explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2131: Emojidome

2019-04-03T16:50:55Z

172.68.54.76: Add pointless argument on peach

I've checked the network tab and console - nothing really seems to happen when you vote, which may be something we want to put on the explanation tomorrow - Myxoh

I suspect the real april fools joke is going to come on Wednesday when xkdc posts an app showing us our psychological profiles that they are now selling to marketing companies after data-mining our emotional preferences to marketing firms - Nosajimiki

@Nosajimiki: psychological profiles of xkcd fans. That might be some interesting marketing. - 5Cincinatus

@Myxoh: I came here to see if anyone else had noticed this! But, I do also see a websocket connection to emojidome.xkcd.com, I bet it's counting votes that way.

There is a websocket connection. A message is sent every time you vote. It looks like there are also status update messages every second (saying which emoji currently has exactly how many votes, i suspect this changes the amount of hearts that show up), and "bracket start" messages every so often. The bracket start message seems to contain hundreds of upcoming emoji pairs. Edit: a bracket start is sent at the start of every match (so every ~30 seconds). It also contains logs of which messages to show for previous matches, and which emoji are currently battling.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.138.10|172.69.138.10]] 16:30, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

There seems to be nothing stopping me from clicking multiple times. Do you think it actually counts it all those times? Can I click-spam to say "this is much better"? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:48, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:Randall just confirmed that you can vote multiple times, although if you click too fasr you get rate limited. (*warning: generic ip address assigned to phone data.*) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.47|172.69.70.47]] 22:35, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:Where did he confirm that? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.105|162.158.93.105]] 10:44, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Well this is fun. Look like there are 512 symbols, meaning 256 first-round contests. The first round would take (at 38 seconds / round) ~2.7 hours. The remaining rounds, from an estimate of geometric progression, would just under double this, meaning this comic will run for ~ 5 hours until we have our winner... ~alexandicity [[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.177|172.69.226.177]] 16:51, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Did he just add a scroll bar to the previous matches? I didn't notice it earlier [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.148|162.158.255.148]] 18:17, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:Nope, you were able to scroll before, too. At least about 2 hours ago. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:20, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

While some of the recaps of past battles are generic (taco vs sandwich: "One for the history books"), many seem to be specifically written for the battle (light bulb vs candle: "Some would argue that this one was settled in the 1800s"). I wonder if/how much this will continue into round 2.

Round two has just begun, and the timeout has been bumped to 60 seconds. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 18:41, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:If that trend continues, the full competition will take pretty close to 24 hours. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:45, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:It looks like it's 1:14/round, which is double what the time was in round one. Will round three be 2:28? 1:51?
::It's just over 1:15/round from the history JSON (plus some hundredths of a second, but it appears 1:15 is the intent)
:::Hadn't looked there. Round one concluded at 18:39:20-ish, 9560 seconds from 16:00:00. At 256 battles, that's 37.34 seconds/battle. However, it looks like the first battle ended at 15:59:57, which would add about 40 seconds, 9600 seconds/256=37.5 seconds exactly. Doubling for round 2 gives 75 seconds.
::2 minutes 30 seconds per battle now. Looks like each round will be 2 hours 40 minutes long.
:: Well it is after 5:00 PST and round 4 just started - and this thing is at exactly 5 minutes a round - which means another 160 minutes for the round. Will see in 2 hours and 40 minutes if the times go up to minutes. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.65|172.69.33.65]] 00:25, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

And while the match-ups winners are typically colored, and underlined, the losers are endgame grey.

Has anyone determined if multiple-voting is actually counted? For me at least the vote button fades back to gray after I click it, which implies you can/should click it again, but that may not actually be processed. We might add a clarification about that to the explanation. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 19:01, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: A reddit user on the r/xkcd thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/b84at1/xkcd_2131_emojidome_script_src2131comicjs/) claims to have attempted "vote stuffing via the console" with no noticeable change in vote totals. So it looks like it may be sending it client-side, but only counting the vote once server-side --l

::Just few minutes ago there was message in "fun facts" that you can click multiple times, although it's not counted if you click too many times (or something like that). I guess that vote stuffing was too much. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:34, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

It would appear that we are supposed to believe the commentary is live, and unscripted:
" {"This one is a true test of the audience today.",
"Just to stress this again. Live commentary, folks. Completely unscripted and coming in hot.} "--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.173|162.158.79.173]] 19:20, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:It's clearly live because the result of a previous round is affecting the next round's commentary - and the combinatorial explosion would prohibit that from being remotely plausible. We're watching live comedy here! [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 19:30, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: On the dog vs. wolf, he said "Again, we are getting a lot of questions on this today. This is live commentary, folks." Proof I guess. HI RANDALL! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:31, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Is there really anything we can put for the transcript? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:25, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: We can go into the socket data and pull out the commentary for each matchup. -- [[User:Bobson|Bobson]] ([[User talk:Bobson|talk]]) 04:05, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Any ideas on how the commentary is done? It seems to sort of match the emojis.
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 19:31, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: It seems that Randall is commentating this live, as he periodically says it's live in the robot commentator text. See above. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:36, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
::Perhaps not "live" as each round 2 matchup was known 160 minutes before it was voted on. He could comment on the battle itself, and/or provide a comment if one or the other combatant won. I think he's a couple hours ahead of us.
::: I dunno. Whenever a new battle starts, there is a default message, that is soon replaced by a more pertinent message. That seems to suggest that he's doing it on the fly. [[User:9yz|9yz]] ([[User talk:9yz|talk]]) 20:03, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
::::If that's live, Randall, and if you see this, give us a shout-out as proof. -Brent
::::: Just because it ''says'' it's live, doesn't mean that it really is. It's also possible that the actual clicks are being ignored and the reported numbers are all pre-generated. Much less likely than that it's actually counting and Randall is inserting commentary live (with default messages when he doesn't), but possible. -- [[User:Bobson|Bobson]] ([[User talk:Bobson|talk]]) 12:50, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
: He updated the title text to thank volunteers for commentating, so I guess we know that the commentary was live, just not necessarily all Randall. [[User:Moosenonny10|Moosenonny10]] ([[User talk:Moosenonny10|talk]]) 14:34, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

This is a quick piece of python to see the json results (and commentary):
<nowiki>import json, urllib.request
d = json.loads(urllib.request.urlopen("https://emojidome.xkcd.com/2131/socket ").read().decode('utf-8'))
for g in d['bracket']['played'][0]:
c1, c2 = g['game']
print(f"{c1['score']} {c1['competitor']}-{c2['competitor']} {c2['score']}")</nowiki>
[[User:Tammo80|Tammo80]] ([[User talk:Tammo80|talk]]) 19:42, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: or if you want to see the vote count live in browser: https://emojidome.playcode.io/ -Andy 22:01, April 2019
:: Awesome, thank you [[User:9yz|9yz]] ([[User talk:9yz|talk]]) 20:23, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

There must be some kind of manipulation going on with the votes. There is NO WAY the poop emoji would lose to the skull emoji in round two. It was my guess for the winner >:( [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.138|162.158.106.138]] 20:50, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: And the 100 emoji just lost to the shiny heart. :(

Well, there's the comment "How do you know for sure that your votes are doing anything?". For my side because every single one I voted for lost so far. Well, I'm not a lucky charm, apparently... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.11|141.101.104.11]] 10:14, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

The second round bracket was released, but is hidden behind the bottom nav buttons: https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_256.png --[[User:Thefallen138|Thefallen138]] ([[User talk:Thefallen138|talk]]) 20:56, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

And now the third round has begun. Strangely, the bracket is not visible yet: https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_128.png. The delay has been bump to something above two minutes as well. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 21:21, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

: It's here https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_round_3.png [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.79|162.158.107.79]] 21:41, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

:: It seems to be he overwrote round_3.png with round_4.png (at least its the same picture)

Both the Emojidome and counter were brought together in iframes https://ducakedhare.co.uk/emojidome.html [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.17|141.101.99.17]] 23:39, 1 April 2019 (UTC)taikedz

Anyone have an IRC room for Emojidome discussion? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.10|162.158.146.10]]

So disappointed he left out the egg plant... :D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:27, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Despite Spaaaaaaaaace winning the battle 🌌 (36285) vs 🚝 (17405), the current bracket chart https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_round_3.png shows 🚝 as having won. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.13|108.162.242.13]] 13:23, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

What if the April Fools joke of the whole bracket is that the "Vote" buttons were actually switched and all the losers are actually the winners??? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.59.84|172.68.59.84]] 15:24, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

In case the websocket ever goes down, here are the data: https://pastebin.com/YYgPS1FC
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 19:22, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== "Emoji" or "emojis" as the plural? ==

Due to the nature of the Japanese language, "emoji" is technically both the plural and the singular - however, the improper form "emojis" is used more as a plural frequently nowadays among English speakers. Which form should this explanation use? --[[User:Youforgotthisthing|Youforgotthisthing]] ([[User talk:Youforgotthisthing|talk]]) 22:27, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: For clarity, I think we should use emoji as the singular and emojis as the plural. I'm going to go fix this. [[User:9yz|9yz]] ([[User talk:9yz|talk]]) 19:34, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

The "friends in Australia" comment was made during the last round's wink vs upside down smile battle. This is probably a pun on how Australia is on the other side of the world from America; I don't think Randall was seriously saying he witnessed an influx of Australians inbound. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.82|108.162.219.82]] 00:47, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== Draws ==

What would happen if any of the fights resulted in a draw? (same number of votes for both)

Given the # of matchups, it's not actually that unlikely.

We should try to test this. Gotta keep Randall on his feet!

Pretty sure one early on resulted in a tie.

: The very first round was 0-0. I guess no one refreshed at exactly the right minute to see it. --[[User:Bobson|Bobson]] ([[User talk:Bobson|talk]]) 04:05, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

: Actually, Birthday Cake vs Cupcake was a tie at 3658:3658. Birthday Cake advanced. I wonder why? (from the socket: [{"score":3658,"competitor":"ðŸŽ‚"},{"score":3658,"competitor":"ðŸ§"}]) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.138|162.158.106.138]] 04:54, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Is Birthday Cake vs. Cupcake the draw referenced at the end of the "How it worked" section? Can we please have names added to all the emoji in the explanation text; I have never found a way to blow up emoji to a visible size, so frequently find I can't see them clearly enough to identify them, and in that bit at the end of "How it worked", the first one isn't rendering on my computer anyway. I'm guessing that the other is the birthday cake; really, I have come to hate emoji because they are so tiny. At least Randall made them nice and big on the voting screens. [[User:Yngvadottir|Yngvadottir]] ([[User talk:Yngvadottir|talk]]) 18:27, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

I had assumed that the "score" was a not simple count of vote clicks - I'd imagine (especially with all the autoclicking etc) that the raw votes would be gigantic numbers. So it could be that these were not draws when calculated to full precision - just that the API was only sending out a rounded number?

== Emoji Fonts ==
Having an emoji font is required to see emoji displayed on sites such as http://srv-01.valo.media/ . If anybody else is looking for a way to display these, there's a good free emoji font available here:
https://github.com/eosrei/twemoji-color-font
It includes a script to replace the default Windows emoji fonts to get them to display properly on windows. Unfortunately it's only black-and-white in chrome. If anybody knows any better options, please let me know!

