explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3064: Lungfish

2025-03-17T22:31:35Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3064
| date = March 17, 2025
| title = Lungfish
| image = lungfish_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I know having so many base pairs makes rebasing complicated, but you're in Bilateria, so shouldn't you at LEAST be better at using git head?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF LUNGFISH - more information on lungfish if necessary, less information if not. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Lungfish}} (the class ''Dipnoi'') have the largest known {{w|genome}} among the {{w|vertebrate}}s (155 billion {{w|base pair}}s), and the third-largest known genome of all species. The comic relates this to a common issue when editing documents or coding, where the author accidentally makes changes to {{w|Fork (software development)|two separately created versions of documents}}, when they meant to only edit one, which can result in changes to both (or all) resulting documents functionally essential parts of the completed project, or at least present as developnent artefacts in the 'final' product. This may happen if documents are sent for review (or updating) to different editors, or at different times, and the changes from the earlier one(s) aren't properly integrated with the later one(s). The comic posits that Lungfish has a habit of doing this with its own genome, making both genes essential and increasing the amount of base pairs.

For anyone curious about the science, it's important to note that [https://www.science.org/content/article/odd-fish-has-30-times-much-dna-humans-new-record-animals this is absolutely not why lungfish have a large genome]; while some organisms do contain many copies of genes as a diversification strategy, this mostly occurs only in some plants and single-celled eukaryotes. Lungfish have roughly the same number of genes as a human (and likely slightly fewer), and the large size of the lungfish genome is likely due to poor transposon control causing their chromosomes to fill up with junk.

The names of the "files" reference several things about computer files:
* Older versions of Windows, when copy-and-pasting a file within the same folder, would automatically append "Copy of" to the start of the filename, resulting in a file named "Copy of [Document]". (This was previously referenced in the title text of [[1459: Documents]].) If ''that'' file was then copied, it would be likewise appended, thus producing "Copy of Copy of [Document]". (Newer versions of Windows instead add "- Copy" to the end of the filename, which produces the same effect but keeps things in roughly the same order when sorted by name.) Google Docs automatically adds "Copy of ''x''" to documents when copied.
* Numbered labels in brackets can be produced by a couple different actions:
** If multiple files are highlighted and a Rename action is performed, all of the files will be given the same name with a numeric designator, starting with the one clicked on for the Rename action and then proceeding from the top of the list down as originally sorted. For example, if three files named "Alpha", "Beta", and "Gamma" are highlighted, and the user right-clicks on "Gamma" and renames it to "Alphabet", then "Gamma" will be renamed to "Alphabet (1)", followed by "Alphabet (2)" [formerly Alpha] and "Alphabet (3)" [formerly Beta].
** If a copied file is pasted multiple times in the same folder, it will also receive number labels in the same format.
* Some users will keep older drafts of a file in case of a need to revert back to an older version; this can be done with a number label (i.e. "v1", "v2", etc.) or a proper word (i.e. "draft", "edited", etc.) at the user's discretion. This can be useful if it's discovered an edit breaks something important, or in the event that a mistaken save action loses data, but it can also lead to file hoarding.

The file names "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)" and "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)" suggest a very poorly-organized filesystem - and a tendency to copy-paste unnecessarily - on the part of the lungfish, which certainly explains why it keeps editing multiple documents instead of a single one.

The title text further compares the biology of lungfish to managing versions of files in a popular version control system called {{w|Git}}, which includes a facility called [https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/git-head/ "head"] that assists in keeping track of the latest available version of a particular project resource, across all updating and forking. Rebasing, in Git, is the act of moving changes from one file branch to another, which Cueball says is complicated due to the large amount of base pairs. {{w|Bilateria}} is a clade of animals characterized by embryonic bilateral symmetry, giving their bodies distinguishable "head" and "tail" ends. Since this applies to lungfish, Cueball says the lungfish should at least know how to use the "head" branch with Git.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing on the end of a wooden dock looking down at the ocean. A lungfish is sticking its head out of the water close to the dock and looking at Cueball.]
:Lungfish: It turns out I've been editing both '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)''''' and '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)''''' so now I can't delete either one.
:Cueball: You have '''''got''''' to stop doing this.
:Lungfish: It's fine, I'll just buy more storage.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why lungfish have such enormous genomes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Version Control]]

3064: Lungfish

2025-03-17T22:30:21Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3064
| date = March 17, 2025
| title = Lungfish
| image = lungfish_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I know having so many base pairs makes rebasing complicated, but you're in Bilateria, so shouldn't you at LEAST be better at using git head?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF COPY OF LUNGFISH - more information on lungfish if necessary, less information if not. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Lungfish}} (the class ''Dipnoi'') have the largest known {{w|genome}} among the {{w|vertebrate}}s (155 billion {{w|base pair}}s), and the third-largest known genome of all species. The comic relates this to a common issue when editing documents or coding, where the author accidentally makes changes to {{w|Fork (software development)|two separately created versions of documents}}, when they meant to only edit one, which can result in changes to both (or all) resulting documents essential parts of the completed of a project. This may happen if documents are sent for review (or updating) to different editors, or at different times, and the changes from the earlier one(s) aren't properly integrated with the later one(s). The comic posits that Lungfish has a habit of doing this with its own genome, making both genes essential and increasing the amount of base pairs.

For anyone curious about the science, it's important to note that [https://www.science.org/content/article/odd-fish-has-30-times-much-dna-humans-new-record-animals this is absolutely not why lungfish have a large genome]; while some organisms do contain many copies of genes as a diversification strategy, this mostly occurs only in some plants and single-celled eukaryotes. Lungfish have roughly the same number of genes as a human (and likely slightly fewer), and the large size of the lungfish genome is likely due to poor transposon control causing their chromosomes to fill up with junk.

The names of the "files" reference several things about computer files:
* Older versions of Windows, when copy-and-pasting a file within the same folder, would automatically append "Copy of" to the start of the filename, resulting in a file named "Copy of [Document]". (This was previously referenced in the title text of [[1459: Documents]].) If ''that'' file was then copied, it would be likewise appended, thus producing "Copy of Copy of [Document]". (Newer versions of Windows instead add "- Copy" to the end of the filename, which produces the same effect but keeps things in roughly the same order when sorted by name.) Google Docs automatically adds "Copy of ''x''" to documents when copied.
* Numbered labels in brackets can be produced by a couple different actions:
** If multiple files are highlighted and a Rename action is performed, all of the files will be given the same name with a numeric designator, starting with the one clicked on for the Rename action and then proceeding from the top of the list down as originally sorted. For example, if three files named "Alpha", "Beta", and "Gamma" are highlighted, and the user right-clicks on "Gamma" and renames it to "Alphabet", then "Gamma" will be renamed to "Alphabet (1)", followed by "Alphabet (2)" [formerly Alpha] and "Alphabet (3)" [formerly Beta].
** If a copied file is pasted multiple times in the same folder, it will also receive number labels in the same format.
* Some users will keep older drafts of a file in case of a need to revert back to an older version; this can be done with a number label (i.e. "v1", "v2", etc.) or a proper word (i.e. "draft", "edited", etc.) at the user's discretion. This can be useful if it's discovered an edit breaks something important, or in the event that a mistaken save action loses data, but it can also lead to file hoarding.

The file names "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)" and "Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)" suggest a very poorly-organized filesystem - and a tendency to copy-paste unnecessarily - on the part of the lungfish, which certainly explains why it keeps editing multiple documents instead of a single one.

The title text further compares the biology of lungfish to managing versions of files in a popular version control system called {{w|Git}}, which includes a facility called [https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/git-head/ "head"] that assists in keeping track of the latest available version of a particular project resource, across all updating and forking. Rebasing, in Git, is the act of moving changes from one file branch to another, which Cueball says is complicated due to the large amount of base pairs. {{w|Bilateria}} is a clade of animals characterized by embryonic bilateral symmetry, giving their bodies distinguishable "head" and "tail" ends. Since this applies to lungfish, Cueball says the lungfish should at least know how to use the "head" branch with Git.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing on the end of a wooden dock looking down at the ocean. A lungfish is sticking its head out of the water close to the dock and looking at Cueball.]
:Lungfish: It turns out I've been editing both '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Newest) (2)''''' and '''''Copy of Copy of Gene v3 (Final) (2)''''' so now I can't delete either one.
:Cueball: You have '''''got''''' to stop doing this.
:Lungfish: It's fine, I'll just buy more storage.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Why lungfish have such enormous genomes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Version Control]]

7: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)

2025-03-16T16:21:20Z

172.68.205.122: /* Transcript */ a "facing" head is ambiguous, especially as to what the rest of the body is doing, and, the way the body is lain, technically her head is *turned* a bit to the right, respective to it. But I'm sure there's far more precise descriptions.

{{comic
| number = 7
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)
| before = <big><big>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this Original title]: '''Girl sleeping'''</big></big>
| image = girl_sleeping_noline_(1).jpg
| titletext = I don't remember her name at all, but she fell asleep on the floor in front of me. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this Original caption]: I drew this in 11th-grade Spanish class. We were watching a movie and she was asleep on the floor in front of me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{notice|Despite being categorised as comic #7, this was actually the first xkcd comic released by Randall. To learn more, read the [[LiveJournal|history of xkcd]].}}
This was the first comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The next one was [[4: Landscape (sketch)]]. It was among the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first thirteen comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on September 30, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.
{{incomplete|Clarify the explanation of the original caption. Also, rephrase the explanation and explain the comic more.}}
This comic depicts a girl sleeping on the floor of Randall's 11th-grade Spanish class, presumably during a movie as shown in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=8%3A34%20pm-,Girl%20sleeping,-I%20drew%20this original caption]. The title text explains Randall didn't know her name, but she was sleeping on the floor, and he decided to draw her. The original caption mentions they were watching a movie at the time. The drawing would be used again in [[1506: xkcloud]] as one of the "[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]]" images given by [[Randall Munroe|Randall]].

==Transcript==
:[Girl sleeping on her side, head to the left, facing away from view.]

==Trivia==
This is the first comic drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 01]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 01]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Sketches]]

3050: Atom

2025-03-15T22:53:00Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */

{{distinguish|1490: Atoms}}
{{comic
| number = 3050
| date = February 12, 2025
| title = Atom
| image = atom_2x.png
| imagesize = 281x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = What's weirder is that muons turned out to be INCREDIBLY cute.
}}

==Explanation==
Atoms are small. Very, very small.{{Citation needed}} An individual atom [[1490: Atoms|generally]] cannot be seen with the naked eye nor discerned with human hands (of course larger structures ''made'' of many atoms can be seen just fine). To try and observe atoms better, the characters in the comic invented a so-called "quantum expander device" that can grow an individual atom large enough to handle with human fingers. Such a device would be a huge advance in modern physics (and possibly quite dangerous) if it existed, but unfortunately/fortunately it does not.

This world-changing advancement in the very foundation of physics turns out to be undercut by the bizarre and repulsive way the expanded atoms behave to human sensibilities. Thus derives the humor: proposing that an individual atom, normally intangible, would actually turn out to have properties very similar of macroscopic objects, in particular slimy lifeforms that human bodies find "gross".

Cueball, holding the atom by the electron cloud, complains that the atom is "wet and wobbly." Although electrons are often depicted as orbiting an atomic nucleus very similarly to how planets orbit the Sun, this is an extremely simplistic model of how the electrons are positioned. Students are often taught a succession of more complex models over several years of schooling. In reality, [[2100: Models of the Atom|current understanding of]] the behavior of electrons is ruled by quantum mechanics and {{w|Uncertainty_principle|Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle}}. An electron doesn't have a single exact location relative to the nucleus; rather, its location is probabilistic. It can be considered to be "smeared out", with specific locations in space having higher or lower concentrations. This is often visualized to be similar to how a meteorological cloud can be dense or thin. It's often depicted by showing the shapes of the electron density patterns with varying intensities of color, or densely-packed dots vs. spread-out dots. This is sometimes referred to as the "electron cloud model", though electrons aren't ''really'' composed of tiny droplets. A cloud in the sky [https://gpm.nasa.gov/resources/faq/what-are-clouds-made-are-they-more-likely-form-polluted-air-or-pristine-air contains water], and is often assumed to be wet, but could be anything from vapour to ice-crystals. The feel of wetness is also a lot more complicated than we might think. Everybody knows what something wet feels like, but there are no "wetness"-detecting cells in the skin. [https://issuu.com/university_of_southampton/docs/reaction_magazine_winter_2021/s/14454287 Apparently] the brain uses various clues like temperature and pressure, along with past experiences, to determine when something feels "wet".

Scientists generally wear latex gloves when touching certain subjects of study, certainly those that are expected to be damp, and perhaps [[Ponytail]] and [[Cueball]] should be doing that here.

There are mathematical techniques known as "quantum expanders" which reveal more detail and better understanding about the statistical probabilities of the "quantum cloud". For the purpose of the joke, the science team in the comic created a device that ''actually'' expands the atom to a scale that it can be held in one's hands and the electron cloud could be felt.

The size of a mid-sized atom can be estimated as between 100 and 200 picometer ({{w|Atomic radii of the elements (data page)|full data table}}). Assuming an iron atom of ~150 pm size, to enlarge it up to a ~60-70 cm size as it is displayed in the comic, one would have to enlarge it by a factor of ca. 4 trillion. Doing the same enlargement with a ~2mm diameter peppercorn would enlarge that seed to a planet rivaling the Earth.

The title text expands on this, claiming that muons, a type of subatomic particle, apparently are "cute" despite ordinarily being subatomic particles with a mean lifetime of 2.2 microseconds, [[3043: Muons|give or take]]. Muons might be considered cute because they're small — like electrons and tau particles, they are considered to be point phenomena at the quantum level with no practical physical size (at or below {{w|Planck units#Planck length|subatomic Planck-scale}}), although ''possibly'' that (and the time they last) changes as a function of the quantum expander being applied to them. It might possibly also reference a certain way of pronouncing "muon", which starts with a "mew" sound, which in turn is associated with kittens (and {{w|Mew (Pokémon)|a fairly cute Pokémon}}).

In reality/practice, touching oversized electrons might not be recommended - as that may result in electric discharges - or protons being "ripped" out of your body and falling on the oversized electron, while normal electrons are "ripped" out of your body and scattered elsewhere (assuming that the oversized electron has proportionately bigger attraction and repulsion compared to normal-sized particles, which is not clear from the comic). In other words - you could be disintegrated and electrocuted, and a giant explosion will occur. Oversized electrons may also behave like {{what if|140|piles of densely packed electrons}}. Oversizing a proton could also be dangerous for roughly same reasons - except this time, electrons wold fall on oversized proton, while normal protons would get scattered. Presumably, it's advisable to practice Quantum Expanding with neutrons instead, as it shouldn't react as violently to normal-sized particles.

However, a free neutron decays with a mean lifetime of about 14 minutes, converting part of its mass to 0.78 MeV energy. If the neutron was scaled up to the mass of a tennis ball (rather than remain the same mass, only larger), it would weigh about 57 grams. If that means that the decay energy is scaled up by the same factor, it would release about 25 orders of magnitude more energy upon decay: 1kT TNT equivalent or half the force of the 2020 Beirut explosion.

Upscaling muons or quarks to the size of watermelons may be utterly disastrous - even more so than packed electrons - as they may be the very foundation of the laws of physics; potentially, it may destroy the entire Universe. On top of that, upscaling quarks to the size of watermelons sounds like it could ruin color symmetry - as two quarks are now left without the third quark, and the big quark is now alone. That was explained in {{tvtropes|Fridge/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality|HPtMoR chapter 119}} and a particularly munchkinish build of {{tvtropes|GameBreaker/TheWorldOfDarkness|World of Darkness}} vampire mad scientist. Possibly, such destructive capacity of oversized muons (despite their "cuteness") may be part of the joke - as {{w|Mew (Pokémon)|a fairly cute Pokémon}} in question was a powerful "legendary Pokemon".

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding in one hand, away from himself, an atom approximately the size of his head with shaky lines drawn around the atom. Ponytail has her hand near the atom and her other hand above her chin. Lines near the edge of the atom near her hand indicates the atom is wobbling. Hairy stands to the right of Ponytail.]
:Cueball: Ugh, the electron cloud is so weird and wobbly! I hate it!
:Ponytail: Why is it so wet? How can it even ''be'' wet?
:Hairy: I don't want to do physics anymore.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:When our lab was building the quantum expander device, we didn't expect our first discovery to be "atoms are really gross."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Atom02]]

Talk:3063: Planet Definitions

2025-03-15T22:52:10Z

172.68.205.122:

The one currently posted has Pluto highlighted in the second box and not highlighted in the first box. Too hard to tell if it's trolling or a genuine mistake. :-D

:Apparently a mistake since it's fixed now. [[User:HughNo|HughNo]] ([[User talk:HughNo|talk]]) 19:59, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

And the first one also has a moon hilighted instead I think?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.5|162.158.126.5]] 15:59, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

:Was about to write the same. The coloring in the first two lines arund Pluto seem wrong (or mistankingly switched). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.246|172.71.222.246]] 16:17, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

This, this is the hill I will die on. I was radicalised by this paper: [https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15285 Moons Are Planets: "Scientific Usefulness Versus Cultural Teleology in the Taxonomy of Planetary Science"]
In short; planets are what planetary scientists study. Round things with the *good stuff*: atmospheres, oceans, volcanoes (of lava or water ice) (see diagram page 53).
Pluto, Titan, Ceres, Io and Europa are all in the sweet spot where you're not so small you're just a lump of rocks who happen to be stuck together into a lump, and not so large you're just a mostly undifferentiated mass of fusing hydrogen/helium plasma.
And it's consistent with our pre-20th Century understanding of what a planet is, whereas the IAU definition is trying to preserve 19th Century astrology. An amazing read and a strong recommend for anyone who cares about this subject. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.138|172.69.79.138]] 16:45, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Does this sort of count as pi-related for pi day? [[User:TomtheBuilder|TomtheBuilder]] ([[User talk:TomtheBuilder|talk]]) 17:04, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:he doesn't do themed comics anymore 😔 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:12, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:: Sure he does. [[2962]] and [[2969]] weren't too long ago. Seems like it, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.222|172.71.182.222]] 03:31, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
:::I don't understand either the "he doesn't do themes" bit, or the full nature of the reply, frankly. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.122|172.68.205.122]] 22:52, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

I was somewhat disappointed to get to the end of the table without seeing either an astrology or Sailor Moon joke. -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 18:12, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Is it possible that Uranus is marked under "Empiricist" because of the "Randall has seen Uranus" joke? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.178|172.70.42.178]] 18:38, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

The "{{w|Classical planet|Classical Planets}}" should be 7, including the Sun and the Moon.
:The average distance of the orbit of the Moon around the Earth must be slightly farther away than the orbit of the Sun around the Earth, since the Moon lags behind the Sun a little more each day, but the orbits must cross or we would never have a solar eclipse :P [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 19:41, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Wouldn't the Regolithic one depend on the exact definitions of "dirt", "ice", and "covered"? It seems that an argument could be made that the giant planets also count there but have a much thicker atmosphere on the outside, and disqualifying because of the atmosphere could exclude others like Earth depending on the exact threshold used. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 19:08, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Has Randall not seen the sun before?
:I'm impressed that he has seen Uranus (unless that actually is a joke), especially if he saw it unaided (apparently it actually can be barely seen with the naked eye if the conditions are incredibly good). [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 19:36, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:Could the sun be classified as a "world"? --[[User:MothWaves|MothWaves]] ([[User talk:MothWaves|talk]]) 19:43, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:I assumed he meant "seen directly with my eyes", so that a photograph would not count, but looking through a telescope during an astronomy night at the local University would count. And he hasn't looked *closely* at the Sun, because of the need for eye protection. [[User:JimJJewett|JimJJewett]] ([[User talk:JimJJewett|talk]]) 23:49, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Technically, spacecraft have landed on Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. Just not in a survivable manner. [[User:Redacted II|Redacted II]] ([[User talk:Redacted II|talk]]) 19:37, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:Have we really not sent anything directly into the Sun yet? [[User:JimJJewett|JimJJewett]] ([[User talk:JimJJewett|talk]]) 23:51, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
::The most "into the Sun" we've done is [https://science.nasa.gov/mission/parker-solar-probe/ the Parker Solar Probe], and it hasn't attempted to 'land' there (apart from that being effectively impossible, even beyond the likes of Cassini's final fall "onto" Saturn). It's also ''very hard'' to even send things into the Sun, because the direct method would need you to send a craft from Earth backwards at the same speed as the Earth orbits forwards (or very close to that), otherwise all you can do is fall ''past'' it and loop back up again. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.94|162.158.74.94]] 01:00, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
:No one even knows if Jupiter and Saturn have a *land* to land on. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 14:54, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
::Sstill subject to further study, but the crushed and burnt (and probably unrecognisable) remains of the probes will be 'landed' (or floating on top of any layer that they're ultimately more buoyant than) down there, somewhere (unless they're totally ablated away, but there'll probably be ''some'' fragments of hi-tech metal frame, even if no circuit boards or metal foils survive) Should there be a form of life in existence down in the depths of the gas-giant's mass, with any curiosity to them, I imagine they'll be wondering what this new variety of 'space rain' is, that's totally unlike the usual ex-asteroidal/cometish stuff that they must occasionally get punching down through from the inaccessible upper reaches above their native environment. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.68|162.158.74.68]] 19:59, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

