation
: See "booster separation" above. This marks the point where the second stage (the "main stage") is ejected.
; {{w|GPS}} silenced so it will stop saying "Make a U-turn"
: Again, this is fictional. While some rockets do make use of signals from the Global Positioning System ("GPS"), no rockets are known to use the navigational devices that incorporate GPS readers and street maps, providing directions - often with optional text-to-speech - along the Earth's surface. Some such devices are notorious for getting confused in extreme situations (such as the high Mach numbers that rockets achieve); constantly uttering "make a U-turn" would be one such confusion, and any device in such a confused state might well be silenced for being more annoying than helpful. Navigation of this nature is neither necessary nor useful on a rocket, which will have its entire route from ground to orbit computed before launch, and piloting typically left entirely to computers given the precise timing required.
; Reunification (of boosters)
: Another fictional step. Discarded stages fall back into the Earth's atmosphere, either hitting the ground (or, more often, water) or burning up from the friction of falling at extreme speed. The booster and main stage would not be on a course to come anywhere near each other, and would not have enough fuel to change their course (running out of fuel being why they were discarded in the first place). Even if they did, landing for reuse (as {{w|SpaceX reusable launch system development program|SpaceX has attempted}}, sometimes successfully) would be far more likely than a mid-air reunion.
; Pilot panics, copilot takes command after struggle
: Another fictional step. Astronauts are not the sort of people who panic easily, nor struggle with their crewmates. More importantly, in any modern rocket the "pilot" is not a human being, but a computer incapable of panic (as in the human emotion). It is possible that part of the flight computer could fail, causing redundant failsafes to take over, but the process could not correctly be described as a "struggle", and in any case this sort of failure is uncommon enough that it is not part of a "typical" rocket launch.
; Pursuit phase
: Fictional. This assumes the (nonexistent) reunified booster would have enough fuel to pursue the top stage of the rocket, and a reason to do so. See "Reunification".
; Inter-stage {{w|dogfight}}
: Fictional. See "Pursuit phase". This at least provides a potential motive. A dogfight is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft, conducted at close range. This step claims that the rocket booster and the top stage of the rocket engage in a battle.
; Winner proceeds to space
: Fictional. As noted above, in a real rocket launch there is no dogfight for there to be a "winner" of. A kind reading would note that the top stage "wins" by default, and it is certainly the case that in a real (orbital) rocket launch, the top stage typically does proceed to space.

The title text refers once again to the Care Bears franchise. The Care Bears live in a castle made of clouds, so the comic claims that NASA aims to avoid launching into their castle, but sometimes cannot avoid hitting "stray" Care Bears.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2087: Rocket Launch

2018-12-20T09:56:02Z

162.158.89.223: Changed ordinary list to definition list

{{comic
| number = 2087
| date = December 19, 2018
| title = Rocket Launch
| image = rocket_launch.png
| titletext = NASA tries to coordinate launch timing with the Care Bears' cloud castle, but unfortunately sometimes collisions with stray Care Bears are unavoidable, so they just try to make the fairings sturdy and hope for a glancing impact.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CARE BEAR STARE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic was posted on a week with a notably high number of {{w|rocket launch}}es. Originally, there were to be four {{w|Orbital spaceflight|orbital rocket}} launches from the United States on December 19, 2018 (the publish date for the comic), which would have tied with the prior record for number of orbital rocket launches in one day. While these launches were ultimately delayed, breaking the event, the comic was doubtless under production by then.

Only some of the steps listed are actually typical.