: For Ubuntu Linux users: sudo apt install fonts-noto-color-emoji -- then restart Chrome/Firefox.
: [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 11:29, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

::I'm on Android here & many of the emoji do not show up. Notably, this includes the hedgehog, which... is not in the emoji set of any of my Android devices. Could somebody please add the emoji names next to their pictograms, where they appear the explanation? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 04:16, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

== Commentary Transcript ==

I've written a script that pulls the commentary history and transforms it into a wiki table. It's up to date as of right now, and I'll run it again in the morning and one last time after the final round. If you have formatting suggestions, just put them here and I'll incorporate it when I regenerate the table. -- [[User:Bobson|Bobson]] ([[User talk:Bobson|talk]]) 04:58, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

: Wonderful, thank you! Could you perhaps make the winner bold (or underlined like in the comic)? -Andy

== Successful Ballot-stuffing? ==

As I type this, I'm watching owl blast past 180000 votes in the owl-octopus bout. That means that in about 10 minutes, owl has earned more votes than all the votes earned in the entirety of any other individual bout. I could be totally off-base, but that seems vaguely suspicious to me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.82|162.158.214.82]] 05:28, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

I concur: that is highly suspicious. Fortunately, nothing of importance is at stake here, even if you were really pulling for the octopus. At this moment, we're ±10 minutes into bee vs pineapple and nothing comparable has happened. It may be an isolated incident. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.144|162.158.106.144]] 05:50, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

I've seen enough hentai to...what? The *owl* has won? O RLY? I demand a recount! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.6|141.101.105.6]] 08:10, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

YOLO. You Obviously Like Owls. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.11|141.101.104.11]] 10:11, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

For the violin vs the curling stone ('classical vs house'), the stone was ahead, but in the last four minutes I spammed my discord server to vote and we just got it over the line. - fudgeforlife
: Rrrr. :angry face: I love curling, and of course I wanted the stone to win. With curling no-one complains if I fall asleep watching. But with classical music everyone complains... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.89|141.101.104.89]] 12:49, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
: A similar thing happened for the "scared cat vs devil" bout - those two were consistently nearly tied until about T-10 minutes, whereupon the devil voting rate spiked and devil finished ~12000 votes ahead. The "cat vs hedgehog" bout was also similar - hedgehog had a consistent lead of ~1000 votes until about T-10 minutes, when the hedgehog voting rates spiked and hedgehog ended up finishing ~10000 votes ahead.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.28|162.158.214.28]] 14:39, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

What? It's possible the owl cheated? IT'S POSSIBLE OCTOPUS TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE WON IF THE MATCH WAS LEGITIMATE? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.226|162.158.75.226]] 12:02, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

I love how owl getting 200 000 votes in 20 minutes is causing all this controversy when crayon got 40 000 in 75 seconds --[[User:Maple42|Maple42]] ([[User talk:Maple42|talk]]) 18:54, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== Avocado quote citation ==

I'm not sure where to put this. The "I like avocados because they taste pretty good and also they come with a cool wood ball you get to keep" quote is from here: https://twitter.com/jitka/status/236240801926086656 . [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.41|172.69.33.41]] 07:15, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== How sure are we the voting is real ==
I'm no expert at all, but it there any way that the websites that shows the number of votes live etc. can test whether these votes are real, or something Randall has pre-programmed? Not that I would not believe he was willing to stay up for the duration of this day, but it is an April Fools' Day comic, so he is completely "allowed" to have decided him self who should win all matched and have made up the commentaries in advance. Yes it would take along time, but not longer than doing it on the fly. It could just be that joke on us, that our votes does nothing and we just see how Randall has decided the dome should end. Can anyone go in to this, and explain why it is as it is either way (for sure made up, for sure real or uncertain if real or fake)? (PS I dislike these sections in the commentaries, but there are already 6...) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:27, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

It should be noted that Milky Way won over Maglev by a long shot, but the bracket shows otherwise. - Brent [[Special:Contributions/172.69.50.58|172.69.50.58]] 13:14, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== Which picture should we use for the comic ==
The current picture shown is not relevant. That is only shown to web crawlers that pick new images up. Does anyone have a picture of the very first match? Not sure that is relevant either. Anything in between could be used. like this:
[[File:2131_Emojidome_example.png]]
--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:43, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:I’m assuming there’ll be a picture at the end. Show that when it finishes. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 13:53, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
::I added the current picture originally as a temporary solution since the bot didn't upload one. No one commented on the image so I kept it though I considered using something like this: [[File:emojidome_blank.png|400px]]
::--[[User:Asdf|Asdf]] ([[User talk:Asdf|talk]]) 14:17, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Right now, for me at least, the comic shows [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/emojidome.png this image] with the hover-text "Thank you to the xkcd April 1st volunteers/commentators, including @Chromakode, Kevin, @Aiiane, Patrick, Kat, Reuven, @cotrone, @bstaffin, @zigdon, schwal, Stereo, and everyone who voted!" Just another option, though that image doesn't explain the comic set-out during the competition. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.84|172.68.133.84]] 19:12, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:Yes for sure we should use that now. I should have thought of that. Can see it has already been uploaded, but it takes long time, hours, from these pictures have been changed to the change can be seen ion the site. I have no idea why, but have experienced it several times, so later today the final picture should be ready. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:17, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
::If we do that, we should add example pictures in the explanation of what it actually looked like during the competition. I vote for yours, Kynde. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.84|172.68.133.84]] 19:11, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:::I added Kynde's image in the "How it worked" section as it is useful for people who missed the competition. --[[User:Asdf|Asdf]] ([[User talk:Asdf|talk]]) 19:22, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
::::Great, I also added it to the transcript section and transcribed the dynamic part of the image. As well as the final image, which is not on-line and added the error image we had to begin at the bottom of the transcript and kept that transcript as well. Tanscript is more or less done I think.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:29, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== References and jokes in the commentary ==
Should we start explaining some of the robot announcer's commentary lines? Some of them are clear references to things. For example, the "Kickpuncher vs. Punchkicker" line is a reference to Community (Kickpuncher is a character in an in-universe film series, and Punchkicker is one of the characters' OC based on it.)
:Maybe make extra pages like has been done for several of the previous years huge comics, especially April Fools' comics. And yes it would be interesting to explain them... But that is a huge job. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:17, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== Errors ==
There’s a mistake in the bracket, the genome won but is grayed out [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 13:14, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:Same with stars vs flying saucer --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:17, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
::The genome has been corrected, but not the stars. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:48, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:::Yeah - stars is currently duelling volcano - but the bracket shows that stars was eliminated by monorail. This kinda suggests that the bracket is being manually generated! [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 13:59, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
Speaking of errors, hearts no longer show up on mobile. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:31, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:I think that was intentional, as, at least in my experience, the comic was a massive battery hit. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.4|108.162.241.4]] 17:11, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Disappointed no one thought to get the egg to at least the second round. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 15:27, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

: Many of the rounds were incredibly close - even the final was won by just a couple of percent. It was rare for there to be an overwhelming majority on either side. But it's incredible that 1,393,048 votes were cast in the final...given that all those people had to be there over just the 26 minute voting timeslot. I presume explainxkcd was taken down by overwhelming traffic? [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:44, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

Why are brackets relevent to this time of year.
The FA Cup has reached the semi-final, the Champions League and UEFA have reached the qarter finals. The European Rugby Champions Cup and European Challenge have reached the semi-finals. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 17:02, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:March Madness is under way, he has referenced this before, it is in the explanation. Do not post at the top but at the bottom, for continuity. I moved your post down here where it belonged --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:27, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

In the mentioning of eggplant and peach, peaches represent butts, not the female sex organs. At least that is the far more common usage, including but not limited to the gay community. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/peach-emoji-%F0%9F%8D%91
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 16:50, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

== Stuffing ==

Did anyone else noticed these comments :
<blockquote>
*Honeybees vs. colony collapse disorder
*I’m looking at the totals, and this one is extremely close.
*🦠 fans need to click more and faster!
*I mean, 🐝 fans need to keep clicking!
*Fun fact: You can click more than once, although if you click too much it ignores you.
*No! Save the bees!
</blockquote>
I'm quite curious as to how many people did those 1.4 million clicks in final ! --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.131|172.69.226.131]] 11:43, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

== random object battles in popular culture! ==
Hee hee! All I could think of during this was the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n1YjN6z-7Q old Laurie Anderson recording about which thing was more macho] [[User:Jonwchgo|Jonwchgo]] ([[User talk:Jonwchgo|talk]]) 14:19, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

1156: Conditioning

2019-03-29T17:02:22Z

172.68.54.76: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1156
| date = January 4, 2013
| title = Conditioning
| image = conditioning.png
| titletext = 'Why are you standing in the yard wearing a papal hat and a robe covered in seeds?' 'Well, the Pope is visiting our town next month ...'
}}

==Explanation==
Herein, the author devises a method of addressing the issue of drivers who turn up their music to irritating levels which usually results in a lot of bass coming from the car — the low frequencies being the ones that most easily penetrate the car and travel farther, thus being more audible to those around the car.

As the title suggests, the idea is to {{w|Classical conditioning|condition}} animals to respond to a thumping bass. The machine is described as working as follows: every few hours, the bass would turn on, and the box would dispense food behind an opening designed to look like an open car window. Over time, local wildlife would flock to the box to get the food from inside, and would become trained that the sound of a subwoofer means that they can get food by flying through a car window.. Eventually, the animals would respond to any low music, including that played by cars.

The end result would be that the local wildlife would approach, and presumably attempt to enter, any car that has that same thumping bass. Drivers, in turn, would cease to turn up their music in order to prevent the groups of animals from chasing after their cars, thus solving the problem of annoyingly loud bass. This behavior modification can itself be seen as a {{w|Operant conditioning|somewhat different form of conditioning}}.

Although this plan may seem far-fetched, a similar scheme was seriously proposed in Britain during {{w|World War I}} to condition {{w|Gull|seagulls}} to associate a submarine's {{w|periscope}} with food, which would give away the locations of enemy submarines as the gulls flocked to their periscopes being raised.

The title text is a dialogue about using a similar method of conditioning to send animals after the {{w|Pope}}. Why someone would want that to happen is left to the reader's imagination. Or it could be Black Hat, who would not need any particular reason for this sort of behavior, and might choose the Pope because of his highly recognizable outfit.

==Transcript==
:Every few hours, subwoofer plays throbbing bass for 10 seconds... [With arrow pointing to subwoofer.]
:...then bread crumbs are dispensed into box [With arrow pointing to bread feeder machine.]
:Opening [With arrow pointing to feeder opening shaped like a driver side car window.]
:Local wildlife [With arrows pointing to birds and a squirrel.]
:Protip: Leave this device in your yard for a week, then watch as the problem of loud music from passing cars solves itself.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

2122: Size Venn Diagram

2019-03-12T18:45:34Z

172.68.54.76: /* List of items in the diagram */

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

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

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

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

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

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

===List of items in the diagram===
The following table lists all size/noun combinations that the Venn diagram can generate, with a description of each.
{| class="wikitable"
!Item
!Big !! Great !! Large !! Little !! Small
|-
|width=10%|'''Aunt'''
|width=18%|
|width=18%| [[wiktionary:great-aunt|sister of one's grandparent]]
|width=18%|
|width=18%|
|width=18%|
|-
|'''Bang Theory'''
|currently-accepted {{w|Big Bang|scientific theory}} that explains the origin of the universe; also a {{w|The Big Bang Theory|TV sitcom}}|| || || ||
|-
|'''Barrier Reef'''
|
|{{w|Great Barrier Reef|world's largest coral reef system}}, off the coast of Australia
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bear Lake'''
|a {{w|Big Bear Lake, California|lake and surrounding community in California}}, in the mountains
|a {{w|Great Bear Lake|lake in Canada}}, in the Northwest Territories -- the largest lake entirely in Canada, and the fourth-largest in North America
|
|
|
|-
|'''Bend'''
| {{w|Big Bend|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Big Bend National Park|US National Park}} in Texas
| {{w|Great Bend (disambiguation)|several geographic locations}}, including a {{w|Great Bend, Kansas|city in Kansas}} and the description of the S-shaped curving of the {{w|Nile River}} in Egypt and Sudan
|
|
|
|-
|'''Billed Seed Finch'''
|
|{{w|Great-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1851
|{{w|Large-billed seed finch|species of finch}}, described in 1789
|
|
|-
|'''Blue'''
|nickname for [https://www.ibm.com IBM] and the {{w|New York Giants}}, also [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250 a movie]
|
|{{w|large blue|various different butterflies}}
|
|{{w|small blue|butterfly}}, smallest found in the UK
|-
|'''Blue Heron'''
|
|{{w|Great Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures 91–137 cm (36–54 in) long
|
|{{w|Little Blue Heron|species of heron}} that measures about 60 cm (24 in) long
|
|-
|'''Board'''
| nickname for the {{w|New York Stock Exchange}} || || || ||
|-
|'''Cardiac Vein'''
|
|{{w|Great cardiac vein|left coronary vein}}
|
|
|{{w|Small cardiac vein|heart vein on the right side}}
|-
|'''Circle'''
|
|{{w|Great circle|largest possible circle}} that can be drawn on a sphere; the {{w|equator}} is an example of one on the Earth
|
|{{w|Little_Circle|The Little Circle}}, a group of political reformists based in Manchester, UK in the early 1800s
|{{w|Circle_of_a_sphere|a circle that lies on a sphere}} without passing through its center (which would make it a great circle)
|-
|'''Claims Court'''
|
|
|
|
|{{w|Small claims court|judicial court}} that handles cases involving only relatively small amounts of money
|-
|'''enchilada'''
|[[wiktionary:big enchilada|important person]] || || || ||
|-
|'''Depression'''
|
|{{w|Great Depression|period of prolonged economic downturn}} that affected the world economy in the 1930's
|
|
|
|-
|'''Dipper'''
|{{w|Big Dipper|subset collection of stars}} in the constellation {{w|Ursa Major}}
|
|
|name for the constellation {{w|Ursa Minor}}
|
|-
|'''Emerald'''
|
|
|{{w|Large_emerald|Geometra papilionaria}}, a bright green moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Jodis_lactearia|Jodis lactearia}}, a light green or white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|{{w|Hemistola_chrysoprasaria|Hemistola chrysoprasaria}}, a light green or yellow-white moth of the family {{w|Geometer_moth|Geometridae}}
|-
|'''End'''
|The {{w|Crankpin|bearing}} connecting a connecting rod to the crank shaft of a reciprocating engine.
| {{w|Great End|Mountain in England}}
|
|
|The {{w|Crankpin|bearing}} connecting a connecting rod to the gudgeon pin and hence the piston in a reciprocating engine.
|-
|'''Eyed Conger'''
|{{w|Sea conger|type of eel}}, found in the western Pacific Ocean
|
|{{w|Large-eye conger|type of eel}}, found in the northwestern and eastern central Pacific Ocean
|
|{{w|Smalleye conger|type of eel}}, found in the eastern Indian Ocean
|-
|'''Flying Fox'''
|
|{{w|Great flying fox}}
|{{w|Large flying fox}}
|
|{{w|Small flying fox}}
|-
|'''Foot'''
|The well known folk-lore monster ''{{w|Bigfoot}}''
|
|
|{{w|List_of_The_Land_Before_Time_characters#Littlefoot|Main character}} in the ''{{w|Land Before Time}}'' film series
|''{{w|Smallfoot (film)|Smallfoot}}'' is an animated film that inverts the Bigfoot legend, focusing on a group of yetis that tell stories about humans.
|-
|'''Forest Bat'''
|
|
|A common {{w|Large forest bat|bat}} found in Southeastern Australia
|A related {{w|Little forest bat|bat}} also found in Southeastern Australia
|
|-
|'''Format'''
|
|
|{{w|Large format|anything larger than 4x5 inches in photography}}
|
|
|-
|'''Foundation'''
|The BIG Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit charity
|May be a reference to Asimov’s Greater Foundation
|?
|
|
|-
|'''Frog'''
|Refers to someone who is important but only in a small group (Big frog in small pond)
|
|?
|children's book [https://smile.amazon.com/Little-Frog-Crista-R-Stewart/dp/1616638702/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g5171374337?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8 "The Little Frog"] by Crista R. Stewart
|{{w|Small frog|An Australian frog species}}
|-
|'''Game'''
|Large animals hunted for sport or food, usually referring to the African {{w|big five game}} (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, cape buffalo); can also refer to the NFL's {{w|Super Bowl}}
|{{w|Great Game|19th Century geopolitical competition}} between the British and Russian Empires over control of Afghanistan
|{{w|Game (hunting)|Large animals}} hunted for sport or food, such as bears or moose
|
|{{w|Game (hunting)|Small animals}} hunted for sport or food, such as rabbits or ducks
|-
|'''Hadron Collider'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Hadron Collider|particle accelerator}}
|
|
|-
|'''Hearted'''
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bighearted#English|kind, generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greathearted|generous, selfless, noble}}
|{{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/largehearted|generous, benevolent, noble}}
|
|
|-
|'''House on the Prairie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little House on the Prairie|novel}} (later made into a TV show)
|
|-
|'''Intestine'''
|
|
|The {{w|Large Intestine}} or colon is the last part of the digestive system.
|
|The {{w|Small Intestine}} is the part of the gastrointestinal tract (gut) immediately after the stomach, where most absorption of nutrients takes place
|-
|'''Island'''
|{{w|Hawaii (island)|largest island in Hawaii}}, or numerous other islands: {{w|Big Island}}
|{{w|Great Island|in Cork Harbour, Ireland}}
|{{w|Large Island|island in the Antilles, owned by Grenada}}
|{{w|Little Island|several islands named such}}, plus a song in ''{{w|Randy Newman's Faust}}''
|{{w|Small Island (novel)|novel which was made into a movie}}
|-
|'''League'''
|Nickname for top-level competition
|One of the leagues in Pokemon Go
|
|{{w|Little League Baseball|Youth baseball organization}}
|
|-
|'''Lies'''
|''{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}'', a novel made into a TV series; also a [[wiktionary:big lie|form of propaganda]]
|
|
|''{{w|Big Little Lies (TV series)|Big Little Lies}}'', a novel made into a TV series; also a {{w|Little Lies|Fleetwood Mac song}}
|
|-
|'''Magellanic Cloud'''
|
|
|A {{w|Large Magellanic Cloud|satellite galaxy}} of the Milky Way
|
|Another {{w|Small Magellanic Cloud|satellite galaxy}} of the Milky Way
|-
|'''Millimeter Telescope'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Millimeter Telescope|radio telescope}}
|
|
|-
|'''One'''
|Nickname for any large natural disaster that is expected to happen in the future, such as a tsunami or an earthquake in California
|Nickname for {{w|Wayne Gretzky}}, considered by many to be the greatest ice hockey player of all time, also comedian {{w|Jackie Gleason}} and many other people ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_One Wikipedia disambiguation page]).
|
|affectionate term for a small person
|{{w|The Small One|A Disney animated short directed by Don Bluth}}
|-
|'''Orphan Annie'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Orphan Annie|comic strip}}
|
|-
|'''Planet'''
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|
|Part of the video game ''{{w|Little Big Planet}}''
|
|-
|'''Potatoes'''
|
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small potatoes|something relatively unimportant]]
|-
|'''Pox'''
|
|an old name for {{w|syphilis}}
|
|
|{{w|smallpox|a deadly disease}} which was effectively eradicated by 1977
|-
|'''Professor'''
|
|
|{{w|Large Professor|rap artist}}
|{{w|Little Professor|educational math toy}} (also "Little Professor Syndrome", an informal name for autism)
|
|-
|'''Richard'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Richard|musician}}
|
|-
|'''Room'''
|
|{{w|Great room|a McMansion's signature space}}
|
|{{w|White_Blood_Cells_(album)#Track_listing|Track 6}} on "White Blood Cells," the third album by {{w|The_White_Stripes|The White Stripes}}
|{{w|May Sarton|"The Small Room", a novel by May Sarton}}, also various songs: {{w|Small Room}}
|-
|'''Screen'''
|[[wiktionary:big screen|another name for movies]]
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small screen|another name for TV]]
|-
|'''Sister'''
|[[wiktionary:big sister|older female sibling]]
|
|
|[[wiktionary:little sister|younger female sibling]]
|
|-
|'''Soldiers'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Soldiers|1996 Telugu drama film}}
|{{w|Small Soldiers|1998 movie}} about sentient animated toys at war
|-
|'''Sur'''
|{{w|Big Sur|coastal region of California}} famed for its mountain scenery
|
|
|
|
|-
|'''Terror'''
|
|{{w|Great Terror|One of two periods of violent political repression}}; one during {{w|Reign of Terror|the French Revolution}} between 1793 and 1794, the other in {{w|Great Purge|the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin}} between 1936 and 1938
|
|
|
|-
|'''Time'''
|[[wiktionary:big time|major]], the highest level of a field
|
|
|
|[[wiktionary:small time|minor]], or modest, level of achievement
|-
|'''Toothed Aspen'''
|A {{w|Populus grandidentata|tree}} native to North America
|
|Another name for the same tree
|
|
|-
|'''Wall of China'''
|
|{{w|Great Wall of China|Series of fortifications}} over 13,000 miles long that served to protect various Chinese empires from raids and invasion from their north
|
|
|
|-
|'''White'''
|{{w|Big White Ski Resort|ski resort in British Columbia}}
|{{w|Great white shark|species of shark}} or a {{w|Great White|rock band}}
|{{w|Pieris brassicae|a butterfly}} or {{w|Large White pig|a common breed of pig}}
|
|{{w|Dixeia|multiple species}} of {{w|Pieris rapae|butterflies}} are known as small whites
|-
|'''Wonder'''
|
|
|
|{{w|Little Wonder|"Little Wonder" is a song and single by David Bowie, from the 1997 album Earthling.}}
|{{w|Small Wonder (TV series)|American sitcom}}
|-
|'''World'''
|Australian company {{w|BigWorld|BigWorld}} which develops development tools for MMOs; also {{w|Big_World|a 1986 live album by Joe Jackson}}.
|Reference to either {{w|Great World City|Great World City}} or {{w|Great World Amusement Park|Great World Amusement Park}}, a Chinese shopping mall or amusement park, respectively
|
|A {{w|Little World|2013 Catalan documentary film}}
|{{w|Small_World_(board_game)|Board game by Days of Wonder}}, {{w|It's a Small World|ride at Disney parks}}, type of {{w|Small-world_network|mathematical graph.}}
|}

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


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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Language]]

2037: Supreme Court Bracket

2018-08-24T18:42:10Z

172.68.54.76: Added dates.

{{comic
| number = 2037
| date = August 24, 2018
| title = Supreme Court Bracket
| image = supreme_court_bracket.png
| titletext = My bracket was busted in the first round; I had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final, probably in a case over who gets to annex Rhode Island.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Each court case needs its own explanation, preferably a small paragraph instead of a sentence in parentheses. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Supreme Court of the United States}} is the highest federal court of the United States. A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} is a tree diagram that represents the series of games played during a knockout tournament. [[Randall]] suggests that the winners of the 16 listed court cases will file against each other and then again until the final winner is selected.

Court cases are typically titled as plaintiff versus defendant. Randall is spoofing this idea by imagining famous Supreme Court cases as though they were games in the first round of a single-elimination tournament, similar to college basketball's {{w|NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament|March Madness}}, complete with a ranking bracket. "Sweet 16" in the context of a tournament refers to the stage in a tournament where 16 competitors remain. This comic's concept is thus a word play on "court" (court of law v. basketball court).

The cases are, with the winners in bold:

*{{w|Marbury v. Madison|Marbury v. '''Madison'''}}, 1803
This case declared a provision of the {{w|Judiciary Act of 1789}} unconstitutional, thus preventing several late-term appointments by outgoing President {{w|John Adams}} from being seated under incoming President {{w|Thomas Jefferson}}. More importantly, the ruling established the principle of {{w|judicial review}} by which the Supreme Court can overturn, on the basis of unconstitutionality, laws passed by {{w|United States Congress|Congress}} and signed into law by the {{w|President of the United States|President}}. For this reason it is considered the single most important decision in American constitutional law.

*{{w|McCulloch v. Maryland|'''McCulloch''' v. Maryland}}, 1819
(prohibited states from taxing the federal government)

*{{w|Gibbons v. Ogden|'''Gibbons''' v. Ogden}}, 1824
This case established that interstate commerce is regulated by the U.S. Congress according to the U.S. Constitution, that interstate navigation is fundamental to interstate commerce, and that therefore the power to regulate interstate navigation in this way rests with the U.S. Congress, not with any state legislature.

On 01 March 1824, the US Supreme Court decided in favor of Thomas Gibbons in his appeal of a case brought against him by Aaron Ogden in an attempt to prevent Gibbons from operating steamboats to transport goods and passengers between New York City, New York and Elizabethtown, New Jersey. The US Supreme Court decision reversed a prior injunction against Gibbons issued by a New York State court deciding that Ogden held exclusive navigational rights by way of having licensed them from two men to whom the New York State Legislature had granted the navigation rights in several acts between 1798 and 1807.

*{{w|Near v. Minnesota|'''Near''' v. Minnesota}}, Jan 30, 1930 – Jun 1, 1931
(found that prior restraints on publication violate freedom of the press as protected under the First Amendment)

*{{w|NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.|'''NLRB''' v. Jones & Laughlin}}, 1937
(declared that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was constitutional)

*{{w|Brown v. Board of Education|'''Brown''' v. Board of Education}}, Dec 9, 1952 – May 17, 1954
(declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal and ordered them integrated)

*{{w|Gideon v. Wainwright|'''Gideon''' v. Wainwright}}, 1963
(gave defendants unable to afford lawyers the right to have the government provide them with defense lawyers)

*{{w|Griswold v. Connecticut|'''Griswold''' v. Connecticut}}, 1965
(right to birth control)

*{{w|Miranda v. Arizona|'''Miranda''' v. Arizona}}, 1966
(required police to inform suspects of their rights)

*{{w|Loving v. Virginia|'''Loving''' v. Virginia}}, April 10, 1967 - June 12, 1967
(overturned a ban on interracial marriage)

*{{w|Roe v. Wade|'''Roe''' v. Wade}}, January 22, 1973
(right to abortion)

*{{w|United States v. Nixon|'''United States''' v. Nixon}}, July 8, 1974 - July 24, 1974
(ordered president Nixon to turn over Watergate tapes)

*{{w|Bush v. Gore|'''Bush''' v. Gore}}, December 12, 2000
(disputed 2000 Presidential election)

*{{w|Lawrence v. Texas|'''Lawrence''' v. Texas}}, June 26, 2003
(invalidated sodomy laws)

*{{w|Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency|'''Massachusetts''' v. EPA}}, 2007
(decided that the state of Massachusetts has standing to sue the EPA for not doing enough against global warming)

*{{w|Obergefell v. Hodges|'''Obergefell''' v. Hodges}}, June 26, 2015
(allowing same-sex marriage)

The title text refers to a practice of filling out a March Madness bracket, predicting a winner for each game up to the championship. A bracket is "busted" when the result of a game is not as predicted; because future matchups depend on previous results, the whole bracket is worthless at that point. Randall "had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final", predicting both parties would win all previous rounds and advance to the final game/case. Because Connecticut lost its first-round case to Griswold, his bracket is busted in the first round.

In the second part of the title text, Randall writes: "I had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final, probably in a case over who gets to annex Rhode Island." In fact, there actually was a Supreme Court case ''Massachusetts v. Connecticut'' (summary at [https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/282/660/ Justia.com], full text at [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17012735467934830012&q=Connecticut+v.+Massachusetts&hl=en&as_sdt=2006 Google Scholar]) dealing with water rights on the Connecticut River, which flows between the two states.

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 participants each on the left and right side. From both sides toward the middle the brackets reduce to eight, then four, two, and one line where the latter join to a rectangle in the middle.]

:[Left side:]
:Marbury - Madison
:McCulloch - Maryland
:Gibbons - Ogden
:Near - Minnesota
:NLRB - Jones & Laughlin
:Brown - Board of Education
:Gideon - Wainwright
:Griswold - Connecticut

:[Right side:]
:Miranda - Arizona
:Loving - Virginia
:Roe - Wade
:United States - Nixon
:Bush - Gore
:Lawrence - Texas
:Massachusetts - Environmental Protection Agency
:Obergefell - Hodges

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Now that we've finished the round of 32, the Supreme court will be moving on to the Sweet 16.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2027: Lightning Distance

2018-08-03T14:25:39Z

172.68.54.76: improved my comment

Calculations I used:

<math>t_1=\frac{s}{v_1}</math>

<math>t_2=\frac{s}{v_2}</math>

Substract:

<math>t_1-t_2=\Delta t=\frac{s}{v_1}-\frac{s}{v_2}=\frac{sv_2-sv_1}{v_1v_2}=s\frac{v_2-v_1}{v_1v_2}=s\frac{\Delta v}{v_1v_2}</math>

Therefore

<math>s=\Delta t\frac{v_1v_2}{\Delta v}</math>

I evaluated <math>\frac{v_1v_2}{\Delta v}</math> and it came to be 13.6 billion. Can someone verify it's correct? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.112|172.68.51.112]] 13:08, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

:The comic begins with the question "how many miles away", so converting to kilometers isn't the right calculation.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.24|172.69.71.24]] 17:06, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

I used refractive index for visible light of 1.000277 (air at STP as opposed to 0C 1atm) and arrived at around 7.9 billion instead. Refractive index of 1.000337 is then required for the radio waves for the comic to be correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.221|172.68.11.221]] 13:46, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

:Do you mean 7.9 billion to convert to miles or to kilometers? Because my 13.6 bilion is to kilometers.

::I'm sure the actual comic is referring to miles and 5 billion was picked to match with the "divide by five" rule for miles. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.131|172.69.70.131]] 13:59, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

:::I did mean kilometers. If we use miles, 1.000314 fits almost precisely! (5.04 billion) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.17|172.68.11.17]] 14:42, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

If you can count several seconds, as is suggested in the comic, the flash is still billions of miles away, the widest possible distance between Earth and Neptune is about 5 billion km. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.40|172.68.110.40]] 14:51, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

:Not to mention that there's not a lot of air within a few billion miles of earth, so the dispersion will be much lower for all but the last 100-ish miles, AFAIK.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.142|172.68.54.142]] 20:12, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

::Also, while Jupiter has {{w|Great Red Spot|VERY gigantic storms}}, they are still too small to see the lightning from them from Earth. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:17, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Do you really need to know the spectrum of the flash? If we assume that a flash contains UV and X-ray radiation and that the visible light is generated at the same time as the UV or X-ray radiation then you only need to know the refractive index of light/UV/X-ray in air under the same temperature conditions and not the exact spectrum. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]])

:I initially made the mistake of thinking this referred to time difference between visible and UV/X-ray, but it specifically says "brightness." If you want to compare the brightness at a distance to the brightness at the source you'll need to know the brightness at the source, i.e. the spectrum of the flash itself. With this technique you don't need to know the dispersion "only" the relative attenuation, but I suspect that would be a more error-prone measurement.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.142|172.68.54.142]] 18:54, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

I understand the joke Randall was going for, but have a problem with the wording. "Count the number of seconds" won't work for fractions of anything. "Measure" would work, but spoils the gag a bit. Counting numbers are integers; counting the seconds between the visible and radio frequency flashes will give you zero. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.24|172.69.71.24]] 17:00, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

:You're certainly correct, but the joke works (for me at least) by its comparison to the standard rule of counting seconds, and humans are not generally precise enough to resolve better than one second. By keeping Megan's wording as close to the customary rule as possible I think it optimizes the humor. That "Billion" at the end is the whole joke for me, the replacement of "sound" with "radio wave" can be glossed-over on first reading, until you get to the unexpected extra 9 orders of magnitude in the conversion.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.142|172.68.54.142]] 18:54, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

::Just realized I also glossed-over the replacement of "divide" with "multiply." The brain is a funny thing.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.142|172.68.54.142]] 20:07, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Do these account for the air pressure variability common in most thunderstorms?

I think explanation and transcript are pretty complete now. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.112|172.68.51.112]] 20:58, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

:There is the additional problem that a flash is no instantaneous, but progresses at a fraction of the speed of light. Who says that radio waves and light at different wavelenghts or xrays have their maximum at the same moment? ;-) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.59|162.158.91.59]] 08:05, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

:: I added a few words about the problem that a flash is not instantaneous and removed the 'incomplete' tag. Hope that's OK. [[User:Chrisahn|Chrisahn]] ([[User talk:Chrisahn|talk]]) 19:41, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

Here's a variation of the calculation above that simplifies numeric evaluation:

The {{w|refractive index}} is defined as <math>n=\frac{c}{v}</math>, so <math>v=\frac{c}{n}</math> and thus <math>t=\frac{s}{v}=\frac{s\,n}{c}</math>.

<math>t_1=\frac{s\,n_1}{c}</math>

<math>t_2=\frac{s\,n_2}{c}</math>

Subtract:

<math>t_1-t_2=\Delta t=\frac{s\,n_1}{c}-\frac{s\,n_2}{c}=s\frac{n_1-n_2}{c}=s\frac{\Delta n}{c}</math>

Therefore

<math>s=\Delta t\frac{c}{\Delta n}</math>

and the factor we want to calculate is

<math>\frac{c}{\Delta n}</math>

With the numbers given in the sources in the main text:

<math>n_1=1.000315</math>

<math>n_2=1.000277</math>

<math>\Delta n=n_1-n_2=0.000038</math>

For kilometers: <math>\frac{c}{\Delta n}\approx\frac{300,000\,km/s}{0.000038}\approx7.9\cdot10^9\,km/s</math>

For miles: <math>\frac{c}{\Delta n}\approx\frac{186,000\,mi/s}{0.000038}\approx4.9\cdot10^9\,mi/s</math>

[[User:Chrisahn|Chrisahn]] ([[User talk:Chrisahn|talk]]) 18:28, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

:Nice one. I didn't think to use the refractive indicies directly. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.118|172.68.51.118]] 22:22, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

== Assumptions on the medium properties sound? ==

Refractive index of *dry* air might be pretty close to 1 for both light and RF EM waves, but:

Let's assume that the air is humid, if not even full of water drops. After all, lightning.

Let's further assume that an air/water mixture or solution has electromagnetic properties between these two materials.

In water, refractive index for light is about <math>n_{\text{water, optical}}=1.33 n_{\text{air, optical}}</math>, (as easily demonstrated by the optical refractive effects); for RF, we typically use values of <math>\frac{n_{\text{water, RF}}^2}{\mu_r}=\epsilon\approx 80</math>. So, <math>n_{\text{water, RF}}\approx \sqrt{80}n_{\text{air, RF}}</math>.

Let's assume a 10⁻³ "EM-effective" water content in the comic air.

That would lead to <math>\frac{v_{\text{opt.}}}{v_{\text{RF}}} = \frac{\frac34}{\sqrt{80}^{-1}}= \frac34\sqrt{80}=6.7</math>.

:While the humidity (amount of water vapor) is certainly higher during the rain, I don't think that would count as a proper "water-air mixture". Wikipedia says that "Violent rain" is above 5 cm/h. If you divide it by 3600 (to get cm/s), and then imagine stretching that all the way to the cloud, you'll find out there's not that much water at given moment in the air. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.112|172.68.51.112]] 19:12, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

::Great point. To finish the calculation let's use a typical terminal velocity for a large raindrop (it's a big storm, I'm sure) of 9m/s. 0.05 m/hr / 3600 s/hr / 9 m/s = 0.00015% water by volume. Sure seems like more than that when I have to drive through it! Then it seems more like [http://what-if.xkcd.com/12/].[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.142|172.68.54.142]] 20:32, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

<code>we can't detect radiation outside the visible spectrum without very specialized instruments</code> Something that I think was overlooked in the explanation is that while humans can't *directly* sense radio waves, there are devices called "radios" which at one point in time were fairly commonly owned by humans, whose whole purpose is to detect encoded radio waves and convert them into sounds which humans can sense. I.e. you hear static during an electrical storm. So you could listen for the static and compare that to the flash... if you were fast enough. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.64|172.68.54.64]] 14:22, 3 August 2018 (UTC) (newbie)

Talk:2022: Sports Champions

2018-07-20T17:12:59Z

172.68.54.76:

Since Kate Dopingscandal has a bike, it seems to me she's actually likely a direct reference to Lance Armstrong. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:46, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
:Yeah, that's why I included him as an example. Feel free to clarify if you want, of course.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.68|162.158.155.68]] 06:09, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
He should have listed, in the sport of eXtreme Software Engineering, the dominance of Little Bobby Tables in the late 2020's. ----
Would Jebediah be a reference to Kerbal Space Program? Things tend to go disaterously in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.160|108.162.210.160]] 12:54, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

It's worth noting that the all-star right fielder for the Boston Red Sox, who are currently in first place in the MLB, is named Markus Lynn "Mookie" Betts, with the initials "MLB." Aside from the fact that he's already won several divisional titles with his team, there's a good chance he'll soon be on a world series winning team as well, perhaps to become the next high-profile example. (Full disclosure: I'm a huge Red Sox fan) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.22|172.68.54.22]] 13:47, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Art Ball (1890’s)
Full name Arthur Ball
Born April , 1872, Madison, Indiana
Died December 26, 1915, Chicago, Illinois
Buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois
First MLB Game: August 1, 1894; Final MLB Game: October 15, 1898
Bat: Unknown Throw: Right Weight: 168

Talk:1936: Desert Golfing

2018-01-01T05:46:38Z

172.68.54.76: Desert golf

FIRST
05:11, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Desert golf! It's an actual event! From the top of Socorro Peak it's 3 miles and 2500 vertical feet to the hole.
It's the Elfego Baca Golf Shootout in New Mexico.