It looks like the Pluto error in Traditionalist and Modernist images were fixed. I now see Pluto highlighted in traditionalist and Pluto unhighlighted in Modern. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.7.91|172.68.7.91]] 19:44, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

indeed, it seems fine now, i removed my earlier comment--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.116|162.158.233.116]] 23:06, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

//Jean-Luc Margot wrote a serious planet definition proposal// in 2024 as a starting point for community conversations and welcomes feedback. In 2019 I wrote a small article myself on planet and moon classes simply by size. //Mondklassen "wwwahnsinn"// (in German).
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.108|162.158.159.108]] 19:49, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

I'm disputing that there has never been a formal definition of "planet" prior to 2006 - the ancient Greek definition of "wandering [relative to seemingly-fixed stars] points of light in the night sky" seems formal enough to me. I marked it {{tl|actual citation needed}}. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.73|198.41.227.73]] 19:52, 14 March 2025‎
: I've reworded the sentence to say "in modern times" so we aren't making unfounded and likely-incorrect claims about antiquity. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.73|198.41.227.73]] 21:19, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Does anyone else strongly dislike the term '''natural satellite''' replacing ''moon''? Under the new nomenclature, only Earth's moon is 'the Moon'. All other moons are now merely natural satellites. Phobos, Deimos, Ganymede, are no longer considered moons. My biggest problem with the new definition is that planets themselves are natural satellites of stars. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.225|172.71.182.225]] 20:13, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

It seems likely that the Saturnian moon highlighted in the Maritime definition is Titan, since it has liquid seas and lakes on its surface. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.6.5|172.69.6.5]] 21:54, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:I've noted in the Transcript that (despite apparently being ''identical'' pre-highlight drawings in all other ways, or at least very consistently reproduced), Saturn is given one moon ''most'' of the time, but two moons on occasion. Similarly, Uranus's moons (spread from upper-right to lower-left) do-or-do-not include the dot (in one case suffering a highlighting) moving across the face of the planet. From an analytical perspective, I'm wondering if Randall did indeed copypaste the 'normal' iillustration, but then have to manually add in "whoops, I forgot I need to highlight a further item thaat I haven't already drawn" into some of the established copies, touching up where necessary (and maybe where still not necessary too). ...But I'm not sure it matters what he did or did not do. It's just an observation about the result. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.190|172.69.79.190]] 23:03, 14 March 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, Titan's present in all the diagrams, and a second moon of Saturn shows up when highlighting is necessary. The bonus "Marine Biologist" planet is clearly Enceladus, but the bonus "Judgemental" planet doesn't line up with it: presumably it's one of Saturn's other moons. Which one? My wild guess is Iapetus. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.27|172.68.150.27]] 01:48, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

Great explanation, thank you, but was it really necessary to include a snide dig at Baby Boomers? Not a BB myself - I'm gen X, if we're using those facile labels - but surely we don't need to encourage intergenerational resentment and conflict. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.116|172.68.174.116]] 03:22, 15 March 2025 (UTC) 
As a historian, I strongly disagree with the snide definition of tradition. (No, not a BB.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.132|162.158.212.132]] 07:40, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
:That's a direct quote from a prior comic, that whoever wrote it in the first placce ysed, so I've rewritten it to perhaps ''not'' look quite so much like some editor's own grudge/snidiness (which it may or may not be, but not without Randall giving justifiable precedent to say it). Maybe can be tweaked further, but it might be a shame to lose the inter-comic referential humour that (regardless of tone) is staple for this site. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.109|162.158.74.109]] 12:25, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
::I wrote it. No snideness intended. I thought the connection was topical. Unfortunately, thanks to the "Okay boomer" phenomenon, any reference to the generation comes across as condescending. The "Tradition" strip was published in 2011, and the phrase rose to popularity in 2019. It, like [[36]], is just one of those things that is not standing the test of time. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.89|172.70.47.89]] 20:22, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

I believe we're currently missing part of the joke in the mouseover text. Not only is Earth now a star because of human fusion, it's also no longer a planet, because, due to human satellites and spacecraft, it no longer clears its orbit.
[[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.42|198.41.227.42]] 06:20, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

Isn't the usual singular of criteria criterion? According to my dictionary, a criterium is a type of cycling race.--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.100|172.71.26.100]] 09:46, 15 March 2025 (UTC)
:Indeed. Maybe a thinko, though, rather. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.139|172.69.79.139]] 11:06, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

I am curious why only one of the Galilean moons counts as pretty, and I wonder which one (either Ganymede or Callisto, given where its drawn). They are all pretty to me, I like how surprisingly distinct they look from one another.
[[User:Terdragontra|Terdragontra]] ([[User talk:Terdragontra|talk]]) 13:18, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

Re title text: With the launch of the JWST, Earth has no longer cleared its orbital neighborhood, right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.176.57|172.70.176.57]] 14:27, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

I tend to go by an expansive definition myself, considering all dwarf planets "planets" in my eyes. But I'm not like, arguing with the IAU's definition, this is just how I prefer to think of them, because dwarf planets are really cool. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.140|172.70.126.140]] 19:35, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

== Citations ==

I added a bunch of Wikipedia citations. I went by the WP rule (citation needed) of linking the first non-parenthesized instance of a word/phrase. That does make for some awkward things, like lists with only some of the items linked, and the {{w|natural satellite|moon}} link in a mention under '''Simplistic''' rather than on the more relevant '''Lunar'''.
–[[User:P1h3r1e3d13|P1h3r1e3d13]] ([[User talk:P1h3r1e3d13|talk]]) 22:34, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

'''Round vs Spheroidal'''
According to the "simplistic" definition, the rings themselves (also round) are separate planets. If the simplistic definition had merely been "spheroidal" rather than "round", they would not be. I'd love to see a version of the chart where Saturn is green, but the rings are white. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.166|172.71.99.166]] 23:36, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

'''"Modern" vs "Current"'''. Does anyone feel frustrated when people confuse "modern", "contemporary", and "current"? "Modern" is post-1500, "contemporary" is the age someone lives in, and "current" is 'today'. Throughout 75 years of the modern era, Pluto 'was' considered a planet. Is anyone willing to shift non-canonical usage of "modern" to "current" in the article? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.95.28|172.71.95.28]] 15:59, 15 March 2025 (UTC)

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2025-03-08T18:22:06Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 368358 by 172.71.219.102 (talk) Not relevent to this comic.

{{comic
| number = 2791
| date = June 19, 2023
| title = Bookshelf Sorting
| image = bookshelf_sorting_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Of course, I sort all my bookshelves the normal way, alphabetically (by first sentence).
}}

==Explanation==
Some people like to sort their bookshelves by the visible color of the book's spine, for example by hue to create a rainbow effect. This is pleasing to the eye, but may be unhelpful when [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxmPHLU9oA trying to find a specific book]. Literary enthusiasts (AKA "Book People") frequently dislike this system, because it emphasizes appearance at the expense of making books easy to find. On a philosophical level, treating books as decorations, rather than reading material, upsets many purists. "Book people" are more likely to have a practical system for arranging their books, either by category, genre, title, author name, or some combination of those. For a large library, a more rigorous organizational scheme such as the {{w|Dewey Decimal Classification}} might be used.

Unfortunately, [[Randall]] has found a ''much'' worse method of book organization - instead of sorting the books as discrete units, he has sorted their individual ''pages'' by number. This would require physically separating each book into its individual pages, and then organizing them into groups by page number. This effectively destroys every book, and requires anyone trying to read them to laboriously find each individual page (among many pages of the same number), and then replace it in the correct space after reading. Adding a new book would require individually placing potentially hundreds of pages. Where pages are not numbered, finding their place would be nearly impossible.

From the picture, Randall's system appears to work by absolute physical page count, including the front and rear covers as 'pages'. All the front covers are on the left side, then the first internal leaf of each book (counted as the second page), then the second internal leaf, etc. This produces repeating patterns of taller and shorter loose-leaf pages, echoing the proportions of each cover, having gathered together a page of the same position in each different book. The back covers are mixed in to whatever group falls after the last internal leaf from the same book, and so are intermixed with pages from longer books. The left-most front cover matches the right-most back cover, the second front cover matches the 2nd-to-last back cover, etc. with the last of the front covers matching the first of the back covers. At the end, there are only the last pages of the longest book left, now all uniform in size, and its rear cover.

The caption claims that "book people" get way angrier at this system, likely because it involves physically destroying books, rendering them almost unreadable. People with a strong affinity for books are often upset at volumes being treated with such disrespect.

In the title text Randall claims he sorts his bookshelf alphabetically, but by the first '''sentence'''. He describes this as "the normal way", even though the typical practice is to sort books either by title or author. Some books do have very well-known first lines, so sorting by first line could be used to demonstrate a level of literary sophistication on the part of the bookshelf owner, but could hardly be considered "normal".

==Transcript==
:[A bookshelf hanging on a wall is shown. It is covered almost from left to right but not with ordinary books. To the left there are 11 covers next to each other without any paper between them. They have different heights and shades of gray. After the last of these there follows many leaves of paper of differing heights similarly to that of the covers. The top of the papers thus form a wave shape with more than twenty peaks before they reach another cover. After that there follows similar patterns with paper in different height and then a cover in between more papers. But there is a much shorter distance between the first and second cover than before the first cover, after the initial 11 covers. The next two covers are close to the first, then there is a longer stretch of paper to the fourth, much less to the fifth, and then the next three covers comes very close. There is again quite long distance to the ninth and tenth cover, and here the number of different heights for the paper are clearly less than the previous paper stretches. Finally before the last and 11th cover all the paper, not much of it though, are of the same height, and just a bit lower than the final cover. The 11 covers at the start matches the 11 covers later and they comes in reverse order throughout the paper stretches as they are sorted to begin with, so the first and last cover matches, as does number 2 and the second last etc. There is a caption beneath the panel:]
:Book people hate seeing books sorted by colors, but it turns out they get ''way'' more angry if you sort the pages by number.

==Trivia==
Sorting by first line was, in fact, a common sorting method before books had titles, known as {{w|Incipit}}. In modern times, however, that method is wildly obsolete, as books are almost always identified by titles, few people memorize the opening lines of their books, and a film titled ''{{w|The Hobbit|In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit}}'' would not receive any funding.{{Citation needed}} However, {{w|papal encyclicals}} are still named after their first words, and thus would be sorted after their first sentence. For example, the encyclical titled ''{{w|Quanta Cura}}'' begins with "''Quanta cura'' ac pastorali vigilantia Romani Pontifices Prædecessores Nostri, exsequentes [...]".

In somewhat similar fashion, the 114 chapters of the {{w|Quran}} are roughly sorted by their length. American church hymnals list hymns by relatively meaningless numbers, but then index them by tune name, text title, first line and meter.

Other pop culture references to sorting by first sentence occur in the Good Omens TV show season 2 episode 2, where the archangel Gabriel, while suffering from amnesia, reorganizes the books in the bookshop alphabetically by first sentence to pass the time.

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

225: Open Source

2025-03-08T00:57:42Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */ Because you can't link something that's already a link, reworded to allow side-by-side linking.

{{comic
| number = 225
| date = February 19, 2007
| title = Open Source
| image = open source.png
| titletext = Later we'll dress up like Big Oil thugs and jump Ralph Nader.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Richard Stallman]], or ''rms'', after his handle, is an old-school hacker known for establishing the {{w|Free Software Foundation}} (FSF) and initiating the {{w|GNU Project}} in the early 1980s, which produced major portions of what would later be the {{w|Linux}} (or [https://itsfoss.com/gnu-linux-copypasta/ GNU/Linux]) operating system. In this capacity, he's also known for being one of the most ardent and outspoken proponents of {{w|open source software}}, often referred to by Stallman as {{w|free software}}. In fact, his advocacy is so emphatic and polemical that he has garnered active dislike from traditionalists who believe that software {{w|source code}} should be retained as a trade secret by its developer(s). Stallman has expressed that he did not even wish to be in a comic using the phrase '''Open Source''' (see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]]).

While this dislike may not rise to the level of hiring {{w|ninja}} assassins to remove him from the world though that is historically inaccurate, it is strong. The joke of the comic, as it also turns out, is that the two [[Cueball]]s dressed up as ninjas were just out to have a fun time teasing Stallman, and they seemed to know that Stallman's paranoia about {{w|Microsoft}} makes him sleep with no fewer than two {{w|katana}} swords near his bed. This type of sword was one of the traditionally made Japanese swords that were used by the {{w|samurai}} of feudal Japan mainly as a sidearm. A ninja or more accurately a Shinobi no mono was basically special forces in feudal Japan. They specialized in espionage, sabotage, etc. they were a rough combination of MI6, CIA, and Navy SEAL in feudal japan. Although they did not specialize in assassinations, that is something that they could do. Although samurai could also be shinobi/ninjas if they chose to do that job, samurai is a social class while shinobi no mono/ninjas were a job, not a social class. So this makes sense in this comic with Stallman, the samurai, and the ninjas, the lackeys of the oppressing Microsoft (at least in his mind). It also turns out that they specifically choose targets for their raids who have reason to be paranoid of larger companies that might send someone after them, and thus sleep with weapons near their beds. Stallman has received a Katana due to this comic (see the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section).

{{w|GPL}} refers to the 'GNU General Public License', which is a copyright license written by the FSF that covers much GNU software and plenty of other free software besides. It stipulates that software so copyrighted must always be provided along with full source code, and that everyone in possession of such software is free to use, study, modify, and redistribute it for any purpose whatsoever (including sale or resale), provided they give due credit to any other contributing developers and provide access to the complete source code and retain all copyright notices.

Legally, this gives all users of such software exactly the same rights under copyright as the developer(s) and prevents any developers from ever taking away those rights from users, which is the defining feature of '{{w|Free software#Definition|free-as-in-libre}}' software. It also has the effect of making all software ''derived'' from GPL software thereby also GPL, even if 'derived' merely means 'borrowed a few lines of code from'. Some (e.g. Microsoft's {{w|Steve Ballmer}}) have therefore argued that this makes GPL software behave as a kind of {{w|viral license|'license virus'}}, which spreads GPL-guaranteed freedoms to any software used in close conjunction with GPL'd software during development, such that businesses should actively avoid adopting {{w|FOSS|free and open source software}}, so as not to jeopardize software developers' legal standing with regard to {{w|proprietary software|proprietary IP copyright}}s.

During the attack, Richard Stallman begins to speak like he quotes an old play. For instance, the wording "For a GNU dawn!" is pronounced "For a g'new dawn!", following the pronunciation of {{w|GNU}}, so it is a version of ''New Dawn'', a sentence used often in fiction. He even gets annoyed when it turns out that the ninjas just run away. He had clearly waited a long time to, even looking forward to, defending himself with his katanas.

Because the two "ninjas" had so much fun pranking Stallman, they plan to do more of these raids, even mentioning two other possible future targets on their way out of the window:

{{w|Eric S. Raymond}} is a famous {{w|Hacker (programmer subculture)|hacker}} who wrote ''{{w|The Cathedral and the Bazaar}}'' and has been something of an unofficial spokesperson for open source as a {{w|Open-source software development|software development methodology}}. The plan to prank Eric Raymond could be a bad one, since he is an experienced martial artist, swordsman, and firearm enthusiast. However, this seems to be the attraction of these two "ninjas," as can be seen by what they seem to know about their other possible target:

{{w|Linus Torvalds}} is the creator of {{w|Linux kernel|Linux}}, a free/open source operating system kernel inspired by the {{w|Unix}} kernel, which proved to be the final component that, combined with then pre-existing GNU system functions and {{w|userland}} components, produced the first fully free operating system, {{w|Linux|GNU/Linux}}. The plan to prank Torvalds would at first sound more boring as the mild-mannered {{w|Finland|Finn}}, while known to be strongly, abrasively opinionated, is otherwise mostly harmless. However, one of the ninjas seems to know otherwise, since it is rumored that Linus sleeps with {{w|nunchaku|nunchucks}} in the same way that Stallman sleeps with two katana swords. The ''nunchaku'' is a traditional Okinawan martial arts weapon consisting of two sticks connected at one end by a short chain or rope.

A third possible target of this prank is mentioned in the title text. {{w|Ralph Nader}} is a famous consumer rights advocate, most famous for {{w|Ralph Nader presidential campaign, 2000|his controversial 2000 presidential run}}, and the 1965 book ''{{w|Unsafe at Any Speed}}''. Nader is an environmentalist and a member of the Green Party, and he supports clean energy, thus naturally being opposed to "Big Oil" companies.

==Transcript==
:[The first panel has the second panel inside it. It also has a slightly light gray background color. Just above the inlaid second panel is Richard Stallman lying in his bed sleeping, the bottom part at the foot of the bed hidden behind the second panel below. Below his bed under his head lies a katana sword in its sheath, and another one hangs in its sheath behind the end of the bed. Two ninjas with swords and black cloths around their heads jump through the skylight, smashing it so glass scatters around them. Each of them is hanging one-handed from the same rope coming down from the skylight. The rope ends just above the inlaid frame below. The two ninjas shout at Richard Stallman, from four speech bubbles that have pointy ends to indicate how the two alternately speak. (These bubbles are white, not gray.)]
:Richard Stallman: ''Zzzz''
:Top Ninja: Richard Stallman! Your viral open source licenses have grown too powerful.
:Bottom Ninja: The GPL must be stopped.
:Top Ninja: At the source.
:Bottom Ninja: You.

:[In the second inlaid panel (with normal white background), Richard Stallman wakes up immediately, and while sitting up in bed, he pulls out both his katana swords from their sheaths, leaving the sheaths under and behind the bed. One hand is up in the air with the sword from behind the bed, and the other is still pointing down with the swords from below the bed. Lines indicate the fast movement of the swords. His three speech bubbles are like those of the ninjas, the last two even breaking the panel entering into the large first panel.]
:Katana swords: Shing! Shing!
:Richard Stallman: Hah! Microsoft lackeys! So it has come to this!
:Richard Stallman: A night of blood I've long awaited. But be this my death or yours, free software will carry on! For a GNU dawn! For freedom!
:Richard Stallman: ...Hey, where are you going?

:[An outside scene at night with black sky. Richard Stallman's gray house can be seen with the broken white skylight on the roof. The ninjas are jumping out of a window at ground height while taking off their ninja cloth around their heads, holding them in their hand, thus revealing that they both look like Cueball. The first one is already on the grassy ground beneath the window, his sword pointing down and to the left; the other just jumps from the window pane, his sword pointing up and to the right. Again, they have speech bubbles like before. It is not possible to tell which of the two ninjas from before is first out the window.]
:Ninja in window: Man, you're right, that never gets old.
:Ninja on the grass: Let's do Eric S. Raymond next.
:Ninja in window: Or Linus Torvalds. I hear he sleeps with nunchucks.