; Liftoff
: The traditional start of a launch, when the rocket leaves the ground. The engines will typically have been ignited a short time before, but need to throttle up to produce enough thrust to overcome the rocket's weight. "Liftoff" refers to the moment this happens, making the rocket lift off the ground.
; {{w|Max q|Max-Q}}
: Peak aerodynamic stress. A rocket accelerates from the moment it leaves the ground. The faster a rocket goes, the bigger volume of air it pushes through per second - but the higher a rocket goes, the thinner the air. (Before liftoff, the rocket is not moving, and thus is not pushing through air. Once in orbit, there is essentially no air to push through, so the rocket is not pushing through air. Between those two times, the rocket is pushing through some amount of air, the exact amount increasing before Max Q and decreasing after Max Q.) "Max Q" is the moment where these two factors produce a maximum, and is the point where the rocket's structure must withstand the most air pushing back against it.
; Booster separation
: rockets are designed in {{w|Multistage rocket|stages}}, so they do not have to carry the empty fuel tanks all the way to orbit. (Carrying any mass to orbit is expensive, so the more that can be dropped off earlier, the better.) 3 stages is typical. "Booster separation" marks the point where the first of these stages (the "{{w|Booster (rocketry)|booster}}"), its fuel expended, is typically ejected.
; Max-CB
: Highest chance of collision with {{w|Care Bears}}. This is entirely fictitious. Care Bears are fictitious characters, which have a toy line, television series, and movies. The existence of a basketball sneaker named the "Nike Air Force Max CB" may or may not be relevant.
; Main stage separation
: See "booster separation" above. This marks the point where the second stage (the "main stage") is ejected.
; {{w|GPS}} silenced so it will stop saying "Make a U-turn"
: Again, this is fictional. While some rockets do make use of signals from the Global Positioning System ("GPS"), no rockets are known to use the navigational devices that incorporate GPS readers and street maps, providing directions - often with optional text-to-speech - along the Earth's surface. Some such devices are notorious for getting confused in extreme situations (such as the high Mach numbers that rockets achieve); constantly uttering "make a U-turn" would be one such confusion, and any device in such a confused state might well be silenced for being more annoying than helpful. Navigation of this nature is neither necessary nor useful on a rocket, which will have its entire route from ground to orbit computed before launch, and piloting typically left entirely to computers given the precise timing required.
; Reunification (of boosters)
: Another fictional step. Discarded stages fall back into the Earth's atmosphere, either hitting the ground (or, more often, water) or burning up from the friction of falling at extreme speed. The booster and main stage would not be on a course to come anywhere near each other, and would not have enough fuel to change their course (running out of fuel being why they were discarded in the first place). Even if they did, landing for reuse (as {{w|SpaceX reusable launch system development program|SpaceX has attempted}}, sometimes successfully) would be far more likely than a mid-air reunion.
; Pilot panics, copilot takes command after struggle
: Another fictional step. Astronauts are not the sort of people who panic easily, nor struggle with their crewmates. More importantly, in any modern rocket the "pilot" is not a human being, but a computer incapable of panic (as in the human emotion). It is possible that part of the flight computer could fail, causing redundant failsafes to take over, but the process could not correctly be described as a "struggle", and in any case this sort of failure is uncommon enough that it is not part of a "typical" rocket launch.
; Pursuit phase
: Fictional. This assumes the (nonexistent) reunified booster would have enough fuel to pursue the top stage of the rocket, and a reason to do so. See "Reunification".
; Inter-stage {{w|dogfight}}
: Fictional. See "Pursuit phase". This at least provides a potential motive. A dogfight is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft, conducted at close range. This step claims that the rocket booster and the top stage of the rocket engage in a battle.
; Winner proceeds to space
: Fictional. As noted above, in a real rocket launch there is no dogfight for there to be a "winner" of. A kind reading would note that the top stage "wins" by default, and it is certainly the case that in a real (orbital) rocket launch, the top stage typically does proceed to space.

The title text refers once again to the Care Bears franchise. The Care Bears live in a castle made of clouds, so the comic claims that NASA aims to avoid launching into their castle, but sometimes cannot avoid hitting "stray" Care Bears.

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

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2018-12-14T14:24:45Z

162.158.89.223: Undo revision 167020 by Beachristiano (talk) SPAM!

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. See explanation of [[#Individual design elements|individual design elements]] below.

The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (in this case his desk and the water glass and the desk lamp on top of it), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort.

This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while ''I, Pencil'' idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the comic focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape.

Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."[http://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65]

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a typical desk lamp, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title. (Interestingly, but without being related to this comic, the next comic was called [[1742: Will It Work|1742: Will It '''Work''']]).

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (based on his imagination) but still he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may be because he already had a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord was mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. As the lamp on this desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews...

Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord, as he might believe it was a frustrated engineer that is the cause of such an inconvenient placement of the switch.

===Individual design elements===
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || {{w|AutoCAD}} is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines, this curve in particular must be revolved around an axis, and the engineer would need to ensure it correctly interfaces with the remainder of the body.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an {{w|incandescent bulb}} is installed, possibly causing injury if the shade is touched. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of {{w|California}} is known for its many safety regulations[http://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65]. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning [https://thebigdiseasey.wordpress.com/tag/disneyland/].
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. This is a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, etc. etc.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The {{w|Great Bear Rainforest}} is a temperate rainforest on the central coast of {{w|British Columbia}}, {{w|Canada}}. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to {{w|Great Bear Rainforest|protect 85% of this forest}} from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people can become quite passionate about whether a particular feature is, on balance, a convenience or an annoyance. If the designers cannot find a compromise or reach consensus, the supervisor may decide that the time spent on these disagreements outweighs the value of the passionate designers. Randall's distaste for lamps with the switch on the cord has been mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]].
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2083: Laptop Issues

2018-12-10T19:57:22Z

162.158.89.223:

Please provide links to https://xkcd.com/1084/ and https://xkcd.com/1586/ (unsigned by IP 172.68.65.150

I would recommend an exorcism for the laptop. 19:28, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Has Randall been reading Charles Stross's "The Laundry Files"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 19:57, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

2080: Cohort and Age Effects

2018-12-04T15:12:06Z

162.158.89.223:

{{comic
| number = 2080
| date = December 3, 2018
| title = Cohort and Age Effects
| image = cohort_and_age_effects.png
| titletext = Younger people get very few joint replacements, yet they're also getting more than older people did at the same age. This means you can choose between 'Why are millennials getting so (many/few) joint replacements?' depending on which trend fits your current argument better.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MILLENNIAL JOINT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Another of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[238: Pet Peeve 114|many]] [[:Category:Pet Peeves|Pet Peeves]], this times on statistics. It was the first in more than four years since [[1368: One Of The]].

"{{w|Millennials}}" are the generation of Westerners who were born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, whereas {{w|baby boomers}} are the generation born during the "baby boom", a period of high birth rates from the late 1940s to early 1960s. A common headline on news websites is "Millennials are killing the X industry" where X is a product whose sales have dropped in recent years. One of the most famous is the {{w|diamond industry}}, where a combination of the {{w|wage gap}}, stigma over {{w|Blood diamond|conflict diamonds}}, and less desire to get married early has seen millennials buying less diamond jewelry than previous generations.

Randall spoofs this idea. In the comic, [[Cueball]], as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], presents a heading about how opens his story by asking if millennials are killing the {{w|joint replacement}} industry, illustrating it with numbers of joint replacement procedures among millennials compared to baby boomers. The joke is that millennials are simply too young for most of them to need joint replacements (which are usually used to treat senile {{w|osteoarthritis}}), and millennials will likely need joint replacements in the future as they get older, potentially keeping sales of joint replacements at close to their current rate.

A '''{{w|cohort effect}}''' is a cultural difference between generations (such as buying fewer diamonds), whereas an '''age effect''' is one that is simply related to getting older (such as getting arthritis). Joint replacement rates are an age effect, but the newscast is presenting them as if they were a cohort effect.

The title text points out that although numbers of millennials receiving joint replacements are low, they are higher than the numbers of baby boomers who received them ''at the same age''—i.e. in their 20s—due to advances in medical diagnosis and technology in the last 50 years, as well as (in some countries at least) better access to healthcare. This statistic can be used to create a headline which is the reverse of the one in the comic, namely "millennials are getting more joint replacements than ever". Randall notes that you could therefore use either headline to back up your argument, depending on the agenda you are trying to present.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball as a news anchor is sitting at a desk with hands folded in front of him on the table. To the left is a presentation which includes a table with a header above the two by two table. Each of the two rows and columns are labeled.]
:Cueball: Tonight: Are Millenials killing the joint replacement industry?

:{| class="wikitable"
|+ Operation rate per 100,000
!
!Knee
!Hip
|-
|Baby Boomers
|720
|390
|-
|Millenials
|1
|3
|}

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Stats Pet Peeve: People mixing up cohort effects and age effects.

==Trivia==
*In the original title text there where two mistakes. These were soon corrected.
**Here is the original title text with the removed word in bold and below the final version with the added word in bold:
::Younger people get very few joint replacements, yet they're also getting more than older people did at the same age. This means you can choose between 'Why are millennials '''are''' getting so (many/few) joint replacements?' depending which trend fits your current argument better.
::Younger people get very few joint replacements, yet they're also getting more than older people did at the same age. This means you can choose between 'Why are millennials getting so (many/few) joint replacements?' depending '''[on]''' which trend fits your current argument better.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Pet Peeves]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

1791: Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector

2017-01-30T12:45:13Z

162.158.89.223: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1791
| date = January 27, 2017
| title = Telescopes: Refractor vs Reflector
| image = telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png
| titletext = On the other hand, the refractor's limited light-gathering means it's unable to make out shadow people or the dark god Chernabog.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic compares two major types of {{w|optical telescope}}: The {{w|refracting telescope}} and the {{w|reflecting telescope}}. A refracting telescope produces an image with a series of lenses. A reflecting telescope uses mirrors. (A third type, the {{w|catadioptric system}} telescope, uses both mirrors ''and'' lenses. It is not shown here.)

It first looks like the comic is simply trying to show that refracting has many flaws, such as expense, size and visibility (see more [[#The real problems with refracting telescopes|details below]]). However, the punchline invalidates these complaints with the (apparently major) flaw listed with the reflecting telescope: '''It can't see space vampires'''.

The unstated reason for this is that {{w|vampires}}, {{w|Vampire#Apotropaics|according to some cultures}}, cannot be seen in a mirror. As {{w|space vampires}} (like earth vampires) are widely believed to be {{w|Vampire#Origins_of_vampire_beliefs|made up}} and thus unlikely to interest most [[1644: Stargazing|stargazers]], this complaint is superfluous, and the reflecting telescope effectively has no flaws in comparison to the refracting telescope. There are other problems, though, with reflecting telescopes see [[#The real problems with reflecting telescope|details below]]. (Also there was a big problem in the [[#Trivia|original version of this comic]]).

Frequently, however, the right-angle transition at the base of the refractor telescope is done with a prism (an "image erector"). This uses the optical principle of total internal reflection. If mirror-non-appearance of vampires is due to the interaction of evil with silver, a refractor using a prism could still see vampires. On this theory, however, the reflector could too, since modern astronomical mirrors are coated with aluminum, not silver.

The title text expands on the seeing of supernatural beings, as another negative point is added to the refracting telescope; it apparently can't see {{w|Shadow person|Shadow People}} or the Slavic god {{w|Chernobog|Chernabog}} (normally spelled Chernobog), both of which are important although clearly not as important to the telescope's merit as seeing vampires since the fact is only mentioned in the title text. So of course the refracting telescope is still the best. Of course also neither the {{w|Shadow_person#History_and_folklore|shadow people}} nor {{w|Chernobog#Folklore|the god}} exists{{Citation needed}} so this would likewise be a moot point.

In reality, "shadow people" are a psychological phenomenon wherein humans ascribe human shapes and movements to shadows in dark spaces. Chernobog is a 12th century Slavic deity, whose name translates to ''black god''. His most famous appearance in modern media was in the 1940 Disney movie {{w|Fantasia (1940 film)|''Fantasia''}} (and Disney merchandise is also almost the only place that his name is spelled as Randall spelled it, with an "a" in the middle). Because shadows are dark and the god is also dark, they cannot be seen by the refracting telescope due to the reduced light-gathering which has already been mentioned as a drawback in the main comic.

Telescopes have been the subject of [[:Category:Telescopes|many comics]] on xkcd. Recently one about space telescope was released [[1730: Starshade]] and before that a large "private" telescope was shown in [[1522: Astronomy]].

===The real problems with refracting telescopes===
The basic performance of a telescope is determined by its size: a wider telescope catches more light, making it easier to see faint objects, while a longer telescope is better for high magnification viewing. For looking at stars, the width is actually more important. No matter how much you zoom, a star is too far away to make bigger, but with a big aperture, you can see stars too faint for the naked eye. Planets benefit more from magnification, and distant galaxies need both.

In both respects, it's much easier to make a big reflector telescope than a big refractor one. Since a lens can only be held in place by its edge, the center of a large lens sags due to gravity, distorting the images it produces. This means most refractor telescopes make do with narrow apertures only a couple of inches across. Reflector telescopes are sometimes called "light buckets" because they can have extremely big openings that can catch light from even very faint stars. In addition, because it has a mirror at one end, the reflector telescope is, in effect, twice as long as it appears - a refractor just cannot compete.

Refracting telescopes were only gradually overtaken by reflecting telescopes, however. In the age of {{W|great refractors}}, the largest telescopes in the world were refractors. Reflectors at the time had mirrors surfaced in {{W|speculum metal}} that began to tarnish only months after application, negatively affecting telescope performance. This problem was resolved when it became possible to surface a mirror in silver, but the problems with refractive lenses persist. Because of this, the {{w|List of largest optical telescopes historically|largest optical telescopes ever built}} are reflectors, rather than refractors. In addition, a {{w|liquid mirror telescope}} uses a very cheap, but potentially very large mirror - with the drawback that the telescope can only look straight upwards.

'''Randall's points:'''
*More expensive
**Grinding a high quality lens is more expensive than producing an equivalent mirror - {{w|Crown glass (optics)|crown glass}}, which is needed for good quality telescope lenses, is expensive.
*Less compact
**In theory, a refractor ''could'' be made compact, but the image quality would be awful, because the lens would have to be extremely fat. The longer the telescope is, the less dramatic the focusing needs to be.
*{{w|Chromatic aberration}}:
**In optics, chromatic aberration is an effect resulting from dispersion in which there is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same convergence point, producing a rainbow effect around the image familiar to people who wear glasses, and with prisms. It occurs because lenses have different refractive indices for different wavelengths of light. Each colour is therefore focused slightly differently by the lens. Mirrors don't have chromatic aberration, since the light is reflected off the front of the mirror. The {{w|achromatic lens}} can reverse this effect, but it's expensive and its size is limited. Nevertheless, before telescope mirrors were perfected in the early 20th century, the best telescopes were achromatic refractors.
***Note that this effect has also been mentioned in relation to photography by [[Black Hat]] in [[1014: Car Problems]], in a completely different context, but shows this is an issue Randall has considered before.
*Reduced light-gathering
**Apart from generally needing to be smaller than reflector telescopes a further problem comes from glass defects, striae or small air bubbles trapped within the glass. In addition, glass is opaque to certain wavelengths, and even visible light is dimmed by reflection and absorption when it crosses the air-glass interfaces and passes through the glass itself. All of this reduce the light gathered.

'''Other problems not mentioned by Randall:'''
*Suspending a lens
**Another important difference (and a big reason why large refracting telescopes don't exist) is that the lens of a refracting telescope has to be supported by the edges, so that light can pass through it. As a result there comes a point where it is no longer feasible to mount a large lens in a telescope due to its weight and the need to support it from the edges. In contrast the mirror of a reflecting telescope is supported from behind, and any support structures for the primary mirror are not in the path of the light. As a result, substantially larger mirrors can be easily mounted and supported. As an additional benefit this behind-the-mirror support has led to the creation of {{w|Adaptive_Optics|Adaptive Optics}}, a technique (which is impossible for refracting telescopes) that allows some of the atmosphere's distortions to be corrected for.
*A mirror can be segmented to make a larger reflecting surface out of smaller (and hence easier to build/mount/support) mirrors. By using a {{w|Segmented_mirror|segmented mirror}} it is possible to build an effective aperture much larger than what could be built even from a single mirror, which is itself much larger than the largest possible lens that might be built for a refracting telescope.

====The real problems with reflecting telescope====
It is worth noting that (apart from the vampire problem) reflecting telescope also has disadvantages compared to a refracting telescope:
*The main disadvantage is that in almost all reflecting telescope designs the focal point is directly in front of the mirror, i.e. in between the mirror and the target of interest.
**As a result a {{w|Secondary_mirror|secondary mirror}} is commonly used to direct the focal point somewhere outside of the field of view. However, this secondary mirror (and the struts that support it) will still block part of the field of view - although the focus of the telescope means that the secondary mirror is not visible when looking at distant objects, it will result in diffraction patterns that also hinder the image quality. In fact, this is the source of the {{w|Diffraction_spike|diffraction spikes}} around stars which are commonly seen in astronomical images.
*A reflecting telescope is also harder to maintain:
**The mirrors need to be very precisely aligned (this is called {{w|collimation}}), and this can be a laborious process. They may also need re-polishing.
**The telescope is open at one end, allowing dust and dirt to enter.
*A reflecting telescope is not very portable. This is why {{w|Birdwatching|bird-spotters}} use small refractor telescopes as an easy way to get a closer view of birds.

Despite this disadvantage, reflecting telescopes are used almost exclusively in modern astronomy because of practical limitations in making large refracting telescopes. Very few amateur astronomers use refracting telescopes - nowadays, they most exist to con people looking for Christmas presents in department stores (just because a telescope promises 100x zoom doesn't mean the image quality is any good!)

==Transcript==
:[A one panel comic showing two different telescope designs next to each other with labels above them and a bullet list of points below the them. The left drawing will be described first then the right.]

:[Left:]
:<big>Refractor</big>

:[A slim telescope design is shown. At the top the light enters shown in a light yellow shade between two thin parallel light gray lines that just fits inside the opening of the telescope which is slightly wider at the top than at the lens sitting a short way into the opening. The lens causes the light to focus just where the telescope again changes dimensions, and the light enters a small opening at the bottom of the long pipe of the telescope. Here the yellow light is a point as the two gray lines cross each other at that point. The light then broadens slightly again and the thin yellow light cone hits a mirror at the bottom of the telescope and is reflected to the left and out through the eyepiece. Below are the following points:]
:*More expensive
:*Less compact
:*Chromatic aberration
:*Reduced light-gathering

:[Right:]
:<big>Reflector</big>

:[A much broader (more than 150% of the first) but also much shorter (66%) telescope design is shown. At the top the light enters shown in a light yellow shade between two thin parallel light gray lines that still just fits inside the opening of the telescope. On it's way down to the bottom of the telescope the light passes by a small mirror turned down towards the bottom. When the hits the curved bottom mirror light is focus on it's way back back and a small light cone hits the small mirror mentioned before sitting almost at the top of the telescope. This mirror reflects the light to the left into an even thinner light cone that goes out through the eyepiece located near the top of the telescope. Below is the following point:]
:*Can't see space vampires

==Trivia==
In an '''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/b/b2/20170127171253%21telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png earlier version]''' of this comic, the eyepiece of the refracting telescope included a mirror, often used with refractors to give an upright image and more comfortable access for the observer. This would of course invalidate the only advantage it has (vampire-visibiity) over reflecting telescopes.

[[Randall]] later corrected this so the '''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b2/telescopes_refractor_vs_reflector.png current/final version]''' shows the light going straight out of the end.

An {{w|amici roof prism}} is sometimes used instead of a mirror with refractors, because it does not only deliver an upright image, but also one that is not a mirror image. In a prism, there is only total reflection, which, as opposed to a metal mirror, would probably work on vampires.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Religion]]

Talk:1781: Artifacts

2017-01-04T15:36:38Z

162.158.89.223:

Wouldnt data entirely made of outliners just be ..regular measurements that just yields different results?[[User:West|#GoWest-West]] ([[User talk:West|talk]]) 13:59, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

The graph that Cueball is showing looks like the graph from the EM drive paper. Maybe Randall is poking fun at the EM drive with this comic? [[User:Cgplover|Cgplover]] ([[User talk:Cgplover|talk]]) 14:15, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

It does look like the Full Resonance tuner sweep graph [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 15:12, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

Why the emphasis on HAVE in the alttext instead of, say, ENTIRELY?

Is there also a suggestion that Indiana Jones didn't properly handle artifacts he dealt with?

I have the feeling that I've seen this comic before. Is there another comic where Cueball gives a presentation and is then dissed by his audience? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 15:36, 4 January 2017 (UTC)