[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 05:46, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1929: Argument Timing

2017-12-19T04:14:06Z

172.68.54.76:

In addition to the many arguments that might occur through early morning or late night texting, it is also possible that a lot of arguments occur at those times because the facebook and texting activities at those hours interfere with normal healthy life activity and start with one's partner saying something like, "put the phone away and go to sleep". [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 16:54, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Hopefully someone more talented in maths can calculate if the integrals are identical 🤔 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.21|162.158.93.21]] 16:56, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

The graph doesn't say if the probability is per unit time (eg per day), per friendship or per failed friendship. Only in the last case would the integral be 1. For the others you might expect the total probability to be higher now than it was, because it's so much easier.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.161|141.101.104.161]] 22:12, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Gonna be honest, expected a Net Neutrality comic. [[User:DPS2004|DPS2004'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:DPS2004|talk]]) 17:04, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

I would expect the integral under the red line to be much higher - Facebook and like have cheapened the meaning of friendship to the point I don't even KNOW a lot of my so called friends[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.64|162.158.126.64]] 00:30, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

And this is why I don't use Facebook. ----

A non-zero value after going to sleep doesn't necessarily imply sleep-typing. It could be that he's sending messages just before going to sleep, which then aren't being received by the other party until later.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 08:44, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

To react on the "sleep typing" part, and the "receive during the night"/"read while the other is asleep" argument. I think the comic rather highlights the fact a lot of people keep typing on their phones while in bed, or start the day by typing a bit before getting up, while in both cases being "perfectly" awake. This might even be a moment of very strong activity as there is nothing else to do - unlike during lunch breaks or work. Additionally, since more and more people start typing during their pauses, they diminish the chances of having an argument in direct conversation. likewise they don't type so much strong stuff while having others around, in order to remain sort of social. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.147|172.69.54.147]] 17:09, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

I like that the timeline ends after he goes to bed, as it should be (and not at midnight, like so many stupid calendar apps do). --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 04:14, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

1930: Calendar Facts

2017-12-19T04:04:47Z

172.68.54.76: /* Examples of true complete statements */

{{comic
| number = 1930
| date = December 18, 2017
| title = Calendar Facts
| image = calendar_facts.png
| titletext = While it may seem like trivia, it (causes huge headaches for software developers / is taken advantage of by high-speed traders / triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout / has to be corrected for by GPS satellites / is now recognized as a major cause of World War I).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There seem to be some possible correct statements, which should be recognized and added as part of the explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Randall]] presents what appears to be a generator of 156,000 facts [20 x 13 x (8 + 6 x 7) x 12], about calendars, most of which are false or have little meaning{{Citation needed}}. The facts are seeded by a mishmash of common tidbits about the time of year.

The formula for each generated fact goes as follows: "Did you know that '''[a recurring event]''' '''[occurs in an unusual manner]''' because of '''[a phenomenon or natural property]'''? Apparently '''[wild card statement]'''."

This is the fifth time that Randall has referred to the phenomenon of a [[:Category:Supermoon|Supermoon]], which he typically makes fun of, most prominent in [[1394: Superm*n]].

The title text continues the chart with an inside information of what this tiny trivia actually have of real life consequences.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable"
! Entry
! What it is
! Relation to other entries
|-
! colspan="3" | Recurring Events
|-
| The [Fall/Spring] Equinox
| The time of year at which the apparent position of the overhead sun passes the equator. During the equinox, the time that the Sun is above the horizon is 12 hours across the globe.
| Before the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, the equinoxes fell on earlier and earlier dates as the centuries went by, due to the Julian calendar year being 365.25 days on average compared to the tropical Earth year of 365.2422 days. Pope Gregory's decision to remove the leap days on years that were multiples of 100 but not 400 corrected the average length of the calendar year to 365.2425 days.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] Solstice
| The time of year when the apparent position of the overhead sun reaches its most extreme latitude. During the Winter and Summer solstices the days are the shortest in the Northern and Southern hemisphere, respectively.
| Similar to the equinoxes, the solstices were also falling on earlier dates every year before the Gregorian Calendar.
|-
| The [Winter/Summer] Olympics
| The Olympic Games occur during the summer and the winter, alternating between the two seasons every two years.
| The Olympic Games do not have any set dates, and seem to only be included humorously as something else that alternates between occurring during the summer and winter.
|-
|Daylight [saving/savings] time
| Daylight saving time, commonly referred to as daylight savings time, is the practice of setting clocks ahead by one hour during the summer months of the year.
| Daylight saving time will push the time of certain events such as sunrise and sunset past their "natural" times. For example, solar noon will occur around 1:00 PM instead of 12:00 noon when daylight saving time is active, making it the "wrong" time.
|-
| Easter
| Easter is a holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is defined as the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This complicated formula has a long tradition behind it, known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus Computus].
| When Pope Gregory decided to change the calendar in 1582, it was because the spring equinox was putting Easter on unexpectedly early dates.
|-
| Toyota Truck Month
| Toyota offers a discount for Tacoma trucks one month a year. Mainly notable because radio and television ads hype this discount up as "Toyota Truck Month".
|
|-
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Week Shark Week]
| Every year, the Discovery channel dedicates a week during the summer to programming featuring or about sharks.
|
|-
! colspan="3" | Unusual manners in which the events occur
|-
| happens [earlier/later/at the wrong time] every year
| colspan="2" | The solstices and equinoxes happened earlier every year ''before'' the decree by Pope Gregory in 1582. The earliest sunrise happens one hour later than it "should" happen due to daylight saving time having turned the clocks forward one hour.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [sun/moon]
| colspan="2" | The Sun and Moon are generally what calendars are based on. If something were to drift out of sync, some corrective mechanism would have to be put in to put it back. This is the motivation behind leap years, leap months (in countries with lunisolar calendars) and leap seconds.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [zodiac]
| colspan="2" | The dates on which the Sun crosses the constellations in the traditional zodiac has shifted in the past centuries due to the precession of the Earth's axis. In the period of time traditionally known as Aries (March 21-April 20), for example, the Sun actually points to Pisces instead.
|-
| drifts out of sync with the [Gregorian/Mayan/lunar/iPhone] calendar
| colspan="2" |
*The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with a mean calendar year length of 365.2425 days.
*The Mayan calendar is based on two cycles or counts, with a 260-day count combined with a 365-day "vague" solar year.
*A lunar calendar is based on Moon's phases, with each lunation being approximately 29.5 days, and a lunar year lasting roughly 354 days. An example of a lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar.
*The iPhone calendar is listed humorously due to its data synchronization issues.
|-
! colspan="3" | Phenomena or political decisions
|-
| time zone legislation in [Indiana/Arizona/Russia]
| Some states or provinces have time zone legislation that sets the standard time to something other than what the natural longitude of that location would suggest.
|
* The state of Arizona generally does not observe daylight saving time, keeping their clocks on UTC-7:00 Mountain Standard Time year round. However, the Navajo nation inside Arizona does observe it, causing the two regions to have different times in the summer and the same time in the winter.
* Time zones in Russia are all one hour ahead of what their longitude would suggest, which puts them in a "permanent" state of daylight saving time. (For example, St. Petersburg is 30°E, which means that its natural time zone is UTC+2:00, but its time zone is actually UTC+3:00.) Since 1981 until 2011 Russia used to have the daylight saving time on top of it as well. The other changes include the abolishment of the one-hour shift in 1991 and returning it back in 1992, increasing it to two hours in 2011 and restoring back to one hour in 2014.
* Indiana has a complicated history with daylight saving time, likely related to the state being split between two Time Zones. (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Indiana Time in Indiana])
|-
| a decree by the Pope in the 1500s
| In 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar we use today, to replace the Julian Calendar. The calendar applied retroactively to the birth of Jesus Christ, which means that they had to skip 10 days, going straight from October 4 to October 15, 1582, during the switchover.
| The introduction of the Gregorian calendar brought Easter and the dates that months started back in sync with what they were in the 3rd century AD.
|-
| the [precession] of
| The Earth's axis is slowly changing position, in a phenomenon called the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession precession of the equinoxes].
| The precession of the equinoxes causes the seasons to occur about 20 minutes earlier than would be expected with the Earth's position relative to the stars, which could be construed as the equinox happening "later every year" if you use the stars as your frame of reference.
|-
| the [libration] of
| The Moon is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking tidally locked] to its orbit around the Earth, which means that the same side of it tends to face the Earth at any given point in time. However, there are slight variations in the angle over the course of a month, which are known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration libration].
| The libration of the Moon does not affect anything else in the chart, and seems only be included humorously as another example of a celestial phenomenon.
|-
| the [nutation] of
| Besides precession, there is also a smaller wobbling effect called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_nutation nutation].
|
|-
| the [libation] of
| A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libation libation] is a ritual offering of liquid to a deity by pouring it onto the ground or into something that collects it.
| This entry seems to have been included simply as a humorous misspelling of the word "libration".
|-
| the [eccentricity] of
| The Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical. It travels faster when it's closer to the Sun and slower when farther away.
| The Earth's eccentric orbit causes the equinoxes and solstices to occur at irregular intervals. For example, summer in the northern hemisphere lasted 93 days in 2017, while fall only lasted 90 days.
|-
| the [obliquity] of
| The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic is also known as its obliquity.
|
|-
| the [Moon]
| The Moon is the primary satellite of the Earth.
|
|-
| the [Sun]
| The Sun is the star that the Earth orbits around.
| The Sun is the basis for many timekeeping events, such as the day and year{{Citation needed}}.
|-
| the [Earth's axis]
| The Earth's axis of rotation defines the North and South Pole as well as the lines of latitude.
|
|-
| the [Equator]
| The Equator is the line on the Earth's surface which is equidistant from both poles of the Earth's axis.
|
|-
| the [Prime Meridian]
| The Prime Meridian is the line that starts at the North Pole, runs through the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Observatory,_Greenwich Greenwich Royal Observatory] in London, and ends at the South Pole. It is the basis for longitude when calculating coordinates for positions on the surface of the Earth.
| The Prime Meridian (and in particular the Greenwich Observatory) gives us Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the basis for UTC and the time zone system.
|-
| the [International Date Line]
| The International Date Line is a line on the opposite side of the Earth as the Prime Meridian that separates regions that use time set behind UTC versus regions that are set ahead of UTC. It has many irregularities due to political changes that put certain countries or islands on either side of the divide contrary to their natural longitude.
| The irregular shape of the International Date Line means that certain regions of the Pacific Ocean (such as Kiribati) are more than 24 hours ahead of some other regions (such as Baker Island and American Samoa), which may cause problems with timekeeping.
|-
| the [Mason-Dixon Line]
| The Mason-Dixon line is a line delineating a portion of the border between Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
| The Mason-Dixon line is included as a humorous example as another imaginary geographic line.
|-
| magnetic field reversal
| The Earth's magnetic field has been reversed several times in its geologic history, so that what we would currently call the "magnetic North Pole" was actually the magnetic South Pole about 780,000 years ago, before the most recent reversal.
|
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Benjamin Franklin]
| Benjamin Franklin wrote [http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html a letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784] in which he advised them to rise with the sun in order to save candlelight, after he observed that the Parisiens were getting up at the same time by the clock and burning a lot of candles in the winter as a result.
| Benjamin Franklin is often touted as "the father of daylight saving time", despite him never actually proposing to alter the clocks.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [Isaac Newton]
| Apparently a reference to how Newton divided the colour spectrum into the now-familiar seven colours of the rainbow, on a somewhat arbitrary basis.
| This is one of those standard bits of trivia of the kind the chart alludes to. Although it has nothing to do with time-keeping, Newton is the sort of person who seems like he should have made decisions like this.
|-
| an arbitrary decision by [FDR]
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt set all time zones one hour ahead year-round during World War II. The law was repealed after the war ended.
| Setting the time permanently one hour ahead would make everything happen at the "wrong" time celestially.
|-
! colspan="3" | Consequences
|-
| It causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
| colspan="2" | The week following daylight saving time, car accidents increase by about 5-7%<ref>http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/end-of-daylight-saving-time-2015-6-eye-opening-facts-1.3296353</ref>.
|-
| That's why we have leap seconds.
| colspan="2" | Leap seconds occur because the time required for one rotation of the Earth is actually slightly longer than the 86,400 seconds in a standard UTC day. The Earth's rotation is slowing down by about 2 × 10<sup>-5</sup> seconds every year due to tidal friction caused by the Moon's gravity; however, this is not one of the possible entries in the list of phenomena.
|-
! colspan="3" | Title Text
|-
| causes huge headaches for software developers
| colspan="2" | Trying to support time zones correctly for all dates present and historic is a mishmash of different regional laws, time zones, and DST changes. The headache is best exemplified in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY this video] by Tom Scott.
|-
| is taken advantage of by high-speed traders
| colspan="2" | A leap second must be taken into account by trading software, and may cause bugs if not accounted properly. Because leap seconds happen at midnight UTC, it might happen in regular trading hours for somebody living in Seattle, where the time zone is UTC-08:00. Somehow, a high-frequency trader may try to take advantage of any bugs in the software if they are not built to handle this particular case. This scenario is relatively unlikely because the market software can keep its own "market-official time" and synchronize with the correct time while the market is closed.
|-
| triggered the 2003 Northeast Blackout
| colspan="2" | The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 Northeast blackout of 2003] was caused by a race condition in the energy management software at a power plant in Ohio. Race conditions can theoretically be caused by mismatched timestamps.
|-
| has to be corrected for by GPS satellites
| colspan="2" | Because GPS satellites are at a higher altitude than surface vehicles, their clocks run faster than clocks on the surface due to general relativity. Also, their clocks are not updated for leap seconds. Both these things mean that GPS satellites have a different timekeeping standard than clocks on the ground which are generally synchronized to Greenwich solar time.
|-
| is now recognized as a major cause of World War I.
| colspan="2" | Daylight saving time was first implemented in World War I as a fuel-saving measure. Randall seems to be humorously implying that World War I was started in order to implement these fuel-saving measures during peacetime as well.
|-
|}

<references />

==Examples of true complete statements==

# Did you know that '''the spring equinox''' '''drifts out of sync with the zodiac''' because of '''the precession of the Earth's axis'''? Apparently '''it was even more extreme during the Ice Age'''.
# Did you know that '''daylight saving time''' '''might happen twice this year''' because of '''zone regulation in Russia'''? Apparently '''there's a proposal to fix it, but it actually makes things worse'''. (True in Russia in 1981{{Citation needed}})

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

<big>-Calendar Facts-</big>

[Shown below is a branching flow chart of sorts that begins at the phrase "Did you know that", then flows through various paths to build up a sentence. (Note that the "→" arrow symbol is used below to indicate a new branch with no intermediate text from a previous branch.)]

* Did you know that:
** the ( Fall | Spring ) Equinox
** the ( Winter | Summer ) ( Solstice | Olympics )
** the ( Earliest | Latest ) ( Sunrise | Sunset )
** Daylight ( Saving | Savings ) Time
** Leap ( Day | Year )
** Easter
** the ( Harvest | Super | Blood ) Moon
** Toyota Truck Month
** Shark Week
* →
** happens ( earlier | later | at the wrong time ) every year
** drifts out of sync with the
*** Sun
*** Moon
*** Zodiac
*** ( Gregorian | Mayan | Lunar | iPhone ) Calendar
*** atomic clock in Colorado
** might ( not happen | happen twice ) this year
* because of
** time zone legislation in ( Indiana | Arizona | Russia )
** a decree by the pope in the 1500s
** ( precession | libration | nutation | libation | eccentricity | obliquity ) of the
*** Moon
*** Sun
*** Earth's axis
*** equator
*** prime meridian
*** ( international date | mason-dixon ) line
** magnetic field reversal
** an arbitrary decision by ( Benjamin Franklin | Isaac Newton | FDR )
* ?
* Apparently
** it causes a predictable increase in car accidents.
** that's why we have leap seconds.
** scientists are really worried.
** it was even more extreme during the
*** Bronze Age.
*** Ice Age.
*** Cretaceous.
*** 1990s.
** there's a proposal to fix it, but it
*** will never happen.
*** actually makes things worse.
*** is stalled in congress.
*** might be unconstitutional.
** it's getting worse and no one knows why.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Supermoon]]

Talk:1913: A ï¿½

2017-11-08T19:08:25Z

172.68.54.76:

"no update can never" is logically equivalent to "any update can". Not sure if this is intentional. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.60|162.158.106.60]] 16:49, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: Isn't it logically equivalent to "any update can ''sometimes''"? Linguistically, of course, it can be equivalent either to this, or to "no update can".[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 16:59, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: Or did Randall mean to type "no update can ever take this away" which makes more sense to me? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 19:08, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Is this a comment on all those moral panics about 'the youth of today can't read or write because they're only learning to speak in emojis'? And/or about developers using 'undocumented features' in their applications, so that when they're fixed it breaks those applications?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 16:55, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

More like on how Randall appears to have strange habits. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.52|172.68.141.52]] 16:59, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Hopefully somebody will make a full tutorial on how to accomplish the title text thing.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.241|162.158.89.241]] 19:03, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1913: A ï¿½

2017-11-08T19:05:23Z

172.68.54.76:

"no update can never" is logically equivalent to "any update can". Not sure if this is intentional. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.60|162.158.106.60]] 16:49, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: Isn't it logically equivalent to "any update can ''sometimes''"? Linguistically, of course, it can be equivalent either to this, or to "no update can".[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 16:59, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: Or did Randall mean to type "no update can ever take this away" which makes more sense to me?

Is this a comment on all those moral panics about 'the youth of today can't read or write because they're only learning to speak in emojis'? And/or about developers using 'undocumented features' in their applications, so that when they're fixed it breaks those applications?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 16:55, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

More like on how Randall appears to have strange habits. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.52|172.68.141.52]] 16:59, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Hopefully somebody will make a full tutorial on how to accomplish the title text thing.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.241|162.158.89.241]] 19:03, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1883: Supervillain Plan

2017-08-31T03:00:06Z

172.68.54.76:

California is UTC-8 during the winter, but UTC-7 during the summer. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 15:16, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
:I've clarified this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:13, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

For some reason, I can't help but to think of this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY Tom Scott] video. I guess it represents well the feeling programers must have when talking about time zones. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.100|162.158.126.100]] 16:49, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

Is it at all clear that Cueball and Megan are "henchmen"? I assumed they were captured heros that were to be put to death, but first the supervillain was confessing his evil plan to them, ala {{tvtropes|EvilGloating}}. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 18:20, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
:I think their purely technical concerns would suggest they don't object to the plan itself, they just want to make sure it's as painless for them as possible [[User:Charith|Charith]] ([[User talk:Charith|talk]]) 19:38, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

Also a nice one for programmers, when governments suddenly decide to change the rules: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34631326 --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.177|141.101.69.177]] 20:07, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

:About arizona, [https://www.timeanddate.com/time/us/arizona-no-dst.html the article on timeanddate.com] might be a better explanation. (The current link is [https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2012-11-12/daylight-saving-donut-arizona-ken-jennings-maphead]). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.226.58|172.68.226.58]] 20:33, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

Fun fact: this technology can also be used by the good guys to fight the evil. We could move the tectonic plates around to precisely control Earth's moment of inertia, eliminating the need for leap seconds! --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 03:00, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

1809: xkcd Phone 5

2017-03-15T12:58:40Z

172.68.54.76: /* Table of features */

{{comic
| number = 1809
| date = March 10, 2017
| title = xkcd Phone 5
| image = xkcd_phone_5.png
| titletext = The phone will be collected by the toll operators and mailed back to you within 4-6 weeks.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Seems almost complete now!}}
This is the fifth entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], and once again, the comic plays with many standard tech buzzwords and horribly misuses all of them, to create a phone that sounds impressive but self-evidently isn't to even the most ignorant customer. The previous comic in the series [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]] was released almost 8 months before this one.

The slogan beneath the phone, "We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers", is a reference to inconsistent product numbering, such as {{w|Samsung}} releasing the {{w|Note 7}} after the {{w|Note 5}}, likely in an attempt to catch up to the numbering of either the {{w|iPhone}} or {{w|Galaxy S}} series, both of which were already at 7. Similarly, there was also no official ''iPhone 2''. But there is an [[xkcd Phone 2]] available. The trademark sign behind the word "numbers" probably indicates a reference to the {{w|Numbers (spreadsheet)|Apple spreadsheet app}} with the same name.

This phone seems to have a curved display. But the edges are curved down and not up, as they are on other curved phones.

The title text that says that the phone will be returned to you by the toll operators is a reference to E-ZPass partnership feature; see explanation in the table regarding that feature.

===Table of features===

; Hook shot

: In ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda}}'' the [http://zelda.gamepedia.com/Hookshot Hookshot] is a recurring weapon/tool. It is a machine consisting of a chain and hook. When used, the chain extends and sends the hook which is attached to it. It is used to bring items to {{w|Link (The Legend of Zelda)|Link}} or bring Link closer to a goal (''Link'' is the name shared by the main protagonists, each possessing the Spirit of the Hero). Likely a reference to new video game ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild}}'', which was released a week prior to this comic. In the comic the hook shot is shown as a small add on to the phones top.

; Bluetooth speaker

: {{w|Bluetooth}} speakers are often used to play audio from a smartphone wirelessly, usually with more volume and better quality than the phone's small built-in speaker can provide. Embedding a bluetooth speaker into the phone would allow the phone to play audio from outside sources through its built-in speaker, which could be useful if no better speakers were available but would generally be avoided given the previously noted limitations of phone speakers. This is perhaps a jab at the current trend of playing music or Internet content audibly in public through the tiny, tinny speaker embedded in most phones. The Bluetooth speaker is located in the normal place for a phone's speaker.

; Stained-glass display

: {{w|Stained glass}} is colored glass, traditionally used for decorative windows in buildings most often churches. It is generally much thicker and because of the color much less transparent, especially for some colors, than the glass types normally used for touch-screens, making the phone difficult to use as it would remove some of the colors shown on the screen below the glass. A typical feature noticed about the glass for real phones would be its strength, as in work phones for construction workers.

; Gallium chassis remains solid up to 85°F

: Many high-end electronic devices have chassis made of alloys of light metals such as {{w|magnesium}} or {{w|titanium}} rather than {{w|steel}} or {{w|plastic}}. Besides being lightweight and of superior quality and durability than ordinary sheet steel or cheap plastic, these are often perceived as bragging points by the users, boasting about 'rare' metal chassis.

: {{w|Gallium}}, however, is an uncommon metal with a very low melting point of 85 °F (or 29.8 °C), making it one of only four pure metals (along with {{w|Mercury (element)|mercury}}, {{w|rubidium}} and {{w|caesium}}) that can be liquid around room temperature. Because the melting point is lower than the average {{w|human body temperature}} of 98.6 °F (37 °C) a gallium smartphone chassis would melt in the user's bare hand, assuming it hadn't already done so due to heat produced by its internal components. Even if the electronics had good heat management, cooling in smartphones is normally accomplished by distributing heat to the case, not exhausting it.

: A similar real advertisement regarding the chassis would be that it was {{w|waterproof}} down to some depth (say 85 feet or 25 meters). See also the feature below regarding this.

; Soundproof

: A {{w|Soundproof}} chassis could result in the unwanted effect that the speakers and microphone may not work as no sound may enter or leave the phones chassis. A more likely feature would be waterproof see above point.

; Can feel pain

: Possibly a reference to {{w|intelligent personal assistant|intelligent personal assistants}} like {{w|Siri}}, {{w|Cortana (software)|Cortana}} or {{w|Amazon Alexa|Alexa}} gaining consciousness (see [[1807: Listening]] for the latter). Such {{w|artificial intelligence}} references is a [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|recurring subject]] on xkcd.

: This could mean that either the phone feels pain for damages inflicted upon it or it feels the user's pain level (regarding either physical and/or emotional pain). The meaning would quickly become apparent for the user if the chassis melts on contact with exposed skin leaving the phone with "open wounds".

: This could be seen as a similar feature of the first xkcd phone, [[1363: xkcd Phone]], where the title text notices (among many other things) that the ''phone will drown'' if submerged in water. A similar thing is also mentioned for [[1549: XKCD Phone 3]]. That phone is ''waterproof but can drown''. Since this phone is soundproof but not waterproof, per the two points above, the drowning issue may still be relevant. The second phone, [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]], ''cries when lost'' a similar display of emotions/feelings. That phone also mentions waterproofing, but here it is only the interior, and although it is washable, it is only a one-time feature (like the fold-ability of this one; see two points below). Finally it also [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]] mentions that it is waterproof, but not between 30-50 m down...

; E-ZPass partnership: Phone can be dropped into coin basket to pay tolls

: {{w|E-ZPass}} is an electronic toll collection system. The vehicle drives through the toll lane without stopping, and sensors detect the pass and deduct the appropriate amount from the user's account. The phone's integration with E-ZPass is absurd since the phone needs to be dropped into a coin basket to work. Not only would you have to stop in order to throw the phone into the coin basket, which defies the idea of E-ZPass, but you would also lose your phone.

: In the '''title text''', however, it says that the phone will be retrieved by the toll operators and returned by mail within 4–6 weeks. So this slightly mitigates the problem of losing the phone, but there would be about a month where the phone could not be used.

; Foldable (once)

: Almost anything long and slim can be "folded" by simply snapping it in half. But as it says, this can only be done once, because the phone cannot be unsnapped and will not work any more once it has been folded.

: This is a reference to the [http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-foldable-smartphone-news/ rumors of the new Samsung Galaxy X] that is really foldable like a piece of rubber. See [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fro_CNjxYwM this video].

: It could also refer to the fact that a version of iPhone had a weak spot that lead it to easily folding and breaking. And it could be a reference to {{w|Flip (form)|flip phones}}.

; Screen transfers images to skin

: Transferring images to the skin sounds like either real {{w|tattoos}} or the water tattoos used by children or other kinds of {{w|temporary tattoos}}. Likely it should be understood that it would be possible to transfer the image displayed on the screen to your skin, hopefully when activating the feature rather than by accident, and, preferably, also not permanently. This may also be a reference to the experimental Cicret Bracelet's ability to project images onto your arm: [http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/cicret.asp]

; Retina storage

: This is a play on the name of Apple's prized "{{w|Retina Display}}". The joke may be in reference to Apple's possession of a trademark for the word "retina" in regards to computer equipment, which is made to seem absurd by the unusual use. It is not made clear whose retinas are meant to be stored. It could also be a reference to retinally implanted computers. The retina storage is a slot at the bottom of the phone right of the charging port.

; Background task automatically catches and eats Pokémon

: A reference to {{w|Pokémon Go}}, an augmented reality game where the goal is to go to specific locations and play a mini-game in order to catch virtual creatures called {{w|Pokémon}} (see [[1705: Pokémon Go]]). This phone apparently catches Pokémon automatically, similar to the external device {{w|Pokémon_Go#Pok.C3.A9mon_Go_Plus|Pokémon Go Plus}}. However, this feature also eats them, which is something that is not part of the game and wouldn't be desirable, as it is about collection and storing as many different Pokémon as possible. It could be a coincidence, but it seems funny that the label for this background feature is the only one that points at the back of the phone.

; Supercuts partnership: Trims hair fed into charging port

: {{w|Supercuts}} is an American hair salon chain that provides hair cuts and styling. The implication here is that the user can get a haircut by Supercuts by sticking hair into the charging slot. This is not only impractical and would only work for hair long enough to be fed into the port, but it would most likely result in a bad haircut. Also the slot would soon be filled with hair. The charging slot is otherwise placed in the normal spot and looks like a regular charging port.

: This feature could actually be quite dangerous if the hair is not removed from the charging slot afterwards because the hair could melt or catch fire inside the phone.

; Squelch knob

: {{w|Squelch}} is a feature of two-way radios (CB, ham, etc) which quiets background noise when no signal is present. For a smartphone, perhaps this knob could control the "signal-to-noise" ratio of your Facebook feed or other social media platforms. It takes the place of the headphone jack, replacing the normal hole with a small knob.

; IBM buckling-spring Home button

: {{w|IBM}} {{w|Buckling spring|buckling-spring}} keyboards are favorites of geeks for the feeling of quality and auditory feedback (keys click loudly when pressed) they provide. Real smartphones' home buttons, typically located exactly as in this image, provide little to no such satisfaction when pressed.

; Cot-caught merger switch

: This is a reference to the {{w|cot–caught merger}}, a linguistic change happening among English speakers, particularly in some parts of North America and the British Isles, which causes caught (previously pronounced "kawt") to be pronounced the same as cot (pronounced "kot"). The switch is clearly visible on the side of the phone. A real feature physically similar to this is the slide switch on the iPhone and iPad, allowing the user to (un)lock the orientation of the screen or to (un)mute the device.

; 60x optical zoom camera

: A powerful optical {{w|zoom lens}} is usually a desirable feature for cameras. However, as shown in the comic, it results in very bulky lens. If 60× zoom should be achieved the lens needs to be as big as shown on the backside of the phone, and the whole idea of being able to carry the smartphone easily in a pocket would be defied.

: For that reason, such lenses are never used in smartphones, although rarely some devices, like the {{w|Samsung Galaxy Camera}}, use a smaller lens with a similar design. But this is no longer a smartphone.

: This feature would seem to be a jab at the variety of add-on devices, including close-up lenses, handles, and external flashes, that are currently in use to enhance the phone's ability to function like a camera (and the {{w|selfie stick}}).

: Some phones might instead mention their {{w|digital zoom}} level instead. But that is not a popular feature among photo enthusiasts, as digital zooming gains no additional optical resolution. Users would actually be better off using the maximum optical zoom, and then enlarging their images with photo-editing software, which might offer better, but slower, algorithms (e.g. {{w|linear resampling}} versus {{w|Lanczos resampling}}). Likewise, (mobile phone) cameras are often advertised with their high number of {{w|megapixel}}s, while retaining their small {{w|image sensor size}}. As each individual sensor gets less light, it creates more {{w|image noise}}.

: Randall has made several comics about cameras before; see for instance [[1719: Superzoom]] and other comics linked via this.

: Contrast the [https://www.easy-macro.com EasyMacro] band - 4x zoom with little appreciable thickness.

: Assuming 60x is referring to the base focal length of the iPhone and that the xkcd Phone 5 has the same dimensions as the iPhone 7 Plus then in 35mm format this lens would be 30-1800mm f/0.4-f/24. This is a completely infeasible (but not physically impossible) lens in 35mm format, but similar small format lenses (albeit with more reasonable aperture ranges) do exist in mass production, for example the Nikon P900.

; LORAN navigation

: {{w|LORAN}} (Long Range Navigation) was a precursor to modern {{W|Global Positioning System|GPS}} navigation, using land-based transmitters. Once developed for sea shipping, it is accurate to about 300 meters (1,000 feet). The joke, of course, is that all modern smartphones have integrated GPS navigation which is far more accurate. Due to the much lower frequencies involved, reception of LORAN signals though is much better in areas with obstructed view of the sky. However {{w|LORAN#Commercial_use.2C_decommissioning|LORAN has been decommissioned}} more or less completely since before 2000.

: Incidentally, some receivers of the {{w|Decca Navigator System}} (which operates on a similar principle as LORAN) featured moving map displays, something we associate with modern GPS devices.

; 28-factor authentication

: An {{w|Authentication#Factors and identity|authentication factor}} is a way of proving one's identity. There are [http://www.nikacp.com/images/10.1.1.200.3888.pdf 3 generally recognized forms]: something you know, something you have, and something you are. It can be a password, a fingerprint, a physical key, etc.... Secure applications may include two or more factors; a common example is the "PIN and chip" system used with credit cards, where you need both the card and secret code to authorize a transaction. Many online services now provide two-factor authentication to protect against password-based attacks. 28-factor authentication would likely be very secure in theory but also so impractical that it would be unusable. The user will need to prove their identity 28 different ways which would be so time consuming that would outweigh the convenience of a smart phone.

==Transcript==
:[An image of a smartphone with a common optical camera lens attached on its back is shown. Over the entire length the case is slightly rounded. There are several features visible as bottom like features at the top and bottom of the front as well a microphone like slit at the top. A sliding switch is visible on the side, and at the bottom there is a knob, a connector port and a small slit. Clockwise starting from the top left all the labels read:]
:Hook shot
:Bluetooth speaker
:Stained-glass display
:Gallium chassis remains solid up to 85°F
:Soundproof
:Can feel pain
:E-ZPass partnership: Phone can be dropped into coin basket to pay tolls
:Foldable (once)
:Screen transfers images to skin
:Retina storage
:Background task automatically catches and eats Pokémon
:Supercuts partnership: Trims hair fed into charging port
:Squelch knob
:IBM buckling-spring home button
:Cot-caught merger switch
:60x optical zoom camera
:''LORAN'' navigation
:28-factor authentication

:[Below the phone:]
:Introducing
:<big>The</big> <big><big>xkcd Phone 5</big></big>
:''We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers<sup>®TM</sup>''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]

657: Movie Narrative Charts

2017-03-09T16:41:40Z

172.68.54.76: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 657
| date = November 2, 2009
| title = Movie Narrative Charts
| image = movie_narrative_charts.png
| titletext = In the LotR map, up and down correspond LOOSELY to northwest and southeast respectively.
}}
*A [http://xkcd.com/657/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.

==Explanation==

These charts show movie character interactions. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical grouping of the lines indicates which characters are together at a given time.

=== {{w|Lord_of_the_Rings_film_trilogy|Lord of the Rings Trilogy}} ===
A mass of colored lines weaves back and forth across the chart, representing various characters. Sauron is represented by a red bar at the bottom contained within a huge black bar with branches, that in turn represents his army of nazgul, orcs, etc. Major locations (Moria) and plot points (the breaking of the fellowship) are marked. Gandalf, especially at the beginning, jumps all over the map in a short time. Eagles appear and then disappear a couple of times. Treebeard's line is flat except for the march to Isengard. At the end, the ship to the West drifts off into a corner. The hobbits start off in the top left with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin with Bilbo with them for a short time because of the party at the beginning. They go off on their adventure and briefly encounter Gandalf. They are then split up for a short time but meet back up at Weathertop when the Nazgul attack and they meet Aragorn (Strider at that point). They meet up with the rest of what becomes the fellowship of the ring at the council of Elrond at Rivendell. The newly formed fellowship Then must venture into the mines of Moria which is referenced in comic [https://xkcd.com/760/ #760] and comic [https://xkcd.com/1218/ #1218]. After the Balrog and the death of Boromir the fellowship splits up. Frodo and Sam take the ring and go off on their own to destroy it and sneak into Mordor with the help of Gollum. Merry and Pippin end up getting captured by the Uruk-hai however are rescued by Eomer and his army. Eomer and his army then reunite with Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn briefly while Merry and Pippin find Treebeard and flood Isengard. While Merry, Pippin and Treebeard are floodin Isengard Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas fight at Helm's Deep with Gandalf and Eomer and Theoden. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas go to wake the army of the dead while Pippin goes with Gandalf and Merry goes with the Rohirrim. All of these people rejoin for the battle of the Pelennor fields where Eowyn kills the withc king after Theoden dies along with Denethor. The orcs and men and oliphants are all destroyed and Aragorn releases the army of the dead. All the surviving members of that battle go to the Black Gate except Eowyn and Faramir. Sam and Frodo destroy the Ring, Gollum dies and everyone that is still alive is there for Aragorn's coronation. Everyone goes back to their respective homes except for Frodo, Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, and Bilbo who get on a ship to the west.

As the title text points out, most of the plot of The Lord of The Rings occurs on a rough northwest to southeast axis, with the Fellowship of the Ring traveling from the Shire near the top of chart to Modor at the bottom of the chart (and back again.) The most significant exception to the northwest-southeast axis is the area of the chart between "The Breaking of the Fellowship" and "Isengard Flooded." Helm's Deep and Isengard are southwest from the overall northwest-southeast axis of the movies.

=== {{w|Star_Wars|Star Wars (original Trilogy)}} ===
Luke, mostly accompanied by R2-D2, joins and parts from other sets of characters. There's a dotted alternative path on Jabba's line for the special edition. A dark line representing Vader, travels through the duel where he kills Obi-Wan and proceeds to the Death Star to meet with the main charcters for the first time. Vader travels to Hoth where all the characters escape and goes to Cloud City where Han is frozen. He then duels Luke before going for a long time alone and confronts Luke for a short time before taking him to the Death Star II where the climatic duel happens and he is killed. Leia at first with C-3PO is captured and placed on the Death Star before being rescued and proceeds to Hoth, Cloud City, the Sail Barge and finally to the Battle of Endor before reuniting with all the survivors. R2D2 and C-3PO are mostly together save for when Luke is attacking the Death Star and Luke's Jedi training. Luke's line swerves through most of the scenes, breaking away from the other characters during the Jedi Training, the duel on Cloud City and the duel on the Death Star II. Han and Chewie are always together as they go through all the scenes. Greedo, Lando and Boba all appear at there respictive scenes. Yoda appears about halfway through (where Luke's Jedi training is marked). All the surviving lines group up at Endor except for Vader, the Emperor, Luke, and Lando; after the climactic duel, the latter two join the rest.

=== {{w|Jurassic_Park_(film)|Jurassic Park}} ===
The human characters are in black; dinosaurs are in red. Dilophosaurus appears briefly to eat Nedry and then fades out again. the T-Rex appears at the start and swoops down on the cars and eats Gennaro. It then weaves out until the end where it eats the raptors. The three raptors are together at the beginning, but split up about halfway through. One has a dotted portion of line between "locked up" and "escapes." In the meantime, they cut off the lines of Arnold and Muldoon. Malclom, Grant, Sattler, Hammond and the kids all weave in and out of their respective scenes. The raptor lines all end when t-rex's swoops down to meet them at the end, and all the surviving humans leave together.

=== {{w|12 Angry Men (1957 film)|12 Angry Men}} ===
This is a very famous trial film that tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or acquittal of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. Only one of these angry men believe the defendant may be innocent and he argues this against the other 11, eventually convincing them that there is reasonable doubt in the case.

The lines are labeled Juror 1 through Juror 12. They are all perfectly horizontal and parallel.

The joke in the 12 Angry Men graphic is that in the movie all 12 jurors (the angry men) are in the same room for the entire duration of the movie. They never move and they all always interact with each other, hence their lines stay straight and close to each other.

This is actually not entirely true. The movie begins in the court room; a couple of times during the proceedings, a few jurors go into the washroom and have a brief discussion there; and finally, in the very last scene, two jurors have a brief exchange in front of the courthouse. In fact, this chart would actually become a useful reference to the film if each of the jury's votes sessions was shaded as battles/events, and each juror's vote shown on their line, tracking when each juror's vote switches from 'guilty' to 'not guilty'. But as far as the characters' locations, there is no need for such a narrative chart, and that is the joke.

=== {{w|Primer_(film)|Primer}} ===
The last box is a movie called Primer from 2004, which became a cult classic. It is about a group of engineers who discover a way to time travel, but only in one direction (backwards) and only at the speed of regular time (i.e. you have to stay in the time machine for one hour to move an hour back in time). Because of this, the story ends up having multiple versions of the same person existing at the same time; the plot and time-travel mechanics are notoriously hard to follow, so that it is almost impossible to figure out where each character is at one time, as the comic illustrates.
Three lines start on the left labeled Abe, Aaron, and Granger. They enter a mass of scribbling. Somewhere vaguely towards the end, three lines emerge and fade out, all labeled with question marks.
The chart for ''Primer'' is referenced in the title text of the fourth image in the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|101|Plastic Dinosaurs}}''.

These charts are a reference to the map by infographic pioneer {{w|Charles Joseph Minard}} that details the movements and losses of Napoleon's troops on his failed conquest of Russia. Napoleon's troops were represented by black, tapering streams similar to the design used for Sauron's and Saurman's troops in the LotR Chart.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Either all or only the visible text should be included here. In the latter case a second page with the full transcript should be made}}

[colors given approximately in HEX at first appearance]

These charts show movie character interactions.
The horizontal axis is time. The vertical grouping of the
lines indicate which characters are together at a given time.

=== Lord of the Rings ===

Lord of the Rings

====[Legend]====
[yellow line (fff500)] ring

[thin line, here dark green (467120)] ringbearer

[grey colored area (e9e9e9)] battle/event

[line ending with a dot, here black] death

[bar, here light brown (daccae)] army

[line, here brown (9d7929), in a bar, here light brown] character leading army

[grey line (b7bfb6)] wizards

[brown line (9d7929)] men

[blue line (4a89a8)] elves

[dark brown line (6c411b)] dwarves

[dark turquoise line, 143035] ents

[green line (4e7629)] hobbits

'''[signs and colors not explained by the legend]'''
*[line starting / ending with a little sun means appearance / disappearance]
*[dark grey line (Eagles)]

====[Entering and leaving of characters] ====

'''[Characters entering the chart on the left, from top to bottom]'''
*Merry [green line]
*Pippin [green line]
*Sam [green line]
*Frodo [green line]
*Bilbo [green line]
*Gandalf [grey line, disappearance and reappearance marked by the sun-symbol]
*Arwen [blue line]
*Elrond [blue line]
*Galadriel [blue line]
*Saruman [grey line]
*Wormtongue [brown line]
*Éomer [brown line]
*Théoden [brown on light brown bar]
*Éowyn [brown line]
*Boromir [brown line on light brown bar]
*Denethor [brown line on light brown bar]
*Faramir [brown line]
*Sauron [red line (a23939) on black bar]

'''[Characters leaving the chart on the right side, from top to bottom]'''

[The five characters leaving off the top border of the chart]

*Frodo
*Gandalf
*Bilbo
*Elrond
*Galadriel

[text next to the group of five] Ship to the West

[other characters leaving on the right side]

*Merry
*Pippin
*Sam
*Treebeard [dark turquoise line]
*Legolas [blue]
*Gimli [dark brown line]
*Éomer
*Arwen
*Aragorn [brown line]
*Éowyn
*Faramir

''' [characters starting or leaving in the middle the chart] '''
*Nazgûl [black line, emerging from the black bar of Sauron's army, disappearance and reappearance marked by the sun-symbol. Second appearance splits splitting in two branches. Both end with death.]
*Aragorn [brown line, emerging via a dotted line]
*Legolas [blue line, emerging via a dotted line]
*Gimli [dark brown line, emerging via a dotted line]
*Eagles [dark grey line (808080), emerging and vanishing twice via a dotted line (second time after splitting into two branches)]
*Uruk-Hai [black bar, two groups emerging out of Saruman's line]
*Gandalf [grey line, disappearance and reappearance marked by the sun-symbol]
*Dead [light green bar, emerging out of nothing, lead by Aragorn, disappearance marked by the sun-symbol]
*Ents [grey bar, emerging out of nothing, lead by Treebeard]
*Men&Oliphaunts [black bar, emerging out of nothing]
*Elves [light blue bar (b3cdda), emerging near the line of Galadriel]
*Gollum [dark green line, emerging via a dotted line]
*Treebeard [dark turquoise line, emerging via a dotted line]

==== [List of battles/events as displayed in the chart] ====

*Bilbo’s party [joined by] Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf [ring goes from Bilbo to Frodo]

*Gandalf imprisioned [joined by] Gandalf, Saruman, Eagles

*Weathertop [joined by] Nazgûl, Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo with the ring, Aragorn |

*Council of Elrond [including] Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo with the ring, Aragorn, Bilbo, Elrond, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Boromir

*Moria [including] Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo with the ring, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf [disappearance], Boromir

*Breaking of the Fellowship [including] Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo with the ring, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir [death], Uruk-Hai [black]

*Hobbits escape [including] Éomer, Merry, Pippin, Uruk-Hai [death]

*Helm’s Deep [including] Éomer, Gandalf, Elves [death], Uruk-Hai [death], Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Théoden

*Isengard flooded [including] Treebeard [with bar of ents-army in grey], Merry, Pippin, Saruman [death], Wormtongue [death]

*Pelennor fields [including] Aragon [with bar of Dead-army in light green (bbcbad)], Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Éomer, Éowyn, Pippin, Gandalf [with bar in light brown], Faramir, Men&Oliphaunts [death], Orcs [death], Nazgûl [death and disappearing], Théoden [death], Denethor [death]

*Black gate [including] Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Éomer, Pippin, Gandalf [with bar in light brown], Orcs [death], Eagles, Nazgûl [death] [this battle/event-area is joined with ring destroyed-area]

*Ring destroyed [including] Sam, Frodo, Gollum [death], Sauron [death], Nazgûl [death] [this battle/event-area is joined with Black Gate-area]

*Aragorn crowned king [including] Arwen, Elrond, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, Éomer [without army], Pippin, Gandalf [without army], Éomyn, Faramir, Sam, Frodo

=== Star Wars (original triology) ===

Star Wars (original triology)

====[Entering and leaving of characters] ====

'''[Characters entering the chart on the left, from top to bottom]'''

*Vader [black line]
*Leia [grey line]
*R2-D2 [blue line]
*C-3P0 [yellow line]
*Obi-Wan [grey line]
*Luke [grey line]
*Han [grey line]
*Chewie [brown line]
*Jabba [green line]

'''[Characters leaving the chart on the right side, from top to bottom]'''

*Luke
*Lando [grey line]
*Chewie
*Leia
*R2-D2
*C-3PO
*Han

''' [Characters starting or leaving not in battle/avent-areas and not on the left/right side of the chart] '''

*Greedo [green line]
*Jabba Special edition [green dotted line, marking an alternative way for Jabba that unites after a little loop with Jabba main line.]
*Yoda [green line, death also marked on the chart but not marked in an battle/event-area]
*Boa Fett [green line]
*Empperor [black]

==== [List of battles/events as displayed in the chart] ====

*Leia rescued [including] Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan, R2-D2, C-3PO

*Duel [first] [including] Vader, Obi-Wan [death]

*Death Star [including] Vader, Luke, R2-D2, Han, Chewie

*Hoth [including] Vader, Luke, Han, R2-D2, Chewie, Leia, C-3PO

*Luke's entire Jedi training [including] Yoda, Luke, R2-D2

*Han frozen [including] Boba Fett, Vader, Han, Chewie, Leia, C-3PO, Lando

*Duel [second] [including] Luke, Vader

*Sail barge [including] Luke, Chewie, Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Lando, Han, Boba Fett [death], Jabba [death]

*Endor [including] Chewie, Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Han

*Duel [third] [including] Emperor [death], Vader [death], Luke, Lando

=== Jurassic Park ===

Jurassic Park

==== [Entering and leaving of characters] ====
[all dinosaurs are represented by red, all men by black lines]
[for dinosaurs locked up, there is a donut-sign.]

'''[Characters entering the chart on the left, from top to bottom]'''

*T-Rex
*Raptors [splitting into Raptor 1, Raptor 2 and Raptor 3 later in the chart]
*Malcolm
*Grant
*Sattler
*Gennaro
*Hammond
*Muldoon
*Arnold
*Nedry

'''[Characters leaving the chart on the right side]'''

*T-Rex
*Kids [start short after the left border of the chart]
*Grant
*Sattler
*Malcolm
*Hammond

===== [Characters starting or leaving not in events/battles and not on the left/right side of the chart] =====

*Dilophosaurus [emerging by a dotted line, vanishing by a dotted line]

==== [List of events as displayed in the chart] ====

*Attack on cars [including] T-Rex, Malcolm [serious injury marked by a sign looking like a hole], Gennaro [death], Grant, Kids

*Must go faster [including] T-Rex, Malcolm, Sattler, Muldoon

*Nedry eaten [including] Dilophosaurus, Nedry [death]

*Gallimimus [including] Grant, Kids, T-Rex

*Shed [including] Raptor 3, Arnold [death]

*Clever girl [including] Raptor 1, Muldoon [death], Raptor 2

*Locked up escapes [including] Raptor 3, Sattler [This area is only grey in the point of "locked up", but a little further on the dotted line, the word "escapes" shows that the raptor 3 is free again. All over the entire comic, this is the only time that a description of "what happens" is given. All other labels are only titles, characters and locations and the note "Special edition" at Jabba / Star Wars, which is also a kind of meta-information.]

*Kitchen locked up [including] Raptor 1, Kids, Raptor 2 [marked as locked up with the donut-sign]

*Visitor Center [including] T-Rex, Raptor 1 [death], Kids, Grant, Sattler, Raptor 3 [death]

=== 12 angry men ===

12 angry men

==== [Entering and leaving of characters] ====

[All lines go parallel, start and end at the borders of the chart. There are no areas of battle/event.]

Juror 1 --------- Juror 1 ----------- Juror 1 ------------ Juror 1

Juror 2 --------- Juror 2 ----------- Juror 2 ------------ Juror 2

Juror 3 --------- Juror 3 ----------- Juror 3 ------------ Juror 3

Juror 4 --------- Juror 4 ----------- Juror 4 ------------ Juror 4

Juror 5 --------- Juror 5 ----------- Juror 5 ------------ Juror 5

Juror 6 --------- Juror 6 ----------- Juror 6 ------------ Juror 6

Juror 7 --------- Juror 7 ----------- Juror 7 ------------ Juror 7

Juror 8 --------- Juror 8 ----------- Juror 8 ------------ Juror 8

Juror 9 --------- Juror 9 ----------- Juror 9 ------------ Juror 9

Juror 10 --------- Juror 10 ----------- Juror 10 ------------ Juror 10

Juror 11 --------- Juror 11 ----------- Juror 11 ------------ Juror 11

Juror 12 --------- Juror 12 ----------- Juror 12 ------------ Juror 12

=== Primer ===

[Three characters enter the chart on the left side, all represented by black lines]
*Abe
*Aaron
*Granger
[The lines come to a giant scribble and end up with dotted lines and question marks in the right area. One cannot see which line leads to which end.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Jurassic Park]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

Talk:1794: Fire

2017-02-03T17:24:46Z

172.68.54.76:

This is probably the first time I have ZERO idea what the comic is supposed to mean... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.88|141.101.96.88]] 17:02, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Seems to be a reference to the way fire departments measure fire intensity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-alarm_fire
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.161|108.162.212.161]] 17:12, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

The joke being that because its an alarm factory its 50,000 alarms, the amount of physical alarms on site, as opposed to the alarm rating given by the fire commander [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.70|162.158.142.70]] 17:14, 3 February 2017 (UTC) MrMX

Not sure the alarms have to be functioning or "set off" to be relevant, they could just be alarms, in whatever state, that are on fire. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 17:24, 3 February 2017 (UTC)Fred