explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2152: Westerns

2019-05-20T14:18:39Z

172.68.65.24: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2152
| date = May 20, 2019
| title = Westerns
| image = westerns.png
| titletext = Sitting here idly trying to figure out how the population of the Old West in the late 1800s compares to the number of Red Dead Redemption 2 players.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 PLAYER IN THE 1800s. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

For the most part, genres of film, games and the like based on historical time periods frequently take hold after the time period is over. Over time, the time period will remain the same size while the "genre"'s lifespan will grow, eventually leading to the genre being as long as its origin. In this case, the Western genre is not equal to nor double but TRIPLE the size of the time period it is based on. While this might be taken to suggest that we have used up everything good in Westerns, it probably is more Randall looking at time passing (similar to https://xkcd.com/2074/).

The title text is in reference to the popular game ''{{w|Red Dead Redemption 2}}'', a game within the western genre. According to the United States Census of 1870, the population of the States was around 39 million, whereas ''Red Dead Redemption 2'' has sold in excess of 24 million copies.

A similar question was asked in [[what if?]] [https://what-if.xkcd.com/100/ WWII Films.]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A horizontal timeline spanning between the years 1840 and 2020. Every decade is indicated by a tick below the line, and labeled every 50 years. Two ranges are highlighted by brackets and labeled:

1862-1898: The “Wild West” era

1902-2019: Western films, books, video games, etc

Below the timeline:

It's weird to realize that the Western genre has now existed for three times longer than the period it's based on.

{{comic discussion}}

1756: I'm With Her

2019-05-08T03:19:30Z

172.68.65.24:

{{comic
| number = 1756
| date = November 7, 2016
| title = I'm With Her
| image = im_with_her.png
| titletext = We can do this.
}}
==Explanation==
In this serious, ''no joke'', comic released the day before the {{w|2016 United States presidential election}} (which was more contentious than most, due in part to many people finding both candidates unusually distasteful), [[Randall]] urged his American viewership to vote, and showed his {{w|Political endorsement|endorsement}} for {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, the {{w|US Democratic Party|Democratic}} nominee in the election. She was up against the {{w|US Republican Party|Republican}} nominee {{w|Donald Trump}}, who ended up winning. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that there were also nominees from other parties, including {{w|Green Party of the United States|Green Party}} nominee {{w|Jill Stein}}, and {{w|Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian}} nominee {{w|Gary Johnson}}. Neither hoped to garner enough votes to become president, but there was a chance {{w|spoiler candidate|they could affect the result}} in some states (no third-party candidate has ''won'' a state since {{w|United States presidential election, 1968|1968}}, and it did not occur this time either: the closest any came in 2016 was independent candidate {{w|Evan McMullin}} in Utah.)

It was the second time Randall referred to this election, the first being [[1748: Future Archaeology]] three weeks before the election, but here it was just a wish to know the result using time travel (of course he did not learn the result back then…).

The "H" with an arrow was {{w|Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016|Clinton's campaign}} logo, and '''I'm with her''' an official slogan that was widely used by her supporters, hence the title. Randall then lists tips to help you cast your vote ([[#How to help|see table below]]) suggesting a personal investment in the election. Clinton herself may be represented by [[Blondie]] sitting on top of the H looking out at the reader as the only of the 11 characters. The only type of joke in the comic is the chosen characters. Two with weapons flank the left and right side looking out ready to defend against Trump: [[Ponytail]] with a ray gun (that she also wielded in [[322: Pix Plz]] for melting computers of persons who make snide remarks at women, clearly a reference to {{w|Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations|allegations of Donald Trump's sexual harassment of women}} in general and especially to his ''grab them by the pussy'' {{w|Donald Trump and Billy Bush recording|comment}}) and [[Cueball]] with his sword (from [[303: Compiling]]). See more details in the [[#Character gallery|character gallery]] below.

This is the first time Randall has used a comic to directly support a presidential campaign, although he did [https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/28/obama/ endorse] {{w|Barack Obama}} in 2008 on his [[Blag]]. He wrote himself later that it was very controversial when he endorsed Obama, but that it was not the most [[388: Fuck Grapefruit#Controversy|controversial comic he had published]] at that time. This comic might take that prize now, given that this was one of the most discussed elections up to its time. This is particularly noteworthy outside the US—for example, some European leaders openly opposed Trump, while others supported him. There were also reports of Russian hackers attempting to influence the election.