==Trivia==
*The phrase "So it has come to this" is the title of [[1022: So It Has Come To This]].
*In [[1624: 2016]], [[Cueball]] smashes through the ceiling, also hanging on a rope, to wake a person in a bed. Not as a threat though, but still a very similar situation.
*In the title text of [[163: Donald Knuth]], [[Black Hat]] reveals that he broke into [[Donald Knuth]]'s house through the skylight as well.
*Because of this comic, Stallman has [http://blog.xkcd.com/2007/04/19/life-imitates-xkcd-part-ii-richard-stallman/ been given a katana] by fans of xkcd.
*At his [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHp_Vh9TESU&t=1645 talk at JCCC3] (as well as in a note in ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]''), [[Randall]] mentioned that the comic he originally published had the assassins say "free software," and Richard Stallman says "open source software". He swapped the two terms after complaints that Richard Stallman was [https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html opposed to the phrase "open source"]. Even after this change, he got an e-mail from Stallman himself saying that he didn't even want to be portrayed in the same comic as the words "open source". The full note from the [[xkcd: volume 0]] book is the following:
{{quote|Originally, I had the phrases "open source" and "free software" reversed here, but a flood of 1:00 AM letters told me Stallman notoriously hates the term "open source" and would never use it. The comic title was "Open Source" and I couldn't change that, so I just switched who said what and went back to sleep. Only one person wrote in post-change to complain about "Open Source" still being used in the title - Stallman himself}}
:*Stallman's well-known opposition to the term "open source" stems from the fact that "open source" refers specifically to a methodology for software development involving allowing customers to actively participate in development and testing of software products by giving them access to in-development source code and soliciting feedback; as such, the term was first adopted as a means to promote free software ideas to business interests. In contrast, Stallman and the FSF view free software as a political issue concerning the basic freedoms that should belong to all computer users, and thus 'open source' as an appeal to software businesses misses the point of getting individuals to think about their rights as users.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

2791: Bookshelf Sorting

2025-02-25T00:08:10Z

172.68.205.122: Nothing to do with the Synonym Movies category.

Talk:3054: Scream Cipher

2025-02-22T21:31:08Z

172.68.205.122:

What's the American alphabet? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.213|172.68.64.213]] 01:16, 22 February 2025 (UTC)AnAussie
Anyone know a good free all-language OCR tool to help with the transcript? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.156|172.69.67.156]] 17:30, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: Found one here: https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/diacritics.htm --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.70|172.68.2.70]] 17:52, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

The written cipher is very interesting, but where can I hear recordings of the spoken form? [[Special:Contributions/Rockymountain|Rockymountain]] 17:31, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL4piuUn5nc Here ya go.] --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.117|172.68.35.117]] 17:54, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Are Cueball and Megan millenials? Who else would text greetings when they're standing right next to each other? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:38, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:They could be texting other people. [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/@bforbrain youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 19:37, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:Engineers and cyberfolk were text messaging their neighbors rather than talking long before it was <s>cool</s> encouraged for social distancing or quarantine! It's always helpful to get a reminder not to do this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.101|162.158.159.101]] 20:37, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:They might not be diegetically in the same room. Comics can get weird with physical space. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 20:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Likely a pun on "stream cipher"

- Related reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_(cipher) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.229|172.68.26.229]] 17:46, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

A̦ÅÄ ẠÂÅȀ, A̓A̅ ȀÅÄĂA̱ ȦÁ ÂÁAĂĂA̦ A̮ÄÂÂA̦ A̓A̮ ȀÁ A̱A̓A̱ A ÀÁÂÃA̓ÅÂ ÅA̮ A̅A̰A̓Ã A̭AA̋Á A̓Â A̅A̰A̓Ã ÃA̅A̦ĂÁ! --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.112|172.68.3.112]] 17:50, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

:The Wikifunction [https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22728 from Scream] returns "YOU KNOW, JA̅ WOULD BE NEALLY FUNNY JF WE DJD A VENSJON OF A̅HJS A̭AGE JN A̅HJS SA̅YLE!". Hmmm... [[User:Mwarren|Mwarren]] ([[User talk:Mwarren|talk]]) 19:04, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::The page you link to came into existence 7 minutes after I had posted this comment ;) I was doing it all manually, using [https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/diacritics.htm this page] and best-guess attempts to interpret what Randall's handwritten diacritics were meant to correspond to. --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.1.158|172.68.1.158]] 19:55, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

::: updated version: "A̦ÅÄ ẠÂÅȀ, ẢĀ ȀÅÄĂA̱ ȦÁ ȂÁAĂĂA̦ A̮ÄÂÂA̦ ẢA̮ ȀÁ A̱ẢA̱ A ÀÁȂÃẢÅÂ ÅA̮ ĀA̰ẢÃ A̯AA̋Á ẢÂ ĀA̰ẢÃ ÃĀA̦ĂÁ!" --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.67|172.68.3.67]] 20:01, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

On Wikifunctions, we implemented the two functions [https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22725 to Scream Cipher] and [https://www.wikifunctions.org/view/en/Z22728 from Scream Cipher] --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.235|172.70.38.235]] 18:09, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

:It looks like the wikifunctions are using a different character for "D" than [https://scream-cipher.netlify.app/ the github project] linked in the explanation. Seems as though one's using U+0331 and the other's using 0332. [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 20:32, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Is there a logic behind the choices of the letter? I guess A̧ is for C because of the French ç and Å is pronounced like O in some Nordic languages. Also, is it A̱, A̲ or A̲ ? (or something else). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.126.50|172.71.126.50]] 18:10, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: Seems to be mostly visual similarity. Å has an actual O shape added to it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.171|172.70.110.171]] 20:19, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I give it a week for people to make a translator to and from this cipher. [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:20, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

- The Wikifunctions translations above were complete at least 11 minutes ''before'' your comment and well within the goal of one week :-) . [[User:Mwarren|Mwarren]] ([[User talk:Mwarren|talk]]) 19:04, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Numbers should be variations of h and/or g. [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 18:32, 21 February 2025 (UTC)#
:H > g [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:59, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Using ''sed'' you can encode with <code>sed 's/C/A̧/g;s/D/A̱/g;s/F/A̮/g;s/G/A̋/g;s/H/A̰/g;s/J/A̓/g;s/P/A̯/g;s/Q/A̤/g;s/X/A̽/g;s/Y/A̦/g;y/BEIKLMNORSTUVWZ/ȦÁẢẠĂǍÂÅȂÃĀÄÀȀȺ/'</code> and decode with <code>sed 's/A̧/C/g;s/A̱/D/g;s/A̮/F/g;s/A̋/G/g;s/A̰/H/g;s/A̓/J/g;s/A̯/P/g;s/A̤/Q/g;s/A̽/X/g;s/A̦/Y/g;y/ȦÁẢẠĂǍÂÅȂÃĀÄÀȀȺ/BEIKLMNORSTUVWZ/'</code>. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.102|162.158.159.102]] 18:41, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: This is really neat. I suppose `tr` might work too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.10.242|162.158.10.242]] 16:15, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

It would be really funny if someone added an image of Bill Cipher screaming, with the tag "A screaming cipher". It wouldn't reall fit but it'd be funny [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:59, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:[[File:Screamingcipher.png]] I did. [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/@bforbrain youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 19:57, 21 February 2025 (UTC) (EDIT: WOW, that thing is MASSIVE! Can someone please downscale it because I have no idea how. You have permission to edit my comment '''''only for that.''''') (DOUBLE EDIT: Nevermind, I did it.)
Someone started a GitHub repo with a web-based encoded/decoder already: https://github.com/Reginald-Gillespie/StreamCipher [[User:Dlech|Dlech]] ([[User talk:Dlech|talk]]) 19:35, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I'd almost want to edit in my repo instead of the current one because mine is objectively better, but I'm new to this and not sure if that's appropriate or not =P (I don't even know if I am commenting correctly) [[User:WKoA|WKoA]] ([[User talk:WKoA|talk]]) 00:17, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:Look to the likes of the [[1190: Time]] comic, where several different fanbase compilations may have been given. I would anticipate that you could do a decent job of editing "This thing here does..." into "Ways of experiencing it include this [existing one] and that [yours] [with room to add more, if they add up]. Or just mention your link here, let others decide if your claims of (better?) functionality stand up enough to prompt it to be put up alongside/ahead/instead of the other. I am at least intrigued as to how you did it differently.
:And you certainly had a bit of trouble with the signing. Just add <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> to the end of Talk comments and it autoreplaces. No need to go back in and edit (I added the original timestamp back in, for you, just for future reference). Unless of course you forgot to do it the first time... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.161|172.71.178.161]] 02:41, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

I know you can decode a substitution cipher by counting letters and replacing common ones like 'E' and then filling in the rest by inspection, but what kinds of automated approaches are there? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 20:14, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

'''HEADS UP:''' I just changed A̲ (0332 COMBINING LOW LINE) to A̱ (0331 COMBINING MACRON BELOW) as encoding for "D" in the table and the transcript. Rationale: "T" is written with macron, so it's only logical to encode "D" likewise. A "low line" is longer than a macron, and looking at Randall's comic, the line below the "D" is definitely not longer than the one above "T". It would also make no sense to encode "T" with a "combining low line" as well when a single, uncombined character exists. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.123|172.70.114.123]] 20:29, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
: These options should all be including as different writing styles! I think the longer line makes it clearer that A̲ represents D because the ink comes nearer to forming into a closed curve. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.68|172.68.54.68]] 15:55, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

I expect to win a Turing Award for my proof this cypher is computationally equivalent to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.19|172.71.158.19]] 02:57, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

The page technically uses the incorrect characters for (at least) E, M, N, O, R, S, and T based on the title text shown on xkcd.com. The original title text uses two separate characters (ex. A + 0301 COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT for E), whereas the table uses the combined character (ex. 00C1 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE for E). Alternatively, my browser is just doing something weird. Not necessarily worth updating, but something I noticed when implementing the cipher. [[User:Abus|Abus]] ([[User talk:Abus|talk]]) 06:22, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
: I think it's the browser. Firefox->Page Source gives me A+COMBINING WHATEVER, but <code>w3m -dump_source https://xkcd.com/3054/ | zcat | grep 'img.*title='</code> returns single characters. The title text here on explainxkcd was copied by ''TheusafBOT''. I trust ''TheusafBOT'' and ''w3m'' to be so basic and simple that they wouldn't try to do something 'clever' with the characters, whereas I tend to suspect the multi-MB-monster Firefox messed things up. I'm just guessing, though... could maybe someone test with yet another browser - e.g. Edge or Opera? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.107|162.158.159.107]] 11:52, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:: Argh, no, turns out ''w3m'', and also ''wget'' all return A+COMBINING THINGY, but they got merged into the single chars by my ''xterm'' when I copied them to some 'identify unicode' web page. Looking at the raw file dumped by ''wget'' I see A+COMBINING XX - I think... So I think you are right with your observation! Randall uses A+COMBINING XX for the title text on XKCD (though I really doubt that was intentional), then ''TheusafBOT'' merged the characters when it copied the text to create this page. That said, I still think using the merged chars is cleaner. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.107|162.158.159.107]] 12:20, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
::: It may be worth noting the difference somewhere, even though the merged chars are cleaner. Someone copying the characters from this page to encipher text would technically be in violation of the "spec" since Randall used the two character version in the title text. If someone wished to decipher the title text from the original XKCD, this characters on this page would fail. [[User:Abus|Abus]] ([[User talk:Abus|talk]]) 18:56, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
: unsure how to indent a sourceblock, see below [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.167|172.68.54.167]] 16:13, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
<source>$ curl -s https://m.xkcd.com | sed -ne 's/.*id="altText">$[^<]*$<.*/\1/p' | iconv -f utf8 -t wchar_t | hexdump -C
00000000 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...A...A...A...|
00000010 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...A... ...A...|
00000020 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 03 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 | ...A.......A...|
00000030 27 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 11 03 00 00 |'...A...A.......|
00000040 41 00 00 00 26 03 00 00 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...&... ...A...|
00000050 0c 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 0a 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 |....A.......A...|
00000060 02 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 03 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 |....A.......A...|
00000070 04 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 01 03 00 00 41 00 00 00 |....A.......A...|
00000080 11 03 00 00 20 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |.... ...A...A...|
00000090 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 41 00 00 00 |A...A...A...A...|
000000a0 41 00 00 00 21 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 |A...!.......|</source>

'''TRIARESIS'''
Does anyone else view the triaresis as a missed opportunity? I'm thinking of Die Aerzte". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%C3%84rzte#Band_name]. Can someone insert the image of the band's logo? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.222|172.71.102.222]] 17:21, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:I saw that, when following up on the actual A-diaresisand I quite like the idea that they {{tvtropes|HeavyMetalUmlaut|heavy metal umlauted}} an ''actual'' existing umlaut/diaeresis... If it weren't irrelevent to the comic (and skipped the bit at the top that actually translates the name), I might have relinked to that anchor point. But happily boosting the visibility of it here with a small reply⋯ [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.122|172.68.205.122]] 21:31, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Yes, should encode all numbers, in binary, using 'g' and 'h' for 0 and 1.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.195|172.70.162.195]] 17:56, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:Why g and h? I saw an early comment saying the same. Why those when letters are A? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:14, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
::I presume for the "AAAAAAAAAGH!" type thing... (Although, given that a number would then be something like GHHHGGH, as a separate word, I'm not sure it'll look "AAAAAAAGH"ish.
::And is it coded as MSF (42=101010), N-bit (e.g. =00101010), BCD per digit (4=0100 2=0010 =01000010) or some other form? Plenty of scope for interpretation.
::Also, might I suggest E and I (or I and E) for it, instead..? IEIEIE EEIEIEIE EIEEEEIE! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 19:10, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Scream Cipher

2025-02-22T18:11:31Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 366387 by 172.71.144.119 (talk) Wrong place, and I'm sure it's already mentioned in the right place...

#REDIRECT [[3054: Scream Cipher]]

Template:book

2025-02-16T21:11:43Z

172.68.205.122: Took cue from {{w|Help:Self link}} and made it a #Section Link so that: a) It works here, and b) It takes you straight to the Usage section that may be the most useful bit of this page... (Maybe reconsider hue of background, to work better with link-hue?)

<includeonly> {{#if:{{{5|}}} |data-sort-value="{{formatnum:{{#if:{{{1|}}}|{{{1|}}}|0}}|R}}" style="background-color: #ffc7c7;"{{!}}{{#if: {{{6|}}}|'''{{ordinal|{{{1|}}}}}''' video, on {{#time:Y‑m‑d|{{{2|}}}-{{{3|}}}-{{{4|}}}}}: '''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{{5|dQw4w9WgXcQ}}}|youtu.be/}}|youtube.com/watch?v=}}|www.}}|http://}}|https://}} {{{6|}}}]'''|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{{5|dQw4w9WgXcQ}}}|youtu.be/}}|youtube.com/watch?v=}}|www.}}|http://}}|https://}} '''{{ordinal|{{{1|}}}}}''' video, on {{#time:Y‑m‑d|{{{2|}}}-{{{3|}}}-{{{4|}}}}}]}} |data-sort-value="{{#expr: 10000*{{formatnum:{{{1|0}}}|R}}+{{formatnum:{{{2|0}}}|R}} }}" style={{#switch:{{{1|}}}|1="background-color:#9eff9e;"{{!}}''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]''|2="background-color:#ffff88;"{{!}}''[[What If? 2|What If? 2]]''|3="background-color:#ffccee;"{{!}}Available '''[[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition|exclusively]]''' on ''[[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition|What If? 10th Anniversary Edition]]''|4="background-color:#bbffee;"{{!}}''[[What If? Future Edition|What If? Future Edition]]''|#default= "background-color:#000000;"{{!}}'''[[Template:book#Usage| Template used incorrectly. Click here for instructions. ]]''''''}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|, with a different title}}, '''Chapter {{{2|unknown}}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|<nowiki>:</nowiki> {{{3}}}}}'''}}</includeonly><noinclude>Used in [[What If? chapters|the ''what if?'' index]] for articles featured in one of the books and for YouTube videos. The title is only needed when different from the blog's.

==Usage==
For articles featured in a book:
<nowiki>{{book|WHICH-BOOK|CHAPTER-NUMBER|OPTIONAL-CHAPTER-TITLE}}</nowiki>

and for YouTube videos:
<nowiki>{{book|YT-NUMBER|YYYY|MM|DD|</nowiki>'''''<nowiki>https://youtube.link (or video-ID)</nowiki>'''''|VIDEO-TITLE}}

==Examples book chapters==
<nowiki>{{book|2|69}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|2|69}}
and
<nowiki>{{book|1|69|Lightning Stike}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|1|69|Lightning Stike}}
and
<nowiki>{{book}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book}}

==Examples for a YouTube video==
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki>'''''2'''''|'''''2022'''''|'''''12'''''|'''''31'''''|'''''https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyNhb5Y'''''|'''''What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?'''''}}

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|2|2022|12|31|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyNhb5Y|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}

'''If you want, for a YouTube video you can also use the VIDEO-ID instead of the link.''' The link is usually enough. Here's how to get the '''VIDEO-ID'''

1. Open the YouTube video and look at the link. it will look something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v='''''3EI08o-IGYk'''''
https://youtu.be/'''''3EI08o-IGYk'''''
https://youtu.be/'''''3EI08o-IGYk'''''?si=gdSF3nIlctPPFbd2

2. The green part is the '''''VIDEO-ID''''' you can use. Example
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki>'''''2'''''|'''''2022'''''|'''''12'''''|'''''31'''''|'''''2LSyNhb5Y'''''|'''''What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?'''''}}

'''Produces:'''

{{book|2|2022|12|31|2LSyizrk8-0|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}

{| class="sortable wikitable"
! scope="col" style="text‑align:center" | N
! Date
! Thumbnail
! Title
! Reader's question
! Randall's answer
! Book
! YouTube
|-
!1
| 2012‑07‑10 || [[File:Relativistic Baseball.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}''' || ''"What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"'' || The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion, and possibly a ruling of "hit by pitch". || {{book|1|9}} ||
|-
!2
| 2012‑07‑10 0w later || [[File:SAT Guessing.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|2|SAT Guessing}}''' || ''"What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple‑choice question? How many perfect scores would there be?"'' || No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect scoNo one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. || {{book|2|69}} ||
|-
!3
| 2012‑07‑17 1w later || [[File:Yoda.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|3|Yoda}}''' || ''"How much Force power can Yoda output?"'' || First regular release. From here on standard release day was Tuesday. It's about 19.2 kilowatts, or 25 horsepower. || {{book|3|420!}} ||{{book|8|2032|9|22|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!4
| 2012‑07‑24 1w later || [[File:A Moles of Moles.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}}''' || ''"What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?"'' || As a mole is such a high number this would be tricky. They would condense into a pressurized sphere of meat that would freeze and occasionally explode from gases. || {{book|4|64}} || {{book|145|2019|4|2|https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ|Jellyfish Power}}
|-
!5
| 2012‑07‑31 1w later || [[File:Robot Apocalypse.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|5|Robot Apocalypse}}''' || ''"What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity. What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?"'' || Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If not, then we all die. || {{book|1|9|Jellyfish Power}}|| {{book|11|2023|12|31|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!6
| 2012‑08‑07 1w later || [[File:Glass Half Empty.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}}''' || ''"What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?"'' || As in a vacuum? Which half are you talking about? If the vacuum is on the bottom, it would explode, but if it's on the top, the air rushes in and it becomes normal water. || {{book|2|69|Jellyfish Power}} || {{book|3|2023|12|31|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!7
| 2012‑08‑14 1w later || [[File:Everybody Out.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|7|Everybody Out}}''' || ''"Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off‑planet?"'' || No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings No, at least not without No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings, and everything else behind. || {{book|4|64|Jellyfish Power}} || {{book|3|2023|12|31|https://youtu.be/JqFSGkFPipM|abc}}
|-
!8
| 2012‑08‑21 1w later || [[File:Everybody Jump.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|8|Everybody Jump}}''' || ''"What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?"'' || Earth would be unaffected but the human race would probably be wiped out due to everyone trying to get home at the same time. ERROR MESSAGE EXPECTED. || {{book}} ||
|-
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Template:book

2025-02-16T15:53:00Z

172.68.205.122: Noting a discrepancy, I spent a couple of minutes trying to work out why it was so 'descrepenced', before it clicked. (i.e. the reason why I *couldn't* click! ;) Note more for editors, not sure if it needs to be made more obvious... (Or solved otherwise?)

<includeonly> {{#if:{{{5|}}} |data-sort-value="{{formatnum:{{#if:{{{1|}}}|{{{1|}}}|0}}|R}}" style="background-color: #ffc7c7;"{{!}}{{#if: {{{6|}}}|'''{{ordinal|{{{1|}}}}}''' video, on {{#time:Y‑m‑d|{{{2|}}}-{{{3|}}}-{{{4|}}}}}: '''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{{5|dQw4w9WgXcQ}}}|youtu.be/}}|youtube.com/watch?v=}}|www.}}|http://}}|https://}} {{{6|}}}]'''|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{{5|dQw4w9WgXcQ}}}|youtu.be/}}|youtube.com/watch?v=}}|www.}}|http://}}|https://}} '''{{ordinal|{{{1|}}}}}''' video, on {{#time:Y‑m‑d|{{{2|}}}-{{{3|}}}-{{{4|}}}}}]}} |data-sort-value="{{#expr: 10000*{{formatnum:{{{1|0}}}|R}}+{{formatnum:{{{2|0}}}|R}} }}" style={{#switch:{{{1|}}}|1="background-color:#9eff9e;"{{!}}''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]''|2="background-color:#ffff88;"{{!}}''[[What If? 2|What If? 2]]''|3="background-color:#ffccee;"{{!}}Available '''[[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition|exclusively]]''' on ''[[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition|What If? 10th Anniversary Edition]]''|4="background-color:#bbffee;"{{!}}''[[What If? Future Edition|What If? Future Edition]]''|#default= "background-color:#000000;"{{!}}'''[[Template:book| Template used incorrectly. Click here for instructions. ]]''''''}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|, with a different title}}, '''Chapter {{{2|unknown}}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|<nowiki>:</nowiki> {{{3}}}}}'''}}</includeonly><noinclude>Used in [[What If? chapters|the ''what if?'' index]] for articles featured in one of the books and for YouTube videos. The title is only needed when different from the blog's.

==Usage==
For articles featured in a book:
<nowiki>{{book|WHICH-BOOK|CHAPTER-NUMBER|OPTIONAL-CHAPTER-TITLE}}</nowiki>

and for YouTube videos:
<nowiki>{{book|YT-NUMBER|YYYY|MM|DD|</nowiki>'''''<nowiki>https://youtube.link (or video-ID)</nowiki>'''''|VIDEO-TITLE}}

==Examples book chapters==
<nowiki>{{book|2|69}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|2|69}}
and
<nowiki>{{book|1|69|Lightning Stike}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|1|69|Lightning Stike}}
and
<nowiki>{{book}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book}}

==Examples for a YouTube video==
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki>'''''2'''''|'''''2022'''''|'''''12'''''|'''''31'''''|'''''https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyNhb5Y'''''|'''''What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?'''''}}

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|2|2022|12|31|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSyNhb5Y|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}

'''If you want, for a YouTube video you can also use the VIDEO-ID instead of the link.''' The link is usually enough. Here's how to get the '''VIDEO-ID'''

1. Open the YouTube video and look at the link. it will look something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v='''''3EI08o-IGYk'''''
https://youtu.be/'''''3EI08o-IGYk'''''
https://youtu.be/'''''3EI08o-IGYk'''''?si=gdSF3nIlctPPFbd2

2. The green part is the '''''VIDEO-ID''''' you can use. Example
<nowiki>{{book|</nowiki>'''''2'''''|'''''2022'''''|'''''12'''''|'''''31'''''|'''''2LSyNhb5Y'''''|'''''What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?'''''}}

'''Produces:'''

{{book|2|2022|12|31|2LSyizrk8-0|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}

{| class="sortable wikitable"
! scope="col" style="text‑align:center" | N
! Date
! Thumbnail
! Title
! Reader's question
! Randall's answer
! Book
! YouTube
|-
!1
| 2012‑07‑10 || [[File:Relativistic Baseball.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}''' || ''"What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"'' || The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion, and possibly a ruling of "hit by pitch". || {{book|1|9}} ||
|-
!2
| 2012‑07‑10 0w later || [[File:SAT Guessing.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|2|SAT Guessing}}''' || ''"What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple‑choice question? How many perfect scores would there be?"'' || No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect scoNo one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. || {{book|2|69}} ||
|-
!3
| 2012‑07‑17 1w later || [[File:Yoda.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|3|Yoda}}''' || ''"How much Force power can Yoda output?"'' || First regular release. From here on standard release day was Tuesday. It's about 19.2 kilowatts, or 25 horsepower. || {{book|3|420!}} ||{{book|8|2032|9|22|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!4
| 2012‑07‑24 1w later || [[File:A Moles of Moles.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}}''' || ''"What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?"'' || As a mole is such a high number this would be tricky. They would condense into a pressurized sphere of meat that would freeze and occasionally explode from gases. || {{book|4|64}} || {{book|145|2019|4|2|https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ|Jellyfish Power}}
|-
!5
| 2012‑07‑31 1w later || [[File:Robot Apocalypse.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|5|Robot Apocalypse}}''' || ''"What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity. What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?"'' || Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If not, then we all die. || {{book|1|9|Jellyfish Power}}|| {{book|11|2023|12|31|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!6
| 2012‑08‑07 1w later || [[File:Glass Half Empty.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}}''' || ''"What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?"'' || As in a vacuum? Which half are you talking about? If the vacuum is on the bottom, it would explode, but if it's on the top, the air rushes in and it becomes normal water. || {{book|2|69|Jellyfish Power}} || {{book|3|2023|12|31|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!7
| 2012‑08‑14 1w later || [[File:Everybody Out.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|7|Everybody Out}}''' || ''"Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off‑planet?"'' || No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings No, at least not without No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings, and everything else behind. || {{book|4|64|Jellyfish Power}} || {{book|3|2023|12|31|https://youtu.be/JqFSGkFPipM|abc}}
|-
!8
| 2012‑08‑21 1w later || [[File:Everybody Jump.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|8|Everybody Jump}}''' || ''"What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?"'' || Earth would be unaffected but the human race would probably be wiped out due to everyone trying to get home at the same time. ERROR EXPECTED: || {{book}}|| 
|-
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Talk:3039: Human Altitude

2025-01-18T21:50:41Z

172.68.205.122: ...don't know how that happened. Must have stuttered with the fingers when transfering the script output...

I splurged a few paragraphs to try to deal with each detail (and a few things not ''directly'' obvious, but related). However, it's a mess and here (UK) it's basically past my bedtime and I have an early(ish) start tomorrow so... I know that if I had spent another half hour on it, it would have been tighter (less florid?), and would be linking to Yuri Gagarin, Montgolfier, Hubble, man-capable chinese kites, the likes of George Cayley, etc. And I never actually ''mentioned'' the Title Text, though the last paragraph I put is sort of relevent so might just need an "In the title text, it says ..., and, as it happens, ...". I shall leave it up to the editing-gods as to whether my sacrifice is acceptable or entirely in vain... Such is life! And so, goodnight. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.119|172.68.205.119]] 01:39, 18 January 2025 (UTC)
:I linked up a couple Wikipedia articles with [[Template:w]] and wish I could add all of those things, but alas: today’s the last day of the semester on a 3 day weekend here in the States and I’ve been sick all week. I’m going to be going now to work on my missing assignments and hopefully finish them, really wish that we can finish up the explanation as quick as we usually do! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 01:48, 18 January 2025 (UTC)
It seems strange how jagged this is and how low the lows are. Since roughly 1930 (certainly since 1940 at the very latest) someone, somewhere in the world has been flying in an airplane, at a minimum of probably 4.5km for the lowest person. And since like 1955 there's always at least someone over like 7km roughly, and since the jet age like 10km+. This isn't the kind of carelessness that xkcd is known for, unless I'm missing something.[[User:Kchinger|Kchinger]] ([[User talk:Kchinger|talk]]) 03:27, 18 January 2025 (UTC)kchinger
:The Apollo part of the graph implies an at least weekly, probably daily or finer resolution. Aviation unlikely reached 4.5 km above surface on a daily basis until transpacific high altitude airliners became a regularity well after WW2. Planes of the 1930s could achieve greater heights, but usually only attempted when moutains forced them to (so it was not height above ground) and high altitude Zeppelin bombers of WW1 did not fly on a daily basis, sometimes leaving week long gaps between campaigns. However, the pre-airplane lows are still wrong: Pole vaulting has been documented since ancient egypts for crossing of crevices, bodies of water, etc. giving a guaranteed minimum of 2-3 meters. Cliff jumping in the 10s of meters range is also likely to have occured daily somewhere on the globe long before the 20th century and I would not be surprised if some tyrannt created a phase of more than 100 m daily by intensive cliff throwing. (As with the ancient chineses kite observation flights, it might be interesting to extend this graph well into the past, at least up to Spartan postnatal parenthood planning.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.194|172.70.250.194]] 16:06, 18 January 2025 (UTC)
::''Aviation unlikely reached 4.5 km above surface on a daily basis until transpacific high altitude airliners became a regularity well after WW2. Planes of the 1930s could achieve greater heights, but usually only attempted when moutains forced them to...'' The limit is the humans. Past 10k or 15k feet (~4.5km) they go loopy then pass out. Pressurized cabins are costly. Wiley Post flew past 17,000 ft (to 50kft!) in 1934 with a pot on his head, after two other suits split their seams. War forces high flight: the B-17 crews had oxygen bottles and electric heat suits; they did fly about every day but thin air was the least of their problems. B-25 was pressurized but not nice inside. The Constellation (the world's finest tri-motor) was one of the first shirtsleeve cabins, to 24,000 ft (7,300m), but was a very premium ride. The DC-2, DC-3, and DC-4 were unpressurized (a few test DC-4s tried it). Piston engine output tends to zero by 55k ft, even with supercharger. The real move to high altitude comes with turbojets (Comet is credited with first pressurized production passenger plane), Boeing 707, Caravelle, DC8, etc which often work better far above 20k feet. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 20:09, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

For the "Apollo bits", I actually have (fairly) precise data, but the question is whether the spiky bits resemble the reality at all. Here's a version with accurately positioned timestamps, but with the the altitude normalised. Launch is at bottom, time in lunar orbit is at top. To keep the data short I have removed the 'oscillation in orbit" of them all (except for 13, which ''just'' looped around and came straight back out again), and the track of the landers (as never really gets any ''further'' away, averaged over a lunar orbiter orbit) as these things aren't really isn't visible if overviewing the whole program. Blue=orbit-only, Green=orbit-with-landing, Magenta is 13's mission. All sat on a month-start scale (thicker lines are year-starts), for reference.
{{cot|Apollo.SVG}}
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{{cob}}
If you want to see it, copy the text into a file, save/rename as a .svg and open it in any modern browser. (There are other ways of opening SVGs, but that's probably the easiest way for most of those who don't have a preference.) ...to make it look more like the comic, I suggest you make the stroke-width for the missionLines group '''''huuuuuuge!!!!''''' ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.118|162.158.74.118]] 21:14, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Some of the text (both in the explanation and the "into snow or water" in the title text) seems to suggest a "who wasn't shortly killed" that isn't stated in the chart. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.150|172.69.246.150]] 05:55, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

:"into snow or water" is in the title text which is about surviving... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:05, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

I wonder why the chart does not consider parachutes? They might have been available around the same time as balloons, maybe earlier? [[User:Captain Nemo|Captain Nemo]] ([[User talk:Captain Nemo|talk]]) 12:29, 18 January 2025 (UTC)
:A parachutist can onyl start as high as his ballon, so that would make no difference until paragliding became a sport (way too late). However, most highs are still utterly wrong due to the omission of high altitude balooning from the mid-19th century onwards: It seems that no true airplane has ever beaten older baloon records. AT ALL. In fact, among all the objects capable of aerodynamic flight, only the X-2, the X-15 and the Space Shuttle set new 'maximum manned altidude' records going beyond aerostats of their time. However, all three ascended in balistic, rocketpowered flight, only using the lift of their wings during return. So humanitys pinnacle has always been defined by people thrown of cliffs, people attached to kites, peoples in baloons or people on rockets. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.194|172.70.250.194]] 16:06, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

huh. no joke comic. [[user talk:lett‪herebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 15:43, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Huangtou Yuan Huangtou] is a strong contender for the question in the title text. As a punishment he was sent to the sky on a big kite which was then let go. He came down 2.5 km away and survived. It seems entirely possible that he may have reached altitudes of several hundred meters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.196|162.158.95.196]] 19:05, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

3036: Chess Zoo

2025-01-14T00:24:00Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3036
| date = January 10, 2025
| title = Chess Zoo
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = chess_zoo_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1221px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The zoo takes special care to keep kings separated from opposite-color pieces as part of their conservation program to prevent mating in captivity.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need to move the image in the trivia inside the explanation in a smooth way. It's not trivial, it's useful for the explanation.}}
{{w|Zoo|Zoos}} are large encampments where various animals live in small enclosures. They're generally used as public exhibitions for amusement and education and as safe spaces for rescued and endangered animals. Many modern zoos deliberately allow different types of animals to mingle and interact, finding that it promotes enrichment and well-being. Naturally, in such cases, the zoo needs to be designed so that incompatible species (such as predators and prey) aren't allowed to interact, and good designs will allow animals space for rest and privacy when needed.

[[Randall]] has here created a zoo for giant {{w|chess}} pieces, as if they were animals. He treats the different pieces as if they were different species and designs the enclosures to allow interactions between different species, but prevents the possibility of one piece capturing another (which is treated as analogous to one animal attacking another), as well as of escape. In the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section a color version of the zoo shows where different types of pieces can move. The zoo is almost completely horizontally symmetrical from top to bottom with black pieces on the top and white pieces on the bottom. The only place that isn't completely symmetrical is the entrances to the bishop enclosures.

There are many subtle "jokes" in the image that play on how chess pieces move:
* Bishops can only move diagonally. Enclosures containing them do not have diagonal walls or corners which would allow them to slip out, and orthogonal portals into their enclosures are only one square wide and at least two squares long so that they can't get through. One bishop enclosure even has a portal open to the visiting people, letting it serve as a {{w|petting zoo}}. Opposing bishops can safely mingle as long as they are on opposite colors, since a bishop can never move to a square of the opposite color than the one on which it currently stands. This is enforced by these mingling enclosures only having two openings, each on opposite colored squares (i.e. an enclosure only has an opening for black pieces on white squares and one for white pieces on black squares).
* Knights move in an "L" shape (two squares along a rank or file, then one square in an orthogonal direction), leaping over other pieces and presumably walls. The walls of their enclosures have been designed to prevent escape by placing blocks where they would land if they leapt over the wall, or using double-thick walls. They can also be blocked by the same portals that block bishops, although they would need to be four blocks long instead of two.
* Rooks can only move along ranks and files. They have free roam of several enclosures, though diagonal walls are able to stop them, preventing them from accessing the center mingling bishops.
* Queens and kings can move along ranks and files as well as diagonally, so their enclosures must have the same precautions as would be required for both bishops and rooks.
* Pawns can only move forward (or diagonally forward when capturing), but upon reaching the final rank (the opponent's back rank), they are "promoted," becoming a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. The pawns are in a double-walled enclosure with no doors to prevent escape after promotion. It is unclear what would happen to the pawns after they are promoted. Would they remain in the "pawn" enclosure or moved to their new enclosure according to their new piece type is unclear. Also unclear is how the pawns would be repopulated if all of them were to be promoted, leaving the pawn enclosure devoid of pawns. It appears that the pawns promoting is part of the zoo's attractions as mentioned in the Banner for the black pawns' enclosure that says: SHH! PAWNS PROMOTING.
* A special feature of the enclosure, mentioned in the caption, is that there is at least one room for every type of pieces where other pieces cannot enter (except the king is always in a room with the queens). This means that even though some of the pieces can mingle with some of the other pieces they can also always retreat to a room where the other pieces cannot disturb them. For instance the top and bottom room with rooks can not be entered by any other type of pieces. In the two rooms right above and below the middle room, the bishops of the same color have their personal room. And also the two rooms to the right where black and white bishops co-exist on different colors, cannot be entered by any other type. (This is of course needed, since else there could be captures). The pawns have their own rooms top and bottom right. The knights have a separate room from which they can jump out to the rooms with either rooks or king/queens, but no other piece can enter their personal space to the left. And the king and his queens can retreat top or bottom left where the knights cannot enter. No piece can encounter all the others (even of the same color) but all pieces can meet at least one other type of pieces, the pawns though only after promotion. But they could not meet a king. This is similar to real zoos where separate enclosures are designed to be accessible only to one species (for example, through an opening too small for one of the species to pass through), allowing animals control over their interactions.

There are a couple of "interaction" areas that could have been built into the zoo design while preventing piece capture or escape but have not. There is no reason bishops and knights of the same color couldn't occupy the same enclosure, so long as there are adequate walls to prevent knights from escaping their enclosure. Additionally, it would be possible to allow visitor access to the white-bishop-on-black and black-bishop-on-white enclosure, as well as allow visitor access to the knight enclosures, however it is not apparent whether this is a priority of the zoo.

Every visitor of the zoo is depicted as centered on a single square occupied only by themselves, just like a chess piece. This could perhaps imply an entire chess board "world", where humans and chess pieces coexist as separate species, both aligned to the grid.

The title text contains a pun on the word 'mating'. The phrase "mating in captivity" is typically used to refer to animals in zoos copulating, hopefully producing offspring. This is typically done for species that are endangered (in hopes of reintroducing them to the wild, and in the meantime maintaining a healthy population of their own), but in the relatively safe and nurturing environment of the zoo could become problematic if allowed to happen without a certain degree of planning. In a conservation program, much thought may be put to how to avoid inbreeding, overpopulation and social stresses amongst the animals (as well as the problems of feeding and housing all the offspring), and so males and females may be given limited and highly curated access to each other, strictly according to the identified breeding requirements.

In the context of chess, "mating" means delivering an attack from which the opponent's king cannot escape, thereby winning the game. Unlike captive breeding programs, "mating" in in this sense, would presumably eliminate a piece (or an entire side), rather than creating additional animals, and therefore is undesirable. To prevent this from occurring, kings are not kept in the same enclosure as any piece of an opposing color. In fact, only opposing bishops on opposite colors are shown as unallied co-residents of an enclosure, in this zoo, thanks to their particular method of wall-free separation.

==Transcript==
:[A large panel is shown. It contains what appear to be a chessboard, but it is much larger than the usual 8x8=64 chess board squares. But it is divided into squares that are alternatingly white or gray. In the part shown 29x43 = 1247 squares are visible. Although for the outer rows and columns only less than half of each square there can be seen, so only 27x41 = 1107 squares are fully shown. On the "board" there are many details. Above the panel there is a large caption with a caption giving an explanation:]
:<big><big>Chess Zoo</big></big>
:<big>Designed to give different types of pieces their own enclosures while letting them interact as much as possible without allowing captures</big>

:[Upon the board there has been drawn an enclosure by drawing black squares on the white/gray squares. These black squares are smaller than the underlying squares but centered on the middle of their square. The outer parts of this enclosure covers 25x39 = 975 squares. It is not an entire rectangle of the black squares, but the top, the right side and bottom is a full line of 25, 39 and 25 black squares. The left line is only a normal line for the top and bottom 6 squares. Then for the next 12 rows (top or bottom), the "solid" line is moved one step in (to the right) and only on every second row is here a black square on the outer line. Above this there is a gap of 5 squares without black squares on either of the two left most squares (and 7 rows in a row with no black squares on the outer most line). This created a section inside the enclosure connected directly to the outside, but this part is still closed off, with black squares forming walls on this inner section, that closes it off from the rest of the enclosure.]

:[Inside this enclosure there are many other squares that have the black squares on top forming several rooms that are either closed of from other rooms or connected in some places. And on the white and gray squares that do not have black squares in top, there may bee drawn chess pieces or humans on them.]

:[The top part of the image has enclosures for black chess pieces and the bottom for white ones. Smaller black squares form enclosures around the chess pieces while the characters are outside of them. In the middle of the image, to the right, there are black and white bishops next to each other on squares of opposite colors. Humans are only on the outside of the enclosure, mainly above (eight) and below (six) with only three to the right. The the left people can stand either outside normal (three), or inside one of the indentations (two). But they can also walk into the open part and there are nine inside like this.]

:[Banner on top of smaller black squares on the top right, above an enclosure with a knight and four pawns:]
:Banner: ''Shh! Pawns promoting.''

:[Jill near the center, standing in front of Blondie and pointing forward:]
:Jill: Look, mommy! Bishops!

===Detailed description===
:[The humans outside the actual part of the enclosure are listed here, and the rooms they are looking into are also described:]

:[Top row from the left: Over the fifth black square a boy with what appears to be a cap. Next to him Hairbun. Two squares over Cueball. They look into the blacks King and Queens only section. There are four queens in this room and the king. One of the Queens are on her way down a hall to a room below, with a fifth queen and a knight. Over black square 14 there is another Cueball next to Hairy looking into the black rook only section. There are three rooks, one of which is moving in a hall to the room below. Over black square 19 is White Hat and two squares on Danish next to Ponytail looking into the black pawns only section, the two women over the banner. One of the pawns has promoted into a knight four others are still on their way to promote. This room has double thickness walls with two black squares all the way around.]

:[Down the right side from the top: To the right of black square 12 from the top another Cueball looking into the blacks bishops only section with three bishops, two on gray squares and one on a white square. To the right of black square 26 from the top another White Hat and another Hairy are looking into the white bishops only section with two bishops both on white squares. Above this room is a room with both white and black bishops, with the three white bishops on gray squares and the three black bishops on white squares.]

:[Bottom row from the right: Under the fourth black square from the right another Cueball looking into the White pawns only section, there are three pawns, none of them has promoted, bu their is also no banner- This room also has double thickness walls. Under the tenth black square to the 13th are four people in a row, from the right, another White Hat, another Hairy, another Hair Bun and another Cueball. They look into the white rooks only section. There are four rooks, one of them on the way into a hall towards the room above. Under the 21st black square from the right Megan is looking into the white King and Queens only section. There are three Queens with the King. A fourth queen is in a room above, where she is together with a knight.]

:[Up the left side from the bottom: The the left of black square three from the bottom another Hairy is looking into the white King and Queens only section. The seventh black square from the bottom it moved on space to the right. In the hole left there another Cueball is standing so he can see the passage where the white King and Queen can move into a room where also white knights can be, and there is one knight and one queen. To the left of outer wall 27 squares up, is Blondie, she is standing in the normal row left of the wall, but at a place where there is an indentation, so she is not next to the nearest black square. Se looks into the black knights only section with only one knight present. Four squares above her another Ponytail is standing in an indentation in the wall looking into the room where the black King and Queens can be together with the black knights, there is a queen and a knight. Four squares above this another Hairy is seen. He seems to have turned away from the wall walking to the left, so he is not looking into the black King and Queens only section behind him.]

:[The opening into the enclosure from the left to the end: Three squares in at the bottom over a black square one higher than the nearest another Megan walks to the right, next to her another Cueball walks the same way, he is not directly over a black square. And one further left below in one if the indentations another Ponytail. They are all above the white knights only section, with only one knight present. Above the first of the two Cueball's at the top of the opening in an indentation is Knit Cap looking into the black knights only section. At the bottom four squares further in than Ponytail is a person standing in an indentation with very large hair looking into a room where both white knights and rooks can be together, one of each is present. One further square in but two above him is another Blondie and next to her Jill pointing at the room with white and black bishops together, as she calls out. This room is the one where they are on their own color square, three white on white and three black on gray squares. Above them is the room where both black knight and black rooks can be together, with three knights and one rook. One square further in and one below them is another Cueball looking in to a section only accessible to white rooks next to the bishops room. There is one rook there. But below this part of the room it opens up and has both white rooks (3) and white bishops (5) with three bishops on white and two on gray squares. A similar room is above these last three persons with a black rook in the near part not accessible to bishops but then black rooks (1) and black bishops (3) can be together in the rest of that room. All bishops on gray squares.]

:[In total there are 9 Cueballs, 5 Hairys, 3 White Hats, 3 Ponytails, 2 Megans, 2 Hairbuns, 2 Blondies, 1 Knit Cap, 1 Danish, 1 Jill, 1 kid with a cap, 1 man with lots of hair, for a total of 31 humans.]

:[In total there are the following black pieces 1 king, 5 queens, 6 knights (one a promoted pawn), 5 rooks, 11 bishops and 4 pawns (together with the promoted knight). A total of 32 black pieces. There are the following white pieces: 1 king, 4 queens, 3 knights, 9 rooks, 13 bishops and 3 pawns for a total of 33 white pieces. 65 pieces in all. Similar number of each type of pieces as there are humans, 31, 32 and 33 for a total of 96 squares occupied by something that are "alive".]

===Visual-aspects-reliant representation of the comic===
:[Layout (H is a human; # is a smaller black square; chess pieces on the top half are black and below that white, unless otherwise noted):]
HH H HH H HH
#########################
# # #########
# Q Q # R ## ##
# K # R##P P##
H# #Q# Q##### ## P ##
### ### #R## P ##
## ###### # ## N ##
### # ##### # #########
H# Q # #### # ########
### N# ##### # #
# # R B # #
####### #### # B B#H
H # # N N## B R# #
### N # ## B# B #
# # ## # # # #
### # #N# ### ###B## ####
########### # B# B#
#H# # # # #R# # #
##B # B # [White bishops]
H HH B # B # [Black bishops]
HH H## B # B # [Left bishop: white, right bishop: black]
# #H# #H# # # B # B B#
########### R# # #
### # # # ### ## #### ###
# N# ## # #B # #
### # ##R R #B #H
# # ## R B # #H
####### R#### # B #
# # BB# #
###QN # N ##### B # #
# # #### # ########
### # ##### # #########
H## ###### # ## ##
### ### # ##P ##
# # # #####R## ##
# K Q# ## P P##
H# Q # RR ## ##
# Q # R #########
#########################
H HHHH H

==Trivia==
*User [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] made the [https://pasteboard.co/64VsBMA5af8l.png following depiction] of the board with colors showing which rooms the different pieces can enter by mixing colors.
**It was uploaded here with help, as D5xtgr could not at the time upload files:
[[File:3636 Chezz Zoo-with colors.png]]
*This is a version of xkcd 3036 "Chess Zoo" with partially-transparent coloured overlays illustrating the range of movement each piece has. Warm colours (red, brown, orange, yellow) are used for the black pieces, and cool colours (blue, teal , cyan, green) for the white pieces to show contrast. Because some regions are accessible to multiple pieces, these overlays overlap in places, producing colours that are combination or mixture of the originals.
**The text taken from the page where the original image was posted.
*Jake Ouellette made an [https://cadencecode.com/play/zooofchess interactive simulation of the chess zoo], which has several more jokes embedded in it.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

3020: Infinite Armada Chess

2025-01-11T20:34:13Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 361688 by 172.68.211.102 (talk) No reason.

{{comic
| number = 3020
| date = December 4, 2024
| title = Infinite Armada Chess
| image = infinite_armada_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 282x497px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Stockfish 16 suggests the unconventional opening 1. RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Chess}} is a board game played between two players on an 8x8 chessboard. In standard chess, each player has 8 pawns and 8 other pieces: 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, a queen, and a king. {{w|Chess variants}} are chess games in which the rules, board sizes, and/or piece behaviors are altered. In the chess game presented here, a non-standard chessboard is used, which extends vertically past the original 1st and 8th ranks off the page to infinity in both directions. Each square beyond the 8 standard ranks is filled by an additional queen. The {{w|Queen (chess)|queen}} is the most powerful piece on the chessboard, having the powers of a {{w|Bishop (chess)|bishop}} and a {{w|Rook (chess)|rook}} combined. With an infinite armada of queens, each player will have more resources to call on. Sometimes having a bunch of queens [https://x.com/chesscom/status/1841540380363211164 doesn't go very well], however (here, try knight to d6).

In the title text, {{w|Stockfish (Chess)|Stockfish}} is a {{w|chess engine}} designed to evaluate a chessboard and find the best move. However, it is designed to handle finite boards, so it's likely that some problem will occur as it runs on an infinite one. Here that problem shows up as the game's move #1, "RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access". This error message is unique to the cross-browser {{w|WebAssembly}} implementations of {{w|WebGL}}, so there was probably not enough memory to {{w|Rendering (computer graphics)|render}} an infinite board in a {{w|web browser}} window.

All but a finite number of pieces are stuck at every step, and thus there are only a finite number of possible moves, but the game is unbounded (each capture resets the draw clock) and each capture also increases the number of possible pieces which can move by opening up more space on the board. No finite amount of space is guaranteed to suffice to analyze the game — contrast with standard chess in which surprisingly little memory (given impossibly vast, but finite, amounts of time) is needed to play perfectly. Still, as in regular chess, a program which understood that only a finite number of pieces are accessible could play the same way programs play conventional chess.

However, without specifically coding Stockfish to be aware of the logical certainty of the infinite number of queens being blocked, it is likely to still be checking ''every'' piece in turn, long after it has successfully prepared to establish (or perhaps [[2407: Depth and Breadth|actually explored]]) the relative strategical advantages of undertaking the twenty initial moves that White could make. Or, in the algorithm's worst case scenario, it has tried to start its movement-checking process at the 'rearmost rank', and has encountered the error before managing to establish (let alone assess) ''any'' valid opening moves. By easy induction, the human player should be able to establish an intrinsic understanding that everything behind two full ranks of undisturbed pieces (or beyond them, when applied to the opponent's position on the other side of the board) is unable to move, where no gaps exist to shuffle around in, but the code (if designed for finite, though perhaps arbitrary, boards) is unlikely to natively have the complexity to derive this computational detail from first principles, or even establish that it might hit a {{w|halting problem}} failure should it somehow avoid the issue of resources.

This comic was published in the middle of the {{w|World Chess Championship 2024|2024 World Chess Championship}}, between the World Champion Ding Liren and the Challenger Gukesh Dommaraju.

==Transcript==
:[A chess board in the starting position, except it extends further at the top and bottom, going beyond the panel. The extra squares are filled with queens of the sides' respective colors.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Infinite armada chess

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

3018: Second Stage

2025-01-11T20:33:00Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 361685 by 172.68.211.102 (talk) Nope.

{{comic
| number = 3018
| date = November 29, 2024
| title = Second Stage
| image = second_stage_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hmm, they won't do in-flight delivery, so let's order a new first and second stage to our emergency landing site and then try to touch down on top of them to save time.
}}

==Explanation==

In this comic, two people have lifted off in a {{w|Multistage rocket|staged launch vehicle}} without their second stage installed, an unlikely scenario in reality because rocket launches are thoroughly planned and checked. The lack of an entire stage would be glaringly obvious to anyone who is part of the project.{{Citation needed}} But it can be a problem in games such as {{w|Kerbal Space Program}}.

Staging in rocketry refers of the segmentation of a launch vehicle into distinct, separable modules, each one with an independent {{w|Rocket engine}} (or engines) and {{w|Rocket propellant|fuel}} supply. This is practiced for two critical reasons: firstly, different engine designs work better at different altitudes, so you'd want to use one engine type deep in the atmosphere and a different engine once you get to space; and secondly, since you only need one of those engines (or sets of engines) at once, it'd be better to simply expend the first engine(s) and its fuel tank once you no longer need it. By getting rid of that useless mass, you can {{w|Tsiolkovsky rocket equation|go farther using the same amount of fuel}}. A launch vehicle that does not employ staging is called an {{w|Single-stage-to-orbit}} (SSTO), but none of them have been successful due to the technical challenges. There's a tradeoff between the greater effectiveness of different engines under different conditions, and the mass penalty of having to have multiple engines as well as extra hardware that can be separated.

As Pilot 1 calls to fire the second stage, Pilot 2 is initially confused and asks if a second stage was needed. Pilot 1 confirms that there was supposed to be a second stage, and thought that it was the Pilot 2's responsibility to install and confirm there was a second stage. When both pilots realize there is no second stage, Pilot 2, naturally, thinks he can order one on {{w|Amazon (company)|Amazon}} with {{w|same-day delivery}} (though Amazon typically doesn't sell space ship stages — at least not with same-day delivery).{{citation needed}} He then has difficulty picking an address {{w|ZIP Code}} as they are likely traveling too high above the ground and too fast to be in a single postal area for long enough for the delivery to take place. The joke is likely poking fun at people who forget to pack certain items when going on road trips or vacation, and rely on Amazon to deliver replacements to them. There is also humor to be found in this rocket apparently being designed, built, and piloted by only a couple of people — in real life, the construction of a rocket, especially a manned one, generally involves thousands of people. Although {{w|test pilot}}s often have input in the development of many vehicles, and many were chosen for various space programs, generally they do not do the designing themselves. There are possibly some {{w|Wan Hu|notable}} {{w|Mike Hughes (daredevil)|exceptions}} to this — but with varying degrees of credibility, and almost certainly none that did any better than those voices in the comic.

The comic also alludes to a not-so-distant future when space travel is a much more mundane endeavor. If companies such as {{w|SpaceX}} succeed in their mass-production and launch cadence goals, one could imagine a scenario where rocket parts become standardized and easily replaceable — similarly to how it is easy today to replace a car's tire or fill its fuel tank if you get stranded on a highway. This might create an ironic situation where the space ship being launched into orbit or into outer space that is missing its second stage would need another, even faster, space ship (with its own second stage) to deliver the second stage to the first ship. And what if the delivery ship forgot its secondary stage?

In the title text, Pilot 2 concludes that in-flight delivery won't be possible but proposes to have a new first and second stage delivered to their emergency landing site, properly stacked, so they can simply land on top of them, attach, and immediately take off again. This is not too dissimilar to how SpaceX is proposing to rapidly turn around Starship launches atop its Booster stages; though not yet close to being proven possible and practical, a Starship would descend to be caught by a {{w|SpaceX Starbase#Launch site (Orbital Launch Pad A and B)|'Mechazilla'}} tower, ready to be relaunched from there atop an awaiting Booster stage that had also been recently 'delivered' (perhaps by itself having been recently caught, having returned from the same or another recent flight) with perhaps minimal additional preparation other than whatever refuelling is required.

This is not the first time Randall discusses the idea of a mid-flight delivery. A {{what if|149|What If? explanation}} attempts to answer if it possible to have pizza delivered to you, by a bird, while flying on a commercial airliner.

== Trivia ==
*The rocket, though apparently at least one segment short, appears to be substantially taller than the launch tower of the pad, which is a strangely incongruous detail. Unless the real rocket support is an angled back "hard spine" structure that has been rotated out of the way and down into the exhaust-flume/flame-trench quenching system. Since the voices are coming from what appears to be a separate module at the top of the rocket, it may be that the ''shell'' of the second stage is present, but not the engine and/or fuel.


==Transcript==

:[A multi-stage rocket, with a capsule on top, is lifting-off the ground from a launchpad, at least two rocket nozzles are visibly producing a flame, and the pad is surrounded with smoke and/or steam from the blast suppression system. A voice comes from the capsule at the top.]
:We have liftoff.

:[The first stage separates from the rest of the rocket, part way through the roll-program. There are no obvious engines standing out from the 'second stage' (or extended payload trunk) lower shroud.]
:Main engine cutoff.
:Stage separation confirmed.
:We are go for second stage burn.

:Second stage?

:Yes.
:...What?

:[The first stage and the rest of the rocket are drifting apart in apparent freefall. No rocket is firing and the background does not seem to indicate that this view is beyond the atmosphere.]
:We were supposed to have a second stage?

:...Yes!

:Did '''''you''''' set up a second stage?

:I thought '''''you''''' were handling staging!

:Oh no.

:[They continue to drift apart slowly.]
:Okay, don't panic.
:Lemme see if we can order a stage online for same-day delivery.

:''Sigh''.

:Hey, what zip code should I put? Ours keeps changing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Rockets]]

3014: Arizona Chess

2025-01-11T20:31:34Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 361678 by 172.68.211.102 (talk) What reason?

{{comic
| number = 3014
| date = November 20, 2024
| title = Arizona Chess
| image = arizona_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x315px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Sometimes, you have to sacrifice pieces to gain the advantage. Sometimes, to advance ... you have to fall back.
}}

==Explanation==

[[White Hat]] and [[Cueball]] are playing a timed game of tournament-style chess. At the start of the comic White Hat has the advantage because, as well as having one more pawn than Cueball, he has more time left to play his remaining moves — 6 minutes and 35 seconds, versus Cueball's 28 seconds, as shown on the {{w|chess clock}} display above them. This means that Cueball cannot afford to consider his moves as carefully as White Hat.

However, Cueball has an unexpected advantage. The building is sited across the border of Arizona with another state (or possibly with the Navajo Nation, which DOES observe DST, see {{w|Time in Arizona}}), with White Hat on the Arizona side, and the game is being played at a very particular time of year, when (most of) the United States exits {{w|Daylight Saving Time}}, which happens at 2:00 AM on the morning of the first Sunday in November. When this happens, clocks in those other states 'gain' an hour (i.e. they show that an hour less has passed than previously). As Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), clocks there continue to progress time as normal.

At this time, White Hat's time remains normal, but Cueball's time "falls back" one hour, giving him 60 additional minutes of play time. White Hat immediately protests, likely trying to communicate that this is not how chess clocks are meant to work. They are fancy timers, tracking how much time each player has used since the beginning of the match, and sometimes, depending on the rules of specific tournament, adding a specified increment of time every turn. They're not supposed to be based on local time, and changing the time remaining during play would certainly be a violation of the rules. Even clocks that do track local time are generally not so carefully calibrated that they would reliably switch times so close to a state line.

Using the changing local time rather than a monotonically increasing time is generally considered a bug when implementing systems like a chess clock. Most engineering libraries provide both, but the local time is much more complex to implement, and not usually included in a device as simple as dedicated hardware for a chess clock. It could be interesting to find an example of a microcontroller used in a chess clock here.

Cueball ignores these protests, and now seems confident of victory, since he has far more play time remaining. Daylight Slaying Time is a pun on Daylight Saving Time, but note that the comic takes place as the non-Arizona clock stops observing DST and joins the Arizona clock in Standard Time. A pun on Daylight Saving Time was also made in [[673: The Sun]].

The title text makes use of a pun. To "fall back" in a strategic sense means to withdraw from an attack, or even to retreat. This can be part of a valid strategy, as withdrawing from an engagement can consolidate your forces into a more defensible position or formation, allow you to press the attack elsewhere, at a more advantageous time and place, or draw enemy forces into an attack under circumstances that you control. [https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/spring-forward-fall-back.html "Spring forward, fall back"] is a mnemonic used for daylight saving time; we advance the clock forward when entering DST in the spring, and move it backward when leaving it in the fall (autumn).

There are buildings in the US that are built across state lines (and county and city boundaries), and even some buildings that extend across international boundaries (these are known as {{w|line house}}s). The existence of these buildings can result in eccentric situations when laws and ordinances vary substantially between the locations. For example, a casino might be built on a state border where gambling is legal in one state but illegal in the other. In such a case, the gaming can only happen on one side of the building (the other side being reserved for other services and functions). It's not uncommon for businesses and tourist attractions to lean into the novelty of this by demarking the boundary inside the building and specifically encouraging things that are legal only on one side of the line. Such situations are likely the inspiration for this strip, but using such a line to manipulate a competition based on time zone is highly unlikely.

Ongoing state-level efforts to end time changes could also increase the number of places where this situation could happen, as more DST/non-DST boundaries arise.

The comic was published five days before the start of the {{w|World Chess Championship 2024}} in Singapore.

==Transcript==

:[White Hat and Cueball are sitting across from each other playing chess. The time, shown above them in white on a black screen, reads 6:35 for White Hat, and 0:28 for Cueball.]
:White Hat: It’s late, I’m up a pawn, and you’re out of time. It’s over.
:Cueball: Ah, you’re forgetting something.

:[Cueball gestures with one hand above the chessboard. His time now reads 0:19.]
:Cueball: Did you know this building straddles the Arizona border?
:Cueball: It actually runs right through the table. You're on the Arizona side.

:[Cueball raises his hand further to gesture at his time. It beeps and is now blank and white.]
:Cueball: This tournament started Saturday, November 2nd. Now it's almost 2AM on the 3rd.
:Cueball: And there's something you should know about Arizona.
:Chess clock: BEEP

:[White Hat raises his head slightly to look at the timer. Cueball's time now reads 60:07. Cueball lowers his hand to make a move.]
:White Hat: '''''What?!''''' No! That's not how... '''''No!!'''''
:Cueball: Looks like it's daylight '''''slaying''''' time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

994: Advent Calendar

2025-01-11T20:30:48Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 361673 by 172.68.211.102 (talk) What with?

{{comic
| number = 994
| date = December 23, 2011
| title = Advent Calendar
| image = advent_calendar.png
| titletext = I think you could get up to about 11:59:57 before you'd have trouble swallowing the chocolates fast enough. At that point, you'd need some kind of a liquify-and-chug apparatus to get up over the 11:59:59 barrier. Anyway, Merry Christmas!
}}

==Explanation==
An {{w|Advent calendar}} is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. They come in a multitude of forms, from a simple paper calendar with flaps covering each of the days, to fabric pockets on a background scene, to painted wooden boxes with cubby holes for small items. Advent calendars typically take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows", of which there are usually 24: one for each day of December leading up to and including Christmas Eve (December 24). Consecutive doors are opened every day leading up to Christmas, beginning on December 1. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, a poem, a portion of a story (such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus), or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item.

This comic, however, depicts an Advent calendar which has a chocolate every time they get halfway to Christmas. This is a joke because of {{w|Zeno's paradox}}, which said "Before a moving object can travel a certain distance, it must travel half that distance. Before it can travel half the distance it must travel 1/4 the distance, etc. This sequence goes on forever. Therefore, it seems that the original distance cannot be travelled, and motion is impossible." This means that eating chocolates at diminishing intervals will make it so Christmas never happens.

The title text says that when you get close to midnight, it gets physically impossible to eat the chocolates fast enough to keep up, but you could get to the one-second-away mark with a chocolate liquefier and feeder tube.

Going from the second to the last of the visible time stamps it goes like this: At 11:57:11.25 PM there is still remaining 00:02:48.75 (2 minutes 48 seconds and 75 hundredth of a second.) Half of this time period will then progress before the next windows time stamp, that is 00:01:24.375 (1 minute and 24.375 s). This will then give the next time stamp by adding to the previous and we get: 11:58:35.625 PM. This has been rounded to 35.63 s in the comic. Similarly the time stamp for the next four windows, whose top are visible below, can be calculated starting from the fact that there is now only 00:01:24.375 left of the day.

*13: 42.1875 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:17.8125
*14: 21.09375 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:39.90625
*15: 10.546875 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:49.453125
*16: 5.2734375 s left, so the time stamp is: 11:59:54,7265625

It would take three more windows before crossing the 11:59:59 line with less than one second to go. At the 19th window there would only be 0.6591796875 seconds left of the day for a time-stamp of 11:59:59.3408203125. So that would be a window another line further down, even below the green window (no. 15) that is just visible at the button of the panel. And you would have to eat four chocolates in less than five seconds from window no. 16 to fulfill Randall's prediction.

When reaching the 24th window there would be 0.0206 s left, so that is 6 chocolates in 0.638 s. That may be a good place to stop, but of course you could continue at least until reaching the {{w|Planck time}} of 5.39 x 10-44 s. That limit will not be reached before window 162, so there are still 138 chocolates left for those last two hundredths of a second.

[[1153: Proof]] is also about Zeno, and [[1577: Advent]] is a very different longer running Advent calendar (but with only a finite number of windows).{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[A portion of an advent calendar shows 12 windows where the date can be seen below. The top row is cut off so you cannot see the very top of the window At the bottom there are four more windows, but only the top part can be seen, and there is no decoration visible. All the other windows have a decoration, although, you cannot see the one on the second window as it is opened more than 90 degree. The first is also opened, but not more than you can see there is a decoration. The 3rd is also open. The rest is still closed.]
:[A green mistletoe on red, partially open.]
:December 23rd

:[A fully open window.]
:December 24th 12:00 AM

:[A red and white Santa hat on green just opened.]
:December 24th Noon

:[Two crossed red and white candy canes on white. From here all windows are closed.]
:December 24th 6:00 PM

:[A red Christmas ball on white.]
:December 24th 9:00 PM

:[A white Christmas star on red.]
:December 24th 10:30 PM

:[A red Christmas heart on gren.]
:December 24th 11:15 PM

:[A red Santa sleigh on white.]
:December 24th 11:37:30 PM

:[A red and white Christmas sock on green.]
:December 24th 11:48:45 PM

:[A green Christmas tree on red.]
:December 24th 11:54:22.5 PM

:[A red and green Christmas wreath on white]
:December 24th 11:57:11.25 PM

:[A red and white Christmas gift on green]
:December 24th 11:58:35.63 PM

:[Below the top of four more windows where only the background colors can be seen red, white, green and then red again.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:'''Zeno's Advent Calendar'''

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Math]]

195: Map of the Internet

2025-01-11T20:29:32Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 361670 by 172.68.211.102 (talk) No apparent reason.

{{comic
| number = 195
| date = December 11, 2006
| title = Map of the Internet
| image = map of the internet.jpg
| titletext = For the IPv6 map just imagine the XP default desktop picture.
}}

==Explanation==
On the map, all allocated {{w|IPv4}} address blocks (as of 2006) are shown using a fractal mapping. (The {{w|Hilbert curve}} is used: the pattern is demonstrated at the bottom of the image.) In February 2011, the final remaining IPv4 blocks were allocated to the {{w|Regional Internet registry|Regional Internet registries}}, and so today there would no longer be any green spaces outside of Class E addresses (above 240 through 255, excluding the Broadcast address of 255.255.255.255).

In the early 1990s, corporations and governments could register an entire {{w|Classful network|class A}} segment (one 256th of the total space), but later it was divided into smaller parts because of a lack of space.

This leads to the title text, which mentions {{w|IPv6}}. This protocol has so many addresses that only a [[865: Nanobots|swarm of nanobots]] could exhaust them. The default desktop picture in Windows XP is a green landscape, and the joke is that since barely any of the addresses are allocated yet, the IPv6 map would just be a green landscape. There are large ([https://observablehq.com/@vasturiano/hilbert-map-of-ipv6-address-space enough to be visible]) blocks of IPv6 space that have been allocated for special purposes and to RIRs. However, the amount of IPv6 space allocated to end users is only a tiny portion of that.

Later, Randall actually drew some "real" maps of the Internet, or at least its online Communities (see [[256: Online Communities]] and [[802: Online Communities 2]]).

A large number of updated Hilbert curve maps inspired by this comic have been created. Many also use data obtained by {{w|Ping_(networking_utility)|pinging}} IP addresses to see which addresses are accessible. Here are maps with images from [https://www.caida.org/archive/id-consumption/census-map/ 2003-2006], [https://iepg.org/2007-12-ietf70/3dheatmaps.pdf 2007] (which has a few different maps), [https://corte.si/geohilbert/index.html 2009] (showing country codes), [https://ant.isi.edu/address/index.html 2010], [https://census2012.sourceforge.net/hilbert.html 2012] (collected by the Carna Botnet), a [https://ant.isi.edu/address/census_2006_2014.html 2006-2014 animation], [https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/scan-ping-the-internet-hilbert-curve 2018], and [https://observablehq.com/@vasturiano/hilbert-map-of-ipv4-address-space 2023].

==Transcript==
:Map of the Internet The IPv4 Space, 2006 This chart shows the IP address space on a plane using a fractal mapping which preserves grouping--any consecutive string of IPs will translate to a single, compact, contiguous region on the map. Each of the 256 numbered blocks represents one 8 subnet (containing all IPs that start with that number). The upper left section shows the blocks sold directly to corporations and goverments in the 1990's before the RIRs took over allocation.
:Diagram showing IP ownership:
:0: Local
:1-2: Unallocated
:3: General Electric
:4: BB&N INC
:5: Unallocated
:6: Army AISC
:7: Unallocated
:8: BB&N INC
:9: IBM
:10: VPNs
:11: DoD Intel
:12: Bell Labs
:13: Xerox
:14: Public data nets
:15: HP
:16: DEC
:17: Apple
:18: MIT
:19: Ford
:20: CSC
:21: DDN-RYN
:22: DISA
:23: Unallocated
:24: Cable TV
:25: UK MoD
:26: DISA
:27: Unallocated
:28: DSI
:29-30: DISA
:31: Unallocated
:32: NORSK
:33: DLA
:34: Halliburton
:35: Merit
:36-37: Unallocated
:38: PSI
:39: Unallocated
:40: Eli Lily
:41: ARINIC
:42: Unallocated
:43: Japan INET
:44: HAM Radio
:45: INTEROP
:46: BB&N INC
:47: Bell North
:48: Prudential
:49-50: Unallocated
:51: UK Social Security
:52: duPont
:55: Boeing
:56: USPS
:57: SITA
:58-61: Asia-Pacific
:62: Europe
:63-76: USA & Canada (contains: UUNET, Google, Digg, Slashdot, Ebay, Craigslist, XKCD, Flickr)
:77-79: Europe (unused)
:80-91: Europe
:92-95: Unallocated
:96-99: North America
:100-120: Unallocated
:121-125: Asia-Pacific
:126: Japan
:127: Loopback
:128-132: Various Registrars
:133: Japan
:134-172: Various Registrars
:173-189: Unallocated
:188: Various
:189-190: Latin America & Caribbean
:191-192: Various (contains Private (RFC 1918))
:193-195: Europe
:196: Africa
:197: Unallocated
:198: US & Various
:199: North America
:200-201: Latin America & Caribbean
:202-203: Asia-Pacific
:204-209: North America (contains Suicide Girls, BoingBoing)
:210-211: Asia-Pacific
:212-213: Europe
:214-215: U.S. Department of Defense
:216: North America (Contains Myspace, SomethingAwful)
:217: Europe
:218-222: Asia-Pacific
:223: Unallocated
:224-239: Multicast
:240-255: Unallocated

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Maps]]

3032: Skew-T Log-P

2025-01-02T21:55:02Z

172.68.205.122: /* Table with terms */ Bad pre-edit left in...

{{comic
| number = 3032
| date = January 1, 2025
| title = Skew-T Log-P
| image = skew_t_log_p_2x.png
| imagesize = 569x626px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The most important quantity for meteorologists is of course the product of latent pressure and temperostrophic enthalpy, though 'how nice the weather is' is a close second.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT CLEANING UP AFTER DAVE - This needs an explanation. Table not filled out. Also the title text was not mentioned at all. I added a very simple start to this, but nothing about what the product actually means, please expand... Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|skew-T log-P diagram}} (the name comes from the temperature (T) lines being skewed at a 45-degree angle, and the pressure (P) lines being logarithmic in scale) are mostly used to plot {{w|atmospheric sounding}}s, which are usually made by sending a weather balloon up into the air.

Because the diagrams have a lot of lines on them (isobars, isotherms, adiabats, and mixing ratios, and that's before plotting the actual measurements of temperature and dew point temperature), they can be hard to understand. The comic pretends to offer an explanation of one such diagram, but most of the explanations are blatantly incorrect or humorous in nature. The diagram appears to have measurements from two separate weather balloons, with solid lines for rising balloons and dashed ones for popped balloons falling back down, whereas two lines and various styles of lines in real diagrams generally mean different measurements from the same balloon (or other sensor platform) track. See details in the [[#Table with terms|table]] below. Many weather balloons do indeed pop, as they're designed to do this after reaching a certain height high in the atmosphere.

In the title text it is stated that "The most important quantity for meteorologists is of course the product of latent pressure and temperostrophic enthalpy, though 'how nice the weather is' is a close second". So it jokes by comparing a non-existent, complicated-sounding product (temperostrophic enthalpy is not actually a thing) with a simple sentence about how nice the weather is.

[[File:Annotated_Skew_T_diagram.png|thumb|An actual Skew-T Log-P diagram, with several real annotations. The X-axis has temperature (blue diagonal lines in diagram) and the Y-axis has pressure in millibars.]]The true design of a Skew-T Log-P diagram is intended to best represent the nature of the weather in any given column of atmosphere. The pressure (vertical axis, with pressure being closely but not exactly inversely related to altitude) is shown as a logarithmic scale (i.e., Log-P) because it makes altitudes nearly evenly spaced. Plotting pressure proportionately (which must also be from top to bottom, to match its general relationship with altitude) would space features out in ways that would be hard to use and interpret, whereas the logarithmic scale is far more pragmatic. The temperature scale is deliberately tilted, rather than orthogonal, which (together with the logarithmic nature of the inverted pressure scale) allows the typical way that temperatures fall with altitude(≈as pressure falls) to trend roughly vertically, give or take the notable changes that are key to understanding the forecast. Other measurement lines, differently skewed and often also curving across the temperature/pressure skewed-log 'grid', represent various other idealistic relationships (where both T and P vary, keeping another measure constant) that are useful references to meteorologists.

Upon this style of graph are plotted the ''actual'' measurements obtained by releasing a weather balloon or other sensor. As well as the variation of actual temperatures and pressures, other retrieved and calculated data is plotted, such as the {{w|dew point}}. The dew point, a function of the air's {{w|absolute humidity|water content}}, temperature, and pressure, is where condensation begins. By observing how the actual measurements and dew point line converge and cross, the development and nature of clouds can be tracked and pinned to specific cloud layers. Further details may also be included, such as wind-direction and wind-speed indications (often to the side of the plot) to give a visual cue about possible {{w|wind shear}} and/or to suggest which direction of adjacent weather-station readings may hold clues as to what changes may later blow in above the current site.

==Table with terms==
{| class="wikitable"
!Item in comic
!Correct?
!Explanation
|-
| Pressure latitude || No || {{w|Pressure altitude|Pressure ''altitude''}} is the height above a standard datum plane, a theoretical level where the pressure of the atmosphere is 1013.24 millibars (29.921 inHg). It's essentially an estimate of altitude calculated from atmospheric pressure.
|-
| Enthalpic pressure || ||
|-
| Entropic density || ||
|-
| Latent heat of cooling || ||
|-
| Isobars || Yes || Lines denoting equal ("{{wiktionary|iso-}}") air pressure ("{{wiktionary|bar-|-bar}}"), probably most often recognized as the indicators of how ground-level pressures change (or not) across the horizontal area depicted on a weather ''map''. In this type of chart, which depicts data obtained from above a single point, it has the same meaning but is instead a pre-existing reference line across which the actual data is plotted, and does not itself indicate the nature of any wind.
|-
| Omnitrophic wind || ||
|-
| Isomers || No || Different forms of molecules with the same formula, with the atoms or functional groups arranged differently. An example would be propanol, which has three isomers. One of the most common isomers of propanol has its OH functional group in the middle, so is called isopropyl alcohol or isopropanol.
However, these are actually iso'''therm''' lines, representing equal temperature.
|-
| These lines are slightly different because Dave messed them up || No || Indicating isotherms (or, according to the comic, "isomers"), the suggestion is that slightly wrong lines were drawn by Dave and had to be corrected.
The real reason for the not quite identical lines is that the measured temperature at a given pressure can be converted to or from the ''potential'' temperature that the same air would have if at a standard pressure (holding the same amount of heat energy). For practical reasons, both for composing and interpreting the eventual plot, each of the slightly differently skewed isotherms are given, usually in clearly differentiable styles of line.
|-
| Line of constant thermodynamics || ||
|-
| Uncomfortably moist adiabat || Wrongly placed, unusually qualified|| This labels a segment of isotherm, which is the exact 'opposite' of an adiabat.
An adiabat is a line along which temperature can change for a given mass, without changing the amount of energy. This is primarily made possible by changing the density (by a change in pressure) of the gas. There are typically two types of adiabat, marked for reference on the plot, "dry adiabat" (curves across the isotherms perpendicularly, to create a largely square but slightly curved grid with them), and "moist/saturated adiabat" (the latter's heat-maintaining profile is influenced greatly by the humidity content, and produces graphing lines vastly different from the equivalent "dry" versions). Randall has declared this (erroneous) type of adiabat to be "uncomfortably" moist, so presumably not totally saturated but also not subjectively 'pleasant'.
|-
| Oops, the balloon flew through a ghost || No || Ghosts do not exist.{{cn}} However, one of the purported effects of ghosts (such as in the film *The Sixth Sense*) is a transient/local lowering of temperature around and/or inside them. The line is interpreted as showing a local low temperature encountered at this pressure(/altitude).
This line, however, is probably the Dew Point line, indicating that (in passing through this layer of the atmosphere), a drier band of air has been encountered which would theoretically be cooled a lot more before the water-vapur oversaturates it and liquid water droplets form.
|-
| No birds up here :( || Yes* || This point is near the top of the diagram, with an air pressure of about 110 millibar - about 15 kilometers (50,000 feet) above sea level. This is well above the highest [https://peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/vultures/ruppells-vulture flight height of any known bird species]. However, this information is irrelevant to the purpose of a skew-T log-P diagram.
|-
| Track of rising weather balloon || ||
|-
| Track of popped balloon falling back down || ||
|-
| Meteogenesis || No || The chart purports to show the path of two weather balloons crossing and labels the space between them with a new word. The root "meteo" means something high up (in this case, balloons) and "genesis" means creation. The implication is that a new balloon was created, though no third flight path is shown so it presumably did not fly separately or was not tracked.
In reality, one of the tracks (almost certainly the left one) is the track of the measured Dew Point. Where the line of the existing conditions cross this line is where the moisture will precipitate out and form clouds, a process that might well be called "{{wiktionary|meteor#English|meteo}}+{{wiktionary|genesis#English|genesis}}", but {{w|Cloud physics|isn't}}.
|-
| Seems bad || || The path of the balloon loops around in the shape of a {{w|figure eight knot}}, which would indicate very chaotic conditions at that point.
|-
| Dew point || Wrongly represented. || The temperature at which water condenses out of the air, and therefore dew starts to form, given the amount of water vapor in the air.
It is shown here as an ''actual'' singular point, when it should be a line (typically the leftmost solid plotted line) representative of the temperature at which dew should form at any given pressure.
|-
| Humidor || No || In reality, is a {{w|Humidor|container}} that is used maintain a more controllable humidity within which to store smoking products.
In the graph, points at the line that is probably representing the dew point, which is represents the nature of the ''actual'' humidity encountered.
|-
| Heavyside layer || No || Probably a misspelling of "Heaviside," the surname of the co-discoverer of what we now call the E region of the ionosphere. Co-discovered by {{w|Arthur E. Kennelly}} and {{w|Oliver Heaviside}}.
This reference also occurs in the musical {{w|Cats (musical)}} and {{w|T. S. Eliot}}'s {{w|Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats}}, where the Heaviside layer is the fictional "heaven" to which the cats aspire.

In this diagram it is apparently labeling a heavily marked isotherm, or line of constant temperature. Most likely it indicates the 0°C line, this being importantly indicative of the freezing point of water.
|-
| These lines are tilted because the wind is blowing them || No || The wind is not actually a derivable featured of this diagram, which does not have data of either direction or strength of air movement.
These lines are actually dry adiabats (see above), possibly two sets due to a similar renormalized interpretation, as with the isotherms, at a given reference pressure.
|-
| Don't stand here or you might get hit by a balloon || ||
|}

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

:How to interpret a skew-T log-P diagram
:[The comic shows a skew-T log-P diagram. On it are various labels, including isobars, comments, and other interpretations of the diagram.]
:[Left to the diagram is an upwards-pointing arrow with the label "Pressure Latitude". Right to the diagram is a downwards-pointing arrow with the label "Entropic Density". Below the diagram is a right-pointing arrow with the label "Enthalpic Pressure".]
:[The remaining various labels are inside the diagram.]

==Trivia==
*Even though this comic was released on New Year's Day 2025, it was not a [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]].
**Only second time this has happened since New Year comics became a regular thing from 2011.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Weather]]

User:J-beda

2025-01-01T23:20:04Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360744 by Firestar233 (talk) Look at the page (and 'user') history... Nothing to save.

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User talk:HostnameNotCaroline

2025-01-01T23:18:12Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360742 by Firestar233 (talk)

{{Welcome}} — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 03:40, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

hairbun

2025-01-01T23:17:38Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360741 by Firestar233 (talk)

#REDIRECT [[Hairbun]]
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:Hatman31

2025-01-01T23:16:10Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360739 by Firestar233 (talk)

{{Welcome}}
You’re welcome ^_^ (in advance)! [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:04, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:Elektrizikekswerk

2025-01-01T23:14:04Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360736 by Firestar233 (talk)

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:DeeJaye6

2025-01-01T23:12:59Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360733 by Firestar233 (talk)

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

Talk:David

2025-01-01T23:12:20Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360732 by Firestar233 (talk)

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:Cal3000000

2025-01-01T23:05:41Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360720 by Firestar233 (talk)

{{Welcome}}
You’re welcome ^_^ (in advance)! [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:31, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:BunsenH

2025-01-01T23:05:12Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360719 by Firestar233 (talk)

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:Bobbob

2025-01-01T23:04:04Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360717 by Firestar233 (talk)

{{Welcome}}
You’re welcome ^_^ (in advance)! [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 01:51, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User talk:Bischoff

2025-01-01T23:03:39Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360716 by Firestar233 (talk)

{{Welcome}}
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User talk:BarnZarn

2025-01-01T23:02:46Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360713 by Firestar233 (talk)

Hi! [[User:BlackHat|BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]]) 23:47, 31 October 2020 (UTC)
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:AzurusTheFirst

2025-01-01T23:00:03Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360708 by Firestar233 (talk)

{{Welcome}}
You’re welcome (in advance)! [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 01:47, 5 March 2024 (UTC)
[[Category:Pages to delete]]

User:Arcorann

2025-01-01T22:59:38Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360706 by Firestar233 (talk)

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

3029: Sun Avoidance

2024-12-28T18:14:44Z

172.68.205.122: /* Transcript */ Revert to what looks to be the best not-a-table Transcript state, suitable for linear reading by someone who needs to do so.

{{comic
| number = 3029
| date = December 25, 2024
| title = Sun Avoidance
| image = sun_avoidance_2x.png
| imagesize = 311x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = C'mon, ESA Solar Orbiter team, just give the Parker probe a LITTLE nudge at aphelion. Crash it into the sun. Fulfill the dream of Icarus. It is your destiny.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SANTA BOT FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN (SKILL ISSUE). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic humorously ranks space missions based on their ability to "avoid" the Sun, presenting it as a "Sun Avoidance Skill Leaderboard." Most space missions remain relatively far from the Sun, with distances in the tens of millions of kilometers. However, the {{w|Parker Solar Probe}} is listed at the bottom of the leaderboard because it has come significantly closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft, at just 6.17 million kilometers. The joke lies in framing this incredible scientific achievement as a "failure" in avoiding the Sun.

The missions listed include notable solar and planetary exploration spacecraft like {{w|Mariner 10}}, {{w|Helios 1}}, {{w|BepiColombo}}, {{w|MESSENGER}}, and {{w|Solar Orbiter}}. These missions, designed to study the Sun or its surroundings, are ranked by their closest approaches to the Sun. The comic highlights the vast difference between the Parker Solar Probe and all other missions, emphasizing its unprecedented proximity to the Sun as part of its mission to study the solar corona and solar wind.

The inclusion of "All Other Expeditions in Human History" at the top of the leaderboard adds to the humor by lumping together all non-Sun-focused missions, which obviously maintain much greater distances from the Sun. The comic concludes with a sarcastic congratulation to the Parker Solar Probe for its "worst job avoiding the Sun," humorously subverting the intention and achievement of the mission.

The title text further expands on the joke by mockingly framing the Parker Solar Probe's proximity to the Sun as a skill-based failure. It suggests that its operators have demonstrated the "worst Sun avoidance skill" ever. This playful jab contrasts with the reality that the Parker Solar Probe's engineers and scientists intentionally designed the spacecraft to approach the Sun closer than ever before, enduring extreme heat and radiation to gather groundbreaking scientific data.

The caption text references the Greek legend of {{w|Icarus}}, whose father crafted artificial wings so the two of them could fly out of the open-topped prison they were in. Icarus, despite his father's warnings, flew too high which, according to the myth, got him appreciably closer to the Sun where it was much hotter, hot enough to destroy Icarus's wings, which caused him to plummet from a very high altitude to his death. (As humanity has learned since then, the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are cold, not hot, and the distance from Earth's surface to the upper reaches of its atmosphere is only a tiny fraction of the total distance from the Earth to the Sun.) The caption text urges the operators of another satellite to use their satellite to alter the Parker Solar Probe's orbit to send it into the Sun, which would by definition lower the Parker Solar Probe's distance from the Sun to zero. Unfortunately, the Parker Solar Probe was only designed to get close to the Sun, not into it, and would be destroyed soon after entering the Sun if not before. Being destroyed would prevent the Parker Solar Probe from transmitting any further data, terminating its mission. Its operators would probably object to this.{{cn}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Header:] Sun Avoidance Skill Leaderboard

:[A table with three columns, all with underlined headers.]
:Rank
:Mission
:Sun Nearest Miss
:[First 'row', 'Rank', is of extra height and over several lines, using vertical and horizontal ellipses between the two endpoints to indicate a range of ranks in the first column, the first visible digit of the larger number being cut off by the left frame edge:] 1. ⋮ … ⋮ 4303857.
:[Across both the 'Mission' and 'Sun Nearest Miss' columns, the first row has some text spread across two lines, within a framing pair of large square brackets to match the Rank range:] All other expeditions in human history
:[A simple row, with all three columns separately populated, the first columns Rank number is also cut off across the first visible digit.]
:4303858.
:Mariner-10
:69.0 million km
:[Another row, likewise.]
:4303859.
:Helios 1
:46.4 million km
:[Another row.]
:4303860.
:BepiColombo
:45.8 million km
:[Another row, with a yet more significant Ranking digit now partly visible due to non-proportional spacing, itself being cut off in the stead of the now fully visible next digit.]
:24303861.
:Messenger
:45.3 million km
:[Another row, back to the original pre-cutoff.]
:4303862.
:Solar Orbiter
:43.8 million km
:[Another row.]
:4303863.
:Helios 2
:43.3 million km
:[Final row.]
:4303864.
:Parker
:6.17 million km

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Congratulations to the Parker Solar Probe for setting a new record for "Worst Job Avoiding the Sun."

==Trivia==
*This comic was released on Christmas Day of 2024, but makes no reference to Christmas.
**This year marks the first time in xkcd's 20 year history (of releasing comics around Christmas), that there have been no [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comics]] released during those days.
**Also all nine times before this year, when a release day fell on Christmas Day, that comic has always been about Christmas.
*If [[Randall]] found the accomplishments of the Parker Solar Probe more interesting than Christmas itself that might explain why this comic was released on Christmas Day instead.
**It is not the first space exploration accomplishment mentioned during Christmas, however, in the previous case [[2559: December 25th Launch]] from 2021, the comic was give seasonal spin. 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

2425: mRNA Vaccine

2024-12-21T14:05:17Z

172.68.205.122: Undo revision 360010 by 172.71.215.179 (talk) No. Excluded as a multi-panel comic.

{{comic
| number = 2425
| date = February 15, 2021
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| title = mRNA Vaccine
| image = mrna_vaccine.png
| titletext = To ensure lasting immunity, doctors recommend destroying a second Death Star some time after the first.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, specifically regarding the [[:Category:COVID-19 vaccine|COVID-19 vaccine]].

This one is another analogy to how {{w|mRNA vaccines}} work, by creating inactive fragments of the virus to prime the immune system to be prepared to stave off the real thing. This is done in response to Cueball's question to the person vaccinating him, "Why would my body attack something it made itself?", using elements of the film ''{{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars: Episode IV}}'' as an analogy.

The analogy starts in the second panel, where the Rebel Alliance has retrieved the {{w|Death Star}} plans, conveyed by {{w|Princess Leia}} to General [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Jan_Dodonna Jan Dodonna] (in ''Star Wars'', via {{w|R2-D2}} and some adventures, but shown as a simple handoff here). The Death Star is a space station the size of a small moon that has the power to destroy planets. In the film, the plans are analyzed to find a weakness in the enemy Death Star and destroy it; however, in this panel, the "Death Star plans" are passed down a line of people until they are interpreted as a construction assignment and are used to build a Death Star. In the analogy, the mRNA in the vaccine corresponds to the plans for the Death Star, the spike proteins (inactive COVID-19 virus fragments) correspond to the benign Death Star itself, and the cellular processes that build spike proteins correspond to the builders of the benign Death Star. Just as merely having the plans on hand led to the Death Star being built, the mere presence of the mRNA in the cellular environment leads to it being translated, producing the viral protein. Amusingly, as the plans are handed off to the construction crew leader, he replies "Copy that," which is normally just a slang term for "I understand" but here is also a pun that presages his actions.

After Leia's Death Star has been built, it is positioned near a planet/moon. This Death Star is ''benign'': it only ''looks'' dangerous and isn't about to actually hurt anyone; the Death Star crew are Rebels, after all, and state that they don't have the laser wired up. The Rebels mobilize to destroy this benign Death Star because it looks like an enemy battle station, evidently not listening to the construction crew's transmissions. Analogously, immune cells cannot think{{Citation needed}} or directly communicate, basing their determination of friend from foe entirely on external chemical signatures. However, the Death Star operators are confused, because they believe Leia (a member of the Rebels) had ordered its construction. The Rebels initially attack the surface of the benign Death Star, without much effect; Leia orders the factories to continue developing torpedoes and ships as they run out, presumably putting an extra workload on the factory workers and tiring them out, or at least diverting resources away from other projects. In the analogy, the Rebels correspond to the immune system's {{w|B cells}} and {{w|T cells}}, which mobilize to attack the spike proteins (the benign Death Star) made as a result of the vaccine, but are often ineffective at first. The body keeps producing these immune cells, trying many variants (many ways of attacking the benign Death Star) in an attempt to find one that works well against the spike proteins. This results in Cueball experiencing {{w|side effects}} from the vaccine, including soreness and tiredness, and he lies down and rests.

After much effort on the Rebels' part, they find a weakness in the benign Death Star, a "thermal exhaust port" vulnerable to "proton torpedoes" that can destroy the Death Star. Firing a proton torpedo down the exhaust port destroys a Death Star very rapidly, compared to the initial, ineffective frontal assault on the surface. After this benign Death Star is destroyed, Princess Leia allows the fleet to stand down.

Up to this point, the entire thing seems like a comedy of errors, with huge expenditures being made for no apparent reason, due to a simple lack of communication. But during this process, the Rebel Alliance has both built a huge fleet and figured out how to target the Death Star's weakness and destroy it. Later on, when a real, dangerous Death Star approaches the planet (with the apparent intent of destroying it), the Rebels immediately deploy their fleet, target the weakness, and destroy it almost immediately, much to the shock of the Imperial troops, who had believed they were on an invulnerable ship and are surprised by the Rebels' immediate response and overwhelmed by it.

The analogy is that the immune system (the Rebel Alliance) figures out a way to attach to the spike proteins (attack the benign Death Star) made by the mRNA vaccine; the immune system's {{w|antibodies}} (Rebel planners) now "know" how to recognize and destroy things that have these spike proteins — including SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (real, dangerous Death Stars). Hence, when the vaccinated Cueball approaches White Hat, who is maskless, coughing, and presumably sick with COVID-19, Cueball's immune system is able to destroy dangerous SARS-CoV-2 virus particles because it knows about the virus's spike proteins. This is represented by Cueball not experiencing any suffering from COVID-19, and he goes on his way whistling merrily, perhaps to the tune of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixG8pfncOs The Throne Room/End Title] (from the ceremony celebrating the destruction of the Death Star).

It's notable that Cueball continues to wear a mask after being vaccinated. This is in accordance with {{w|Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|CDC}} guidelines, which recommend continuing to wear a mask, practicing social distancing, etc. after getting the vaccine; doctors at CDC "don’t yet know whether getting a COVID-19 vaccine will prevent you from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 to other people, even if you don’t get sick yourself."[https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html] None of the vaccines available as of when the comic was posted are 100% effective at preventing infection, with the best ones about 94% effective at preventing symptomatic cases, but all vaccines that are approved or submitted for approval are completely (100.00%) effective at preventing death from COVID-19.

The title text references the fact that the two COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States as of the date of publication (the {{w|Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine|Pfizer-BioNTech one}} and the {{w|Moderna COVID-19 vaccine|Moderna one}}) require [[2422: Vaccine Ordering|two doses of vaccine]] to be fully effective, as do many others in use worldwide (AstraZeneca, Gameleya Institute, Sinovac, etc.). The second dose strengthens the body's immune response to the spike proteins and causes it to "remember", via antibodies, how to attack those proteins for a long time — hopefully years or even decades. Likewise, the Rebels in the movies destroy two Death Stars, the second one in ''Return of the Jedi''. Incidentally, that second Death Star was destroyed while it was apparently incomplete, much like the Death Star here was destroyed before it could destroy Cueball; however, in the film, the Emperor had deliberately left it with an incomplete outer structure to lure the Rebellion into attacking it, only for the Rebels to find that its superlaser was fully operational.

Vaccination was also explained, xkcd-style, in [[2406: Viral Vector Immunity]].

References to the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' franchise are a [[:Category:Star Wars|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball seated in a doctor's office getting a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Both he and the doctor are wearing masks; the doctor is also wearing a scrub cap.]
:Doctor: The vaccine contains mRNA instructions for making the virus spike protein.
:Cueball: Weird, so the vaccine is just blueprints?
:Doctor: Yup! Your body reads the mRNA, makes the proteins, and then has an immune reaction to them.
:Cueball: Why would my body attack something it made itself?
:Doctor: Well...

:[Princess Leia and General Dodonna in frame.]
:Leia: Here are the Death Star plans.
:Dodonna: Thank you, Princess.

:[Dodonna, Ponytail, and White Hat in frame.]
:Dodonna: These blueprints are from Princess Leia.
:Ponytail: Ugh, she's always giving us projects.

:[Ponytail and Cueball in frame.]
:Ponytail: Here, take these blueprints to your construction crew.
:Cueball: Affirmative. What is it?
:Ponytail: No idea. Something the Princess wants.
:Cueball: Copy that.

:Panel heading: Soon...
:[A view from outside of the Death Star.]
:Voice from Death Star: Hi, Commander? Construction crew B here.

:[A view from inside the Death Star, with a planet visible through two adjacent windows. Cueball is standing at some kind of control/communications panel.]
:Cueball: We finished building the Princess's big metal orb thing.

:[A view from outside the Death Star again, with the curve of the planet in the foreground.]
:Voice from Death Star: Do you know if she wants us to park it somewhere, or—
:Voices from the planet: '''''AAAAAA!!!'''''

:[A view from the planet's surface with the Death Star in the sky. 3 Cueballs, a Megan-like character, and Ponytail are on the planet's surface.]
:Voice from Death Star: ...Is everything ok?
:Cueball 1: '''''AAAAAAA!'''''
:Cueball 2: ''Imperial battle station!!!''
:Ponytail & Cueball 3: ''AAAAAAAAAA''
:Offscreen voice: ''Red Alert Red Alert''

:[Another view from the planet's surface. There is some type of military encampment surrounded by an open field, with trees and mountains in the background. People are running around on the field, which also contains several currently grounded craft and several flying craft streaming toward the Death Star.]
:Death Star voice: Hello?
:Generic field voices: ''Get the fighters in the air!''
:''Red Alert''
:''Blow it up! Blow it up!''
:''AAAAA''
:Generic tree voices: '''''AAAAAaa'''''
:Generic spacecraft voices: ''Kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it''

:[A zoomed-in view of the outside of the Death Star, which is accumulating light damage. Numerous spacecraft are shooting at it; various explosions occur on the Death Star's surface and in space nearby.]
:Death Star voice: Hello?
:Generic spacecraft voices: ''Shoot it! Shoot it! Shoot it!''
:That armor's too strong! We're not getting through!
:''Keep firing!''

:[A view from inside the Death Star again with Cueball at the control panel and the planet in the background windows; various projectiles and explosions can be seen through the window.]
:Cueball: Can everybody please just chill? We don't even have the laser thing wired up. We—
:'''''BOOM'''''
:''Hey!!'' I ''said'', we...

:[Ponytail enters from the left, and points to her left. Princess Leia points at her.]
:Ponytail: We can't get through! We're running out of proton torpedoes!
:Leia: Send every crew to build more torpedoes!
:Ponytail: There aren't enough ships to—
:Leia: ''Build more ships!!''

:[Ponytail is standing still and Princess Leia is walking to the right with her fists raised.]
:Ponytail: That thing is just sitting there. Are you sure we—
:Leia: ''Keep building ships! Build ships forever! '''Destroy the orb!'''''

:[A view of the Death Star in space and the curvature of the planet off to the side. An enormous torrent of (barely visible) ships is seen streaming from the planet's surface to the Death Star. The damage to the Death Star is slightly worse.]
:Generic ship voices: '''''aaaaAAAAAAAAaaaaa'''''
:Death Star voice: What is ''wrong'' with you people?

:[Back in the real world, Cueball is standing with arms hunched and a cartoon helix above his head. Megan stands next to him.]
:Cueball: Definitely feeling a little sore.
:Megan: Yeah, they said you might have some side effects.
:Megan: You lie down—I'll get you some hot tea and a blanket.

:[An outside view of the damaged Death Star with ships swarming it.]
:Generic voices: ''Die die die die! Die!''

:[An inside view; Cueball appears injured, and the control panel is damaged with a fire on the ground nearby.]
:Cueball: I hate you all so much.

:[The outside of the Death Star again.]
:Ship 1: What's that?!
:Ship 2: Looks like a thermal exhaust port.
:Ship 3: I'm going in!

:[The outside of the Death Star.]
:''pew pew pew pew pew pew''

:[Beat panel.]

:[The Death Star explodes.]

:[A disheveled Dodonna, Princess Leia, and Ponytail in frame.]

:[The same frame.]
:Leia: Good work.

:[In the real world, Cueball sits on top of a bed with a blanket draped over his lap. Megan stands next to the bed.]
:Cueball: I'm feeling better today.
:Megan: That's great!

:Panel heading: A few months later...
:[Cueball and White Hat walking past each other. Cueball is wearing a face mask; White Hat isn't but coughs into his elbow.]
:White Hat: ''Cough cough''

:[The real Death Star drifts toward the planet.]
:Death Star voice: We have reached the rebel system, Lord Vader.

:[View from inside the real Death Star.]
:Vader: Now they shall witness the firepower of this fully armed and oper—

:[Leia, Ponytail, and Cueball in frame.]
:Leia: '''''Thermal exhaust port!!'''''
:Ponytail: ''Aaa''
:Cueball: ''Aaa''

:[An equally large torrent of ships stream from the planet to the real Death Star.]
:Death Star voice: What.
:Various ships: '''''aA AAAAAAA aaa aAAAAAAA aaa'''''
:'''''AAAAAA aaa aAAAAA'''''

:[The Death Star explodes, leaving debris trailing away.]

:[In the real world, White Hat and Cueball continue to walk past each other.]
:Cueball: ♫ ♫

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Comics featuring face masks]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Biology]]

Talk:Randall Munroe

2024-12-02T15:39:36Z

172.68.205.122: /* A couple of UK radio 'appearances'... */ I knew I'd mentioned this sort of thing previously. Added. And removed irrelevent extra text nothing to do with this section.

In comic 541 (TED Talk), Randall uses a Cueball character to refer to himself. How should this be included in the Wiki? Cited: http://xkcd.com/541/ [[User:AWiseGuy|AWiseGuy]] ([[User talk:AWiseGuy|talk]]) 21:50, 1 September 2012 (UTC)

:Hrm... I would suppose it would be something along the lines of this "In comic 541, Randall uses Cueball to refer to himeself." (with all of the links and stuff). Which is pretty exactly much what you wrote. That's how I think it should be done. But where to place it? Seeing as we have very little content as is, just put it at the bottom in the "main" part, and over time it'll fall into place as more content is added, probably. That's my two [insert monetary value here]s. {{User:Grep/signature|04:10, 25 February 2014}}

Randall needs a proper introduction here. This article should be much more serious — based on the English Wiki.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:25, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I think Randall would find no higher compliment than to have a wiki article about him full of "citation needed" tags :D --[[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 02:05, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
== Complete? ==

I'm not suggesting we're at that point right now, but what is the goal for this article to be deemed "complete?" as a bio of living person is rarely going to ever be "complete".

This is the xkcd wiki, so I would argue that if there was going to be a thorough and complete Randall article anywhere, it would be here... so at very least it probably ought to be more thorough than his general wikipedia page... [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 15:24, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

== Picture? ==

Just wondering where Randall's picture went... --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.63|173.245.54.63]] 15:33, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

== Quaker reference? ==

There is no reference for Munroe being a Quaker except a footnote in a joke comic. Additionally, engineering is an, um, /unusual/ career for a parent who is a Quaker. This is likely an attempt from Munroe to generate a case of citogenesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_citogenesis_incidents, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reporting, https://xkcd.com/978/) as a small-scale Wikipedia prank. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 17:05, 9 May 2018 (UTC)
: It's true, and [https://slate.com/culture/2019/09/xkcd-randall-munroe-interview-how-to-book-wikipedia.html you got quoted in ''Slate!''] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.145|172.70.210.145]] 16:04, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

== Our Savior ==

At some point, someone changed the caption for the picture to say "Our Savior". Whoever you are, congratulations. You got a chuckle out of me. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.67|172.69.90.67]] 15:56, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

== Wondering if we should add What if? 2 as upcoming ==

The title says it all.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.141|108.162.216.141]] 10:35, 7 September 2022 (UTC)
: Absolutely! How about in place of that nag trying to get us to expand [[1608: Hoverboard]]? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.94|172.69.34.94]] 03:58, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

== A couple of UK radio 'appearances'... ==

Might be worth a listing, on the proper page, but I leave it to someone else to work out how. Randall has featured in two (at least) BBC Radio 4 programmes ("programs", if you wish), in the last few days:
* The Infinite Monkey Cage, a general science-explainer-with-comedy show, this episode being around the theme of how to use mathematics in interesting ways. A somewhat anarchic (loosely planned) stream of thoughts in the presence of an audience.
* The Museum Of Curiosity, a comedy-interview/conversation show with a science bent. This is a more introverted casual conversation (no audience, but cross-talk) following its general template of first asking each guest a little about themselves and then asking them each to present 'something' as a talking point.
In both formats, Randall is one of a small panel of guests (and a pair of hosts, interestingly), and only directly contributes to about a third of each half-hour episode, but ends up talking about some of his work (especially about a lot of soup) in both. He's not the most talkative, in either case, but he holds his own and imparts his own wisdom sufficiently well. I haven't thoroughly searched yet to see if there were/will be more broadcasts with him in other BBC radio (or TV?) shows, while he was obviously at the forefront of the guest-bookers' thoughts; the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Randall+Monroe obvious search] seems to be too title-orientated to extract "...with guest" mentions.

At least for the time being (and perhaps subject to some geographic browsing restrictions) the two episode links that might be useful (at least as a jumping-off point) are [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f1wc06 here] and [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jsdr here]. The former is also a published podcast, so should be freely found in that sphere of downloadables. And then there's the whole BBC Sounds platform, if you can and do access that. And the usual schedual of repeat broadcasts will happen, within the week. TIMC on Thursday (9/Mar/2023) 16:00GMT on R4, TMOC on Sunday (12/Mar) shortly after noon, ditto. (Further future readers might be lucky with somewhere like R4Extra having either series, if not precise episode, finding an archive slot at some handy but so far indeterminate point in their own near-futures.)

...anyway, FYI, for anyone who finds this useful news, or a point of historic record. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.64|172.71.178.64]]

Additional to the above: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024054 Curious Cases] (prev. "...of Rutherford and Fry", now Fry and Ó Briain) has Randall being one of the guest experts, providing some What If-ish advice starting from the basis of a question of how many lemons it would take to power a spaceship. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.122|172.68.205.122]] 15:39, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

== What If adaptation ==

What If books now have an official ongoing adaptation on Youtube, should it be added? Channel info says it's Neptune studios making it, not Randall personally, but without his approval it wouldn't have happened and it's still ''his''

https://youtube.com/channel/UC6IxnFzHofFJ5X2PycSMsww

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.213|162.158.102.213]] 09:05, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

== I understand why he doesn't edit here, but is he a reader? ==

Has he ever said anything about whether or how often he looks at explanations here? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.179|162.158.186.179]] 07:48, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
:If he had implied it, someone would surely mention it. But, if I were him, I wouldn't just from principle.
:More certainly, though, he's changed some comics based upon Xwitter feedback about (apparent) errors, yet there are certainly equal errors noted here that he hasn't done anything about, which suggests no. (Or else they fall beneath his threshold to bother with.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.94|172.70.91.94]] 13:41, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

== Navbox ==
Randall himself is listed among "Friends of Randall"? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.99|172.70.163.99]] 02:28, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

3009: Number Shortage

2024-11-26T10:05:34Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3009
| date = November 8, 2024
| title = Number Shortage
| image = number_shortage_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x269px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "10 minutes ago we were down to only 2 0s!" "How many do we have now?" "I ... don't know!!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH 11 0S AND 100 1S. NO, WAIT... - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic presents a situation where the ability to use numbers is a limited resource. Even quantifying how many numbers are left uses up some of those numbers when stating the results.

In real life, being able to write or say digits is not a limited resource.{{cn}} However, the comic does parallel many {{w|Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot|educational video games}} for young children where numbers and mathematical concepts are treated as living people or factory goods, in order to give some sort of story or context to the math-related activities. In addition, the plight faced by the shortage resembles the {{w|look-and-say sequence}} where trying to quantify the list changes it, requiring it to be quantified again (which changes it again, and so on).

The comic conflates numbers with decimal digits. So when [[Blondie]] says "15 2s and 12 3s", that uses up two 2s (one in "2s" and one in "12") and one 3 (in "3s"). She adjusts the counts as she's speaking, so when she says "13 2s", that uses up another 3, leaving only 10 3s as she's completing the sentence.

In the title text, she uses the last two 0s when saying that they had two 0s left, so now they have no more 0s. But she can't use the number 0 to describe this situation because they're now out of them.

Blondie could have taken a different approach by saying "14 2s and 11 3s", which would be accurate once it has been said.

Jokes with a similar theme been made about letters, such as shortages of vowels (and later consonants) in {{w|The Onion}}'s [https://web.archive.org/web/20020124120633/www.theonion.com/onion2816/vowels2816.html "Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia"].

===Continuation===

A continuation of the pattern would go:

* "We have only 15 2s and 12 3s left."
* "No, wait, 13 2s and 10 3s."
* "No, wait, 12 2s and 9 3s."
* "No, wait, 10 2s and 8 3s."
* "No, wait, 9 2s and 7 3s."
* "No, wait, 8 2s and 6 3s."
* "No, wait, 7 2s and 5 3s."
* "No, wait, 6 2s and 4 3s."
* "No, wait, 5 2s and 3 3s."
* "No, wait, 4 2s and 1 3."
* "No, wait..."
* "How many more do we have?"
* "I...don't know..."

At that point, having used up the last 3 at the end of the previous line, Blondie would lack the necessary 3s to articulate that there are "3 2s and 0 3s."

==Transcript==
:[Blondie is standing on the left, facing Cueball and Megan on the right.]
:Blondie: The Math Department number shortage is getting worse. We have only 15 2s and 12 3s left.
:Blondie: No, wait, 13 2s and 10 3s.
:Blondie: No, wait...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

Talk:3014: Arizona Chess

2024-11-22T17:35:56Z

172.68.205.122:

I added a basic explanation, how did I do? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.129|172.70.115.129]] 14:56, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
:''pat pat'' Good job. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 15:28, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
I guess chess timers work based on the IERS. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.126|172.71.223.126]] 15:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
: See "{{w|Chess_clock|chess clocks}} don't work that way" comment, below. If they did, they would almost certainly reference {{w|Coordinated_Universal_Time|Zulu time}}, which doesn't recognize daylight saving or other local time adjustments. This would go badly for Cueball. Moreover, White Hat could be forgiven for thinking that he had won the game when the clock went "beep" in the third panel, because beeping/flag falling in a chess clock should signal end of match because Cueball's time had run out (the fourth panel asserts that Cueball's time did not, in fact, expire). A minor additional irregularity in what is already a seriously contrived situation. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.91|172.68.23.91]] 20:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
:: The "beep" is probably triggered by the clock falling back from DST rather than going to zero, since we can see in the 4th panel that there are more than 60 minutes left after the change.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.122.111|172.71.122.111]] 11:39, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
::: 'Zactly. But beeping for any reason other than flag-falling (time expired) would not be expected in a real-world (i.e., not an xkcd-world) chess clock. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.98|162.158.41.98]] 17:00, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
:'Real-world' chess clocks don't beep when the flag falls - so White Hat wouldn't think he had won the game when it beeps. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.150|172.68.205.150]] 12:04, 22 November 2024 (UTC)
:No, chess clocks don't work that way. They are simple timers that do not refer to actual time of day in any way, any more than a stopwatch does. Randall just made it work that way for the sake of the joke. {{unsigned ip|172.71.194.17|20:17, 20 November 2024}}
::Speaking from the experience of one in a sport where some are seeking to "improve" upon the use of a manual stopwatch/timer process with a computerised replacement (anything from a smartphone to a home-computer, often with a live online connection), I'm seeing several cases where time differences between equipment (e.g. GPS time vs. 'radio'/time-signal time) has caused confusion, never mind the possibility of random external events (...OS Update notifications, AV scans going active, etc) or other external interferences. In ways that would never happen to a dedicated timing device that's not even listening out for a national time-signal broadcast (which I know for certain can suffer from interference).
::Also, in case anybody is bothered, it's not really a "clock" if it doesn't have a bell (or bells), as per the German "Glocke"/French: "Cloche". Although possibly a single-match "chess clock" could have such a bell for an audible alert, as well as other mechanical 'flag' indicators. But, often, what most people might call a clock is perhaps more just a "timepiece". (Watches/stopwatches/timers/etc, is another matter of sub-distinction, which I try not to be too confusing, or even wrong, about.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.226|172.69.194.226]] 00:53, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

If white hat had conserved 20 seconds through the course of the game, they would have won. Cueball must have been sweating if they were relying on this strategy. [[User:Radialsymmetry|Radialsymmetry]] ([[User talk:Radialsymmetry|talk]]) 15:35, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
:Cueball may have been deliberately letting the time run down on this move for quite a while, so that it would have greater effect when the change happened at almost the last second.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.126|172.70.85.126]] 12:21, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Here's one building that might qualify (it appears to be a shed or outbuilding belonging to a house in Mesquite, Nevada): https://www.google.com/maps/@36.808703609641505,-114.05009436731552,55m
 I believe that's the only one that straddles the Arizona border with a Pacific Time Zone state (California and Nevada), so (head-)canonically, that's where the comic is set. {{unsigned ip|172.69.6.190|17:15-26, 20 November 2024}}
: It could be in a temporary structure - a marquee or something.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.118|172.70.90.118]] 10:34, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
:This would also work on the Utah or New Mexico borders, since they fall back too. Or along the Navajo Nation border, which spans multiple states and observes DST in all of them. Though Cueball indicates he's not in Arizona. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.234|172.70.211.234]] 01:24, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Is the neighbouring state {Utah or New Mexico} or {Nevada or California}? I'm not from the US so I'm not sure how your rules work. 172.69.6.190 above seems to think it's the latter but aren't they both on Mountain Time before the clocks change? {{unsigned|Mtcv|08:57, 21 November 2024}}

One difference between the way parts of North America change time and the way parts of Europe do is that the various North American time zones fall back/jump forward at 2AM local time, while European time zones all change at the same instant (01:00 UTC/WET (02:00 CET, 03:00 EET). That means that the same "trick" could work by sitting on the line between any American time zones at the changeover, but not by sitting on the European lines. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.138|172.70.47.138]] 15:37, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
:In the US this would not work, since the time would be different over the time zone, and thus the chess clocks that are based on the actual time would run different before. In Arizona there are the situation that only the other state changes it's time. This would work for instance on the border to Nevada, where the two states have the same time in the summer as Nevada's timezone is one hour behind Arizona but then the same time during daylight saving time. Thus sitting in the border house on the Hoover dam it would be possible for the one on the west side to be in Nevada and the east side in Arizona. And when DTS stops, the one in Nevada would gain an hour, but not the one in Arizona. And before they would have had the same time. This would thus also work in Europe if one country did not use DTS and the other did along a time zone border. And this will only work when DTS ends. As it happens have only been in the US once, taking a course in Las Vegas. But on the one day off we took a road trip to Gran Canyon and passed Hoover Dam. And then we drove over a time zone line, the only time I have tried that... And then the time did not change due to the lack of DTS in Arizona... What a disappointment... :-) But the rest of the trip was great. Crazy places the dam and Gran Canyon. (As well as Las Vegas, living in a hotel on the Strip). Also just watched the TV series The Queens Gambit where chess timers are used extensively, and of course they do not work digitally. But I love one more of Randall's quibs against the stupidity of DTS. Can't wait till we stop with that stupidity. ;-) Great TV series by the way! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:42, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
:: I'd recommend reviewing what you just wrote. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.220|172.71.98.220]] 16:52, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
A related oddity occurs in the City of The Gold Coast, in Australia, which straddles the Queensland/New South Wales border. The border runs through a built up area, and as NSW has DST but Queensland does not, there are places that are, for one hour each year, in different years, despite being only a few metres apart. You can celebrate the New Year at a bar in Tweed Heads, then cross the road to a bar in Coolangatta, and celebrate the New Year all over again an hour later. I believe this is the only border in the world that runs through a built up area and has different timezones at New Year; New Year being in winter in the Northern Hemisphere means that such DST related anomolies are strictly a Southern Hemisphere phenomenon. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.206|172.68.64.206]] 00:09, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
: "''I believe this is the only border in the world that runs through a built up area''" Definitely possible. I couldn't inagine the difficulties of setting a lunch date with a group and having to confirm the timezone as well as the time, every single time. In most locations with cross-border cities, the smaller one is permitted to observe the time zone of the larger one, allowing Gary Indiana to watch Chicago television on "local time". Most of Mexico doesn't observe DST, except cities adjacent to US areas that do. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Mexico#IANA_time_zone_database]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.137|141.101.76.137]] 19:33, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

:check these two [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau Dutch] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Hertog Belgian] towns. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.225.154|172.69.225.154]] 00:32, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

:: All time should be LST (Local Solar Time). Occupy those smartphones with tasks that are actually useful, and keep AI so busy that it can't spare a thought to world domination. 👹 [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.165|172.71.151.165]] 02:20, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

:: Me again. Yep, I'm aware of Baarle. It's clear from context that the person who mentioned Gold Coast was referring to ''time observance borders'', rather than ''jurisdictional borders''. Baarle is not relevant in this case, as both Belgium and the Netherlands both observe the same time zone and DST rules. {{unsigned ip|172.71.102.53|14:54, 22 November 2024}}

Should the comment about Hawaii be kept? It seems irrelevant. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.129|172.70.111.129]] 15:42, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
:removed [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 16:15, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Which songs would go well with this scene? His World comes to mind... [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:13, 20 November 2024 (UTC)
:''...con Lentitud Poderosa'' right as the crazy part starts. 100%. -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 02:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Fun, incredibly niche point: the chess clock is not in the preferred location; from Black's perspective (hat guy), the clock is on the left, not the right. (6.4, https://www.scoutresources.org.uk/downloads/ideabase_chessrules.pdf ; not very authoritative URL, I know...) {{w|172.69.79.190|17:11, 21 November 2024}}
:According to the FIDE Laws of Chess (https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012023, Rule 6.5), placement of the chess clock is at the discretion of the arbiter, there isn't a 'preferred' location. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.179|172.68.205.179]] 12:10, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

anyone know what the chessboard would look like? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.194.94|172.71.194.94]] 17:25, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
:I might be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing 32 black squares and 32 black squares next to each other, alternating across edges (but matching across corners) in an 8x8 grid... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.35|172.70.162.35]] 22:48, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
: ... but seriously, folks, there's no telling what the game position is from the cartoon. If one takes the drawing at face value (dangerous, given its low resolution and angle of presentation), then it is White, not Black, who is up a piece (what piece cannot be determined). Inference that White Hat is Black is from the tallest pieces on the board (presumably the Kings) being Black on White Hat's side of the board, and White on Cueball's. Even that's chancy. The least risky guess is that both Queens are off the board. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.82|172.68.23.82]] 01:07, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

I added the reference to the '''Navajo Nation''', which arguably has four borders: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and an enclave with the Hopi Reservation. Arizona and the Hopi Reservation do not observe DST, while the other four entities do. See {{w|Time in Arizona}}. As such, people in the Navajo Nation can talk about their "Arizona Border". [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.27|172.71.102.27]] 16:42, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

This may also be related to Magnus Carlsen arriving late for a match in World Blitz 2022. Youtube recommended to me a video about the match just a few days ago, it's most likely trending again now due to the upcoming championship. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.216.72|172.70.216.72]] 17:12, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

3011: Europa Clipper

2024-11-14T12:16:07Z

172.68.205.122: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3011
| date = November 13, 2024
| title = Europa Clipper
| image = europa_clipper_2x.png
| imagesize = 333x356px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They had BETTER make this a sample return mission.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a JOVIAN DESSERT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Please DO delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:Animation of Europa Clipper trajectory around Jupiter.gif|thumb|right|The ''Europa Clipper's'' projected course around {{w|Jupiter}}, represented as the stationary green dot. In gold is Jupiter's moon {{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}, in cyan is the moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}} — the primary target of the spacecraft's study — and in orange-red is the innermost of Jupiter's four {{w|Galilean moons|"Galilean"}} moons, {{w|Io (moon)|Io}}. The spacecraft's track is shown in magenta. Jupiter's largest moon {{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}} and its second largest moon {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}} are not shown, but their gravitational pull affects the ''Clipper's'' trajectory.]]

The ''{{w|Europa Clipper}}'' space probe was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 14 October 2024. It is expected to arrive at Jupiter and begin exploration of Jupiter's moons, particularly {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}, in 2030.

Europa is an icy moon. Water ice covers its surface. Beneath the ice, there is expected to be liquid water, which may contain living microbes. To sample this liquid, its crust (water ice) would need to be broken.

In the comic, the surface ice is likened to the caramel crust on the dessert ''{{w|crème brûlée}}''. To eat this dessert, the crust is broken with a spoon. The dessert was invented in France{{acn}}, which is, of course, part of Europe. Having conflated Europa with Europe, the makers of the probe expect to encounter crème brûlée, and have equipped it with a spoon for the purpose of collecting samples. No such spoon is present on the actual spacecraft{{cn}}, whose trajectory is designed to ''avoid'' contacting Europa so as to prevent {{w|Planetary protection|contamination of any life there}} by microorganisms on the spacecraft.

The title text expands on the main joke by stating that the spacecraft "had BETTER" return samples of the dessert/water ocean to Earth, presumably because Randall is keen to taste the samples. (Although crème brûlée is often served with fruit, it is not mentioned whether Randall expects the sample to be served with {{w|Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer|Juice}}.) Desirable as this might be (for non-gustatory reasons, as the taste of Europa's water ocean would likely be a surprise to a person expecting a custardy flavor), it is impractical.

This may also be a reference to the Cassini-Huygens lander, which, shortly after landing on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, detected a surface that was [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/world-unveiled-cr%C3%A8me-br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e-titan described] as having a creme brulee consistency.

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

:[A space probe with two rectangular solar panels, a circular dish of the front, and a massive spoon on the bottom, longer than the length of its solar panels]

:[Below the panel:]
:Good news: NASA's '''''Europa Clipper''''' is en route to Europa and has successfully deployed its crème brûlée spoon.

==Trivia==
The Clipper spacecraft was at one point to be developed alongside a lander, which was later dropped from being part of the same (or very closely partnered) mission. The latest version of the {{w|Europa Lander}} proposal is far behind the Clipper in implementation, not yet even being guaranteed funding.

Any actual sample return mission is currently far into the future of {{w|Ocean Worlds Exploration Program|the related plans for exploration}}, along with the possibility of digging deep enough into the ice to finally confirm or dismiss some of the more interesting theories about the world concerned.

In Arthur C Clarke's novel '''2010''', the monolith aliens tell humanity ''"All these worlds are yours - except Europa. Attempt no landing there."''

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