Randall's support for Hillary Clinton may have been due in part to Donald Trump {{w|Donald Trump#Healthcare.2C education and environment|being a prominent}} {{w|climate change denier}}. Randall has published comics opposing climate change denial such as this: [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]], published less than two months before the election, as well as several other [[:Category:Climate change|comics on climate change]]. Also Trump beating Clinton made Randall's [[1313: Regex Golf|regex that matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents]] impossible to update.

All the information on the bottom half of the comic includes sites, numbers, info, etc., current as of 2016, that are intended to help US voters to vote, regardless of whom they vote for. Including this information can assist voters who don't understand the process, don't feel that it's worth it, or feel intimidated or threatened. In general, these sites and numbers were likely included to help boost voter turnout.

The title text, "We can do this", refers to Randall's desire to unite Democratic voters and elect Hillary Clinton to the White House instead of Trump. One can [https://www.lookhuman.com/design/86542-hillary-clinton-we-can-do-it/tshirt buy T-shirts] with the famed "{{w|We Can Do It!}}" logo from the Rosie the Riveter wartime poster, but with Hillary Clinton in the famed position. Both resemble the former president {{w|Barack Obama}}'s campaign slogan {{w|Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign#Slogan|Yes We Can}} and German Chancellor {{w|Angela Merkel}}'s "[https://www.dict.cc/?s=Wir+schaffen+das+%5BAngela+Merkel%5D Wir schaffen das]" (We can do this) refrain during the Syrian War refugees influx the year earlier—like Clinton, Merkel was fighting against {{w|Pegida|a populist nativist movement}} that wanted to close the country's borders.

Unfortunately for Randall, these efforts were in vain, as {{w|Donald Trump}} was elected on Tuesday, November 8. This result became a fact less than two weeks before the first ([[1761: Blame]]) of [[Sad comics|several sad comics]] that all seemed related to the election of Donald Trump. Trump was never mentioned in these directly sad comics, and it took more than two years before his full name was finally used in xkcd in [[2137: Text Entry]] in April 2019. Here it was remarked that the fact that Donald Trump was president was the weirdest thing of 2019.

===How to help===
The list of things that can help is all about getting people to vote. While Randall is likely to have wanted to boost voter turnout regardless of political leanings, it's clear from his endorsement of Clinton that he believed increased turnout would have helped her win the race. There is general evidence that certain more heavily Democratic-leaning demographics are less likely to vote, and in this election in particular, the various political issues that had been raised against Hillary (such as the {{w|Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI's}} public disclosures of its investigation into her use of a private email server) were shown to have reduced enthusiasm among Democrats. But all these issues aside, both Republicans and Democrats alike agree on encouraging everyone to vote, and Randall is likely to have agreed with that sentiment as well.

Here is Randall's list of suggestions for how to help Hillary Clinton win the election:
{|class="wikitable"
!Suggestion
!Tip
!Explanation
|-
|Vote
|[https://iwillvote.com/ iwillvote.com]
|A site to look up polling locations, ID requirements, etc.
|-
|Get a ride to the polls:
|[http://www.drive2vote.org/ drive2vote.org]
|For voters in Douglas and Sarpy County, Nebraska, who needed a ride to the polls from {{w|Warren Buffett}} or his friends.
|-
|If you're having problems voting
|[http://www.866ourvote.org/ 866-OUR-VOTE]
|Racism or other biases on the part of people running polling places is a real issue for minorities. Though it is illegal, people may lie or deny rights to would-be-voters who they believe will not vote for the candidate they agree with. In some instances, voters may require backup from someone with legal understanding to get to vote, which is a service this phone number provides. Since Donald Trump has suggested that unofficial {{w|poll watchers}} should patrol voting stations—which has been described as potential [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/05/election-day-violence-donald-trump-poll-watchers voter intimidation]—this has been an especially widely discussed topic in this election. The phone number written out as numbers is 866-687-8683.
|-
|Experimental social turnout project
|[http://www.civicinnovation.com/ civicinnovation.com] App Store: VoteWithMe
|An app which "gives you a list of the top 10 highest-impact potential voters in your address book to get in touch with -- based on the likelihood that they support progressive candidates, and that they live in states with the most competitive races". This app is for Android and iOS, with the App Store ID as "VoteWithMe". The "VoteWithMe" app is created by Civic Innovation Works and "uses publicly available voter records to predict which of your contacts are likely to support Democratic candidates, but might not have a plan to vote", as it says on its [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/votewithme/id1170104517/ App Store Page].
|-
|Reminder:
|If you're in line when the polls close, they have to let you vote.
|This is correct, as is printed on most election pamphlets as part of the ''Voters' Bill of Rights'', as well as being cited on numerous sources online (e.g. [http://votersedge.kqed.org/en/ca/ballot/election/area/42/section/voting-info?id=statewide-42-ca#section-my-rights-as-a-voter here].) Being turned down for trying to vote after the polling place is officially closed (if you were already in line ''when'' the polls closed) might be an instance where you want to use the phone number mentioned above.
|}

===Character gallery===
The comic shows a gallery of 11 xkcd characters including all the main characters from xkcd (except [[Hairy]]), which stand united behind Randall and Clinton despite their lack of agreement in many other comics.

*From left to right on the left side of the H are 
**[[Ponytail]] with a ray gun, (that she also wielded in [[322: Pix Plz]], where she was named Joanna, for melting computers of persons whom make snide remarks at women, clearly a reference to {{w|Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations|Donald Trump's sexual harassment of women}} in general and especially to his Grab Pussy comment)
**[[Black Hat]], (who was the one introducing Joanna/Ponytail in the mentioned comic)
**[[Danish]], (Black Hat's girlfriend setting up a kite for him, although it could be Megan, but she is also shown later with her regular shorter hair. However it has mainly been Megan in comics with kites, like [[235: Kite]] and [[1614: Kites]]. Kites are a [[:Category:Kites|recurring theme]] on xkcd.)
**[[White Hat]] looking at the kite.
*On top of the H are
**[[Blondie]], (looking out at us, maybe representing Clinton herself)
**[[Megan]], (next to Cueball)
**[[Cueball]], (forming the standard couple in xkcd with Megan)
**[[Hairbun]] with glasses (so specifically not the one from the previous comic [[1755: Old Days]], but rather like in [[1637: Salt Mine]]).
*On the right side of the H are
**[[Science Girl]] (the adult version of her) holding her hand out towards a cute squirrel, (Of course she could also be the girl from [[635: Locke and Demosthenes]] where the squirrel is poisoned...)
**[[Beret Guy]] holding a squirrel out towards Science Girl, (The first time squirrels was mentioned was actually when Beret Guy found them in a tree in [[167: Nihilism]] and since then they have become a [[:Category:Squirrels|recurring theme]] on xkcd and a similar squirrel can for instance be seen in [[1503: Squirrel Plan]]. Beret Guy has not been seen together with a squirrel before, but has been shown to care for animals, for instance in [[614: Woodpecker]].)
**[[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Another Cueball]] standing on an office chair wielding a sword. (as in [[303: Compiling]]. Interestingly enough the previous comic [[1755: Old Days]] was about Cueball asking Hairbun about {{w|compiling}} in the old days. Seems realistic that Randall has this comic ready for this Monday before the election for some time, and when finding this 9-yeared version of Cueball in the old comics, he may have gotten inspired to make a comic about compiling in the old days.)

Note that the two characters at either side of the comic wield weapons pointing out, defending the other nine. Those next to the characters with weapons are doing recreational things like kiting and admiring adorable squirrels, both of which are recurring subjects in xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[Inset: Eleven characters are drawn around a huge H with a rightwards arrow as the horizontal bar connecting the two vertical towers. Ponytail stands on the left with a raygun looking leftwards. Behind her is Black Hat who looks at a girl that might be Danish or Megan (but with longer hair than Megan typically has). She is flying a kite above the first two characters. Behind her and looking up at the kite is White Hat. The H is right behind him, and on top of the left tower sits Blondie looking straight out at the reader with her legs dangling over the edge and her arms resting on her knees. On the arrow sits Megan leaning against the left tower, also dangling her legs over the edge and arms resting on her knees. Cueball stands to her right by the right tower. On top of the right tower sits Hairbun with glasses looking straight right with her legs dangling over the edge one arm resting on a knee and leaning back on the other arm. On the right side of the H is an adult version of Science Girl holding a hand out towards the squirrel which Beret Guy is holding out in both arms towards her. Another Cueball stands on an office chair on the right brandishing a sword looking rightwards. He keeps his balance by holding his other arm out behind him.
:Caption]
: <big><big>I'm with her.</big></big>

:[Centred]
:<big>How to help</big>
:Vote―iwillvote.com
:Get a ride to the polls―drive2vote.org
:If you're having problems voting―866-OUR-VOTE
:Experimental social turnout project―civicinnovation.com App Store: VoteWithMe
:<big>Reminder:</big>
:If you're in line when the polls close, they have to let you vote.

==Trivia==
*Shortly after this comic was released Hillary Clinton lost the election. She won {{w|Massachusetts}}—Randall's home state—which was never doubted, and she also got the most voters. But Trump did win the most states and the most electoral voters and started his term as the {{w|President of the United States}} in January 2017.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]] 
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]

Talk:1572: xkcd Survey

2019-04-07T17:47:29Z

172.68.65.24: Conversational Pedantry

Mildly interesting to note that the ordering of most of the checkbox/radiobutton lists randomise each time the survery is loaded. Also, there is at least one other comic where Randall comments about not having figured out HTML imagemaps. Anyone remember which? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:52, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:It was in one of his "under the logo" news bars, about him starting What If, iirc --[[User:Aescula|Aescula]] ([[User talk:Aescula|talk]]) 11:28, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
I wonder how many people, on reading 'Type "cat" here:', typed '"cat" here:'? I know I did... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 11:58, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Guilty...--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:08, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: Me too... However you could have typed '"cat" here:', as well... (/edit: I wonder how many different entries the survey's result will reveal) (/edit2: I did not read properly... sorry. I typed '"cat"' not '"cat" here:' -.-)[[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:27, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: I typed meow -[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.86|141.101.105.86]] 12:41, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
::Where it said "Type five random words" I typed "five random words" (without the quotes).
::--[[User:Lou Crazy|Lou Crazy]] ([[User talk:Lou Crazy|talk]]) 11:24, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
:::My first thought there was "Correct Horse Battery Staple"[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.47|162.158.255.47]] 04:42, 4 September 2015 (UTC)
::::Those were the first four of my five "random words". -- [[User:Pne|Pne]] ([[User talk:Pne|talk]]) 17:18, 4 September 2015 (UTC)
::::Man, why didn't I think of that? [[User:Sobsz|Sobsz]] ([[User talk:Sobsz|talk]]) 06:37, 5 September 2015 (UTC)
:::I tried to make it at least a bit random, rather than arbitrary, with a bash script: <nowiki>for _ in 1 2 3 4 5; do sed -n "$(((((32768*RANDOM)+RANDOM) % $(wc -l </usr/share/dict/words) ) + 1))p" /usr/share/dict/words; done</nowiki> -- ferret [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.121|141.101.99.121]] 11:58, 5 September 2015 (UTC)
::::"Type five random words": Broad multi line text box [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 11:07, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Not sure if it was just me, but the comic wasn't a link at all! The cursor changed into a No cursor for me everytime I mouseover'd the comic. I went to survey using the "Bonus Link!" below the comic page. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:01, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Never mind, this was probably due to the WebComics reader extension that I have in my browser. [[User:Brilliantnut|Brilliantnut]] ([[User talk:Brilliantnut|talk]]) 12:03, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
From hearing people on reddit comment about not being able to completely fill the text box (not just the visual box) with the error "Answer too long", it's caused by a 10k character limit. Presumably by Google Docs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.192|108.162.249.192]] 13:18, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

Can we get a note on the title text? Something about the [[1493]]-like vacuousness of "Big Data for a Big Planet". Also, I added a defn for "revergent"; future researchers, anyone who knows that one is probably a fern biologist. [[User:FourViolas|FourViolas]] ([[User talk:FourViolas|talk]]) 20:51, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:I just did a bit on the title text, but I don't think that I did the best job at explaining it, so someone should look over what I did.[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:32, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

;Validation
The validation choices are interesting.
* "Enter a number between 1 and 100" rejects numbers outside this range (e.g. -1) but also reject valid responses (e.g. π).
* "Enter your age" and "Enter the number of $SIBLING" accept invalid responses such as -1. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 13:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:-1 is not an "invalid response" for "Enter your age" if you are an unborn fetus. On the day of birth and all subsequent days less than one year later, a baby's age is zero. So from one year before birth to the day before birth, a fetus's age is negative one.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.214.233|108.162.214.233]] 06:49, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
::I would like to point out that, one year prior to birth, a fetus does not exist. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 13:40, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
:::That depends on your species.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 17:47, 7 April 2019 (UTC)
:I (with ''fairly'' honest intention) tried to give non-numeric answers to the two Think Of A Number questions and my the age one (honestly, I had to actually think about that one, for a moment) and found them restricted to numbers only. So obviously Randall's not ''so'' subversive as to allow free text. (BTW, I've ''only'' driven 'stick shift', though an old friend of mine has just gotten an automatic, I think for the first time, which said was rather posh of him.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 15:55, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
I used an HTML inspector tool to create a unique response to one of the radio button questions. The form claimed to submit successfully; it should be obvious in the results if it worked. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:29, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

;Identification
"it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses"
Then why send those informations to Google ? I find the idea of thee survey interesting but why Google doc ? There are other options like Lime Survey. [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 13:37, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
: Given the stated intention to make the collected dataset available publicly, there's no information-security reason to prefer another survey tool over Google. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 14:21, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:: Technically Google could de-anonymize the data if you're logged in or otherwise identifiable when submitting the survey. When Randall publishes the data set it can be completely anonymized. Not that I care if Google knows I claim to consider myself half-cat, half-person. [[User:Jestempies|Jestempies]] ([[User talk:Jestempies|talk]]) 21:15, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

;Not a transcript
This is mildly interesting, but it is not a transcript. Transcripts are meant mainly for blind people and search engines. Different letter sizes and a frame are not needed. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 12:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:{| style="text-align:center; border:1pt black solid;"
|| Introducing '''THE XKCD SURVEY''' A search for weird correlations Note: This survey is anonymous, but all responses will be posted publicly so people can play with the data. '''Click here to''' '''take the survey''' Or click here, or here. The whole comic is a link, because I still haven't gotten the hang of HTML imagemaps. 
|}
::The transcript is not only for blind people. And an enhanced layout doesn't harm them but instead it would help them. A speech synthesizer would tell them something like "headline" or "small text at bottom" so that the impaired people would get a much better feeling of the comic. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:12, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

I wonder how many people included "battery, horse, staple, correct" in the five random words box. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.64}}
:I typed ');drop table survey; -- at the end of the random characters text box. I must have been the first person to think of that because the survey was still working. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 13:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:I typed "cat, cat, cat, cat, cat" in random words and "lion, cat, dog, horse, '''''lettuce'''''" for the random animals. Yes, I was trolling. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.150|108.162.221.150]] 06:38, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

I wish it was funny. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.148|108.162.241.148]] 16:20, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

;Tables Vs Bulleted List

The list of questions and possible responses has been added to the explanation by myself and xhfz, in different formats. I went for a wikitable, xhfz used a bulleted list. Rather than just overwrite each other, I think we need to have a discussion on which is the best choice. The reasons I believe a wikitable is the best option:
:*Far better expandability, in anticipation of survey results
:*More structured and neater presentation
In general I tend to lean towards tables, but it is probably a constructive discussion to have for the wiki as a whole. I would be interested to hear opinions of bulleted list vs tables in these types of situation.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 13:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

If we have a table we need colspan instead of rowspan. On the other hand a table is very difficult to maintain. In addition, the table didn't have space for explanations (another column, maybe). [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:If you used colspan, questions like "How many of these 20 words do you know" would be excessively wide. Perhaps a combination of colspan and rowspan, or simply a single cell with the responses listed as comma seperated list. As far as adding a column for explanations, its pretty trivial. What I'm getting at is that perhaps the format of a table would need to be optimised, but that is entirely feasible.
:I agree with you as far as tables being more intimidating to edit and maintain, but once set up they aren't that bad.
:Bulleted lists (to me at least) look messy, and tend to lack a coherent structure. As more information is added, sub-levels and sub-sub-levels are added without much thought as to the overall intent. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 14:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

By colspan I mean this:
{| class="wikitable"
!Question
!Possible Answers
|-
|colspan="2"|When you think about stuff on the internet, where do you picture it being physically located? Even if you know it's not really how things work, is there a place you imagine websites and social media posts sitting before you look at them? If so, where is it?
|-
|
|''Multi-line text box''
|-
|colspan="2"|Which of these words do you know the meaning of?
|-
|
|Slickle
|-
|
|Rife
|-
|
|Soliloquy
|-
|
|Fination
|-
|
|Stipple
|-
|
|Peristeronic
|-
|
|Modicum
|-
|
|Trephony
|-
|
|Tribution
|-
|colspan="2"|Have you ever thrown out all your different pairs of socks/underwear, bought a bunch of replacements that were all one kind, and then told all your friends how great it was and how they should do it too?
|-
|
|Yes
|-
|
|No
|-
|
|I did the throwing out thing, but didn't talk to everyone about it
|-
|
|No, but I'm totally doing that now
|}
[[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 14:44, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

: Yeah, if someone just did that, that would be great. [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 18:54, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

;Missing questions
Something notably missing which would have greatly helped later analysis was a question about where someone is - Country and/or State. Some of the questions and answers will be differently understood because of that (eg meaning if 'sandwich') --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.65|141.101.98.65]] 14:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:I think that is the whole point though, to provide a data set that actively attempts to ''prevent'' the obvious simple analysis. There are plenty of statistics on how people from place A are more likely to do thing B. What I want to know is "How many people who would class a taco as a sandwich and can drive stick shift are able to juggle?". Also, is it true that most people think they are above average drivers? --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:09, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
::If you're actually curious about those questions, the answers are "0" and "yes". No one classes a taco as a sandwich. The only thing that this data set will provide is how many sandwich-trolls ''claim'' to be able to drive stick shifts and juggle.--[[User:Antipudder|Antipudder]] ([[User talk:Talk/talk/talk|talk]]) 15:10, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

;Subsections were added for ease of editing

You can delete the subsections later. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:30, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:Ok, I agree on that. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:42, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

;I think we shouldn't force the reader to go to Wikipedia

I added explanations in "Activities" and twice they were deleted. Why? [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572:_xkcd_Survey&diff=prev&oldid=100879] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1572%3A_xkcd_Survey&diff=100921&oldid=100920] [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:39, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:Personally, I think those activities are so easily understood, that adding an "explanation" is not necessary. I think wiki links are sufficient, so that if somehow people don't know what the activities are, they can go look. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 15:45, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

::I know 20,000 words in [http://testyourvocab.com testyourvocab.com]. I also know soliloquy, modicum, amiable and salient. I had never heard of dunk, sheet bend, bowline, or stick shift, but I know the meaning of manual transmission without going to Wikipedia. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 15:47, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

:::For the record, it wasn't me who deleted the explanations. The fact that Randall included those words in his survey without any explanation shows that they are fairly common words. In the context of the question, the meaning becomes clearer (Tie a sheet bend or bowline = its very likely those are knots), and if people still don't know, they can click on the wiki link. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:14, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
:::From a different perspective, I ''understand'' a number of the words and terms, even though they aren't the ones I'd use, locally. i.e. gas/petrol, stick-shift/gears, cell phone/mobile phone, soda/pop (and where would cordial, to be diluted with water, sit in that list of drinks..? either way, I chose "fruit juice" so maybe that covers it). Also I think I would call an "open-faced sandwich" a {{w|Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord|'Smorgasbord'}}, but that seems to be a childhood misunderstanding of what the scandinavian term actually represents (the whole buffet, not any individual item bread-and-topping construct that you end up with on your platter). "Condiments" obviously means something differently, too. For me that's the likes of salt, pepper and vinegar - along with other chopped herbs at a push - but from context it sounds like it includes dips such as mayonnaise, and/or sauces like ketchup/brown/tartar. A different world, truly! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.108|141.101.99.108]] 17:46, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
::::It's a poorly worded question to which people in some countries would answer the opposite of that intended because of the way the question is worded. Very few cars run on gas (a friend's van runs on LPG), but many use petrol or diesel. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.239.32|198.41.239.32]] 05:55, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
:::::Fellow Brits? No, IP of the latter appears to be Arizona (or at least the ISP, in Phoenix). Strange. Anyway, thanks to copious imports of 'Merkin TV and film, it'd be obvious to most(/all?) people I know that gas(olene) would be the common word in the US for the fuel that I'd call petrol(eum). Or so I was under the impression of, until now. Of course there is ''actual'' gas (modern LPG or [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155585362099248762/ wartime contingencies]) but so far liquid hydrocarbons seem to still be king, inclusive of DERV. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.188|141.101.98.188]] 07:51, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

:I changed them to Wikipedia links because it seemed neater, uses the hypertext features of HTML for the reason they were intended, and seemed more in line with general style here. No-one is forced to go to Wikipedia, but providing useful hyperlinks instead of having to explain everything inline is generally considered A Good Thing &tm;. It wasn't intended as a personal affront. This is a wiki - we can all edit to make things (hopefully) a bit better. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 12:40, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

;Can we access the results now?

Are the contents available at a known URL? I use Google Docs but have never done a survey before...[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.24|141.101.105.24]] 06:03, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

;Maple syrup

The current article comments that the "Maple syrup" option to the ''any that you drink'' question is a joke. Are you sure? I have met several people (to clarify, adults, I'm not even considering children) who drink straight maple syrup, and many times more who pour maple syrup into their drinks (notably coffee, tea, and milk are the most common I see people pour it into). There are webpages devoted to maple syrup drink recipes (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and people debating other people's opinions on whether maple syrup is better drunk hot, cold, or room temperature. There is a possibility that Randall was not intending this question as a joke since it seems to be "a thing" among some people. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.11|108.162.220.11]] 12:16, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
:I was very delighted to see maple syrup under the drink options! When I started the survey with my co-workers I came to the condiments question and was explaining to them how I even drink maple syrup. So I was very giddy when I came to the drink question! Yes, I do drink maple syrup and not as a joke, usually at night and only Grade B. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:40, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

;Regarding "Difficult words" not currently linked
*Trephony - Another (equally obselete) term for Trepanning. The not listed directly on the Wikipedia page for the topic (the article uses gerund forms in discussing other names for the procedure), but the related gerund "trephining" is listed. Cf. also Trephine, which was the actual surgical instrument used for these procedures (and for which Trephony occasionally served as an alternate spelling).
*Tribution appears to be the result of converting the [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tribute#Verb tribute (when used as a verb)]into a noun by use of the [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-tion#English -tion suffix]. While this is a standard form, it is also nonsense (as the nounal form is also tribute).
*Unitory - An obsolete spelling unitary used in mathematics, chiefly British. Several examples appear in the of the papers of the [https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl1BAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA5-PA27&lpg=RA5-PA27&dq=unitory+method&source=bl&ots=rfRKJXAJqV&sig=Wsr_gV7xG6Airah9Lx1M0hi-7Zc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBmoVChMInd_R9qTbxwIVChU-Ch36IAh_#v=onepage&q=unitory%20method&f=false 1913 Imperial Education Conference] (I've linked to the instance on page 97 as an example). You will still occasionally see this spelling in use when discussing the Unitary Method in former British Colonies.
*Cadine -- the french term also saw some use in English as a loanword. Cf. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4yz-Y-_OOO0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=cadine&f=false page 146 of Volume 99 of The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle (published 1829)] for several examples.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.36|108.162.216.36]] 16:54, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
;Apricity: this appears to be an obsolete, poetic and/or pompous word to describe the sun's heat in winter. It shows up in several dictionaries from the 1700's through the Victorian era; e.g., [http://books.google.com/books?id=CFBGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT76&dq=apricity#v=onepage&q=apricity&f=false Bailey 1775] - Anonymous

Should we move the survey section to a different page (e.g. [[1572: xkcd Survey/Survey]])? It takes up most of the current page. {{User:17jiangz1/signature|13:10, 04 September 2015}}
:The survey section is a transcript, so I moved it appropriately for now. {{User:17jiangz1/signature|13:14, 04 September 2015}}
::The survey is not a transcript. And even if it was it is not the comic and should thus not be listed as part of this comics transcript. But the survey section is used to explain the survey and this is certainly not supposed to happen in a transcript. I have moved it above the transcript again. But it could be an idea to make separate survey page and link to it from the comic page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:39, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

If one is free to skip any question, how does the survey distinguish between a skiped question and a question for which the answer is nothing, e.g. if one does not dislike any named beverage? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.241|162.158.90.241]] 11:47, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

'''[[Difficult words]]'''
Does anyone have access to a good bio-org chemistry reference? I seem to remember "-fination" as a valid suffix for O-Chem usage for fixation of certain kinds of reactions (ex. Pearson ole-fination), but I don't remember if there is a general meaning of the term. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.36}}

;HTML image maps
As a web designer, I'm certain that a big part of the joke is that almost no one uses image maps anymore -- the technique of cutting up images and laying them out using CSS or HTML tables (the latter now mostly obsolete) won out back in the 90s. The trouble you have to go to to create an image map is nowhere near worth the payoff. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.91|199.27.128.91]] 21:30, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
:When it comes to ''that'', I know someone who (in the mid 2000s!) made a web-page by rendering the entire page (including all text-as-raster, and it was ''mostly'' text) into a single image file (vastly over-assuming the consistency of the end-user's screen/browser-window dimensions), and image-mapped it. Yes, CSS already existed, and even without I would never have used it. I did a byte-for-byte comparison with an HTML-rendered version (even though that has its own inefficiences in sprawling across multiple bytes, in <LONGTAGNAMES></LONGTAGNAMES> in particular) and it was horrific. Never mind horribly unfriendly to anyone with a non-standard/special-needs browsing environment!
:Which might in part be why (more intelligent!) image-mapping never took off in the adolescent years of the web (once it became predominantly dial-up by home users, rather than those sat directly upon academic/etc LANs sitting on high=bandwidth fat pipes to the internet in its infancy, with bandwidth already used (outside of 'proper' usage)to pre/early Eternal September propgation of Usenet and UUEncoded images sent over email), even though quite intelligent usages of the art had been long pioneered for such purposes as literal (i.e. geographical!) map-clicking rather than the Mysterious Meat navigation method.
:But then it might also have died out after the initial bloom of Geocities, when the tedious last remnants of the <BLINK> tag phenomenon merged into the ubiquity of the over-use of animated GIFs depicting some form of "Website under construction" message, and there were so many other tricks to (over-)use in a person's supposedly interesting self-publicising page. Ahh... nostalgia!
:Seriously, however, looking at the design elements of site design, e.g. curve-effect button/frame areas and scrolling galleries, amongst other things, and a simple markup imagemap (if not coordinate-sending to be processed by the server-side scripting through URL-query format) has outlived its easy usefulness (for the coder in a hurry, who has so many other tool-scripts available) and now we need this complicated and often vastly obfuscated client-side scripting to make the gloriously laid-out web-pages react (consistently) to the end-user in the way intended. I'm sure you make sure your web pages work in the likes of Lynx and even screen-readers (where practical, and of course imagemaps always did work horribly for both of these!), but modern bells-and-whistles have progressed far beyond imagemap tomfoolery. Not always because the new method is ''better'', for a given instance, but that's progress for ya. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.32|141.101.98.32]] 12:39, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Has anyone else noticed that the series of image links to comics at the bottom of every xkcd comic page actually uses an imagemap. So apparently he did get the hang of it a while ago :) or at least his web designer did...[[User:DenverCoder9|DenverCoder9]] ([[User talk:DenverCoder9|talk]]) 21:27, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

;Underwear

I still don't understand why the last question asks about "socks/'''underwear'''" instead of just "socks". Is there any species of underwear that comes in pairs, ''other than'' socks? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.167|173.245.56.167]] 15:39, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

:It is supposed to be read as "(pairs of socks)/underwear", NOT "pairs of (socks/undrwear)" [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 08:50, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

::That still doesn't answer my question: why would anyone care if their underwear is all one kind? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.116|173.245.54.116]] 02:27, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

:::'''Comfort''', primarily. Find one kind of underwear that you find enjoyable to wear, then make sure all your underwear are all that kind and throw out the others - then you'll never have to wear or think about the uncomfortable ones that you routinely shove into the darkest corner of your drawer, ever again. Also, if you go shopping later, when you wear holes in the current selection, then you know exactly which brand and style, no waffling necessary. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.167|108.162.245.167]] 06:02, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

::: C'mon guys. It's about matching. I like always having matching socks. I've thrown away all my socks and started from scratch, because after a while, you lose socks or one sock gets a big hole in it, and you have to reboot. The same may hold true for women, who have been known to wear matching underwear in two parts: bras and panties. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.53|108.162.216.53]] 19:37, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Since the results still aren't in, I'm calling it now, so no one can accuse me of p-hacking: People who ended their entries in multiline textboxes with newlines are more likely to have opinions about text editors, suffer from colds, and show symptoms of insomnia. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.60|173.245.55.60]] 06:44, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

It has been over a year since this comic was released, where are the results Randall‽!? (Seriously, there are at least 2 Reddit posts asking about this) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.69|173.245.54.69]] 03:46, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

:Probably never going to come. [[User:SuperSupermario24|Just some random derp]] 17:40, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

I am working on a recreation. Email me if you're interested. caoboystx0609 at gmail dot com. [[User:StillNotOriginal|StillNot]][[User talk:StillNotOriginal|Original]] 11:39, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

2133: EHT Black Hole Picture

2019-04-05T21:14:07Z

172.68.65.24: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2133
| date = April 5, 2019
| title = EHT Black Hole Picture
| image = eht_black_hole_picture.png
| titletext = [five years later] Ok, it seems we were accidentally zoomed in slightly too far. But imagine there's a cool-looking twisted accretion disc just outside this black square!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by cosmic rays from a black hole Needs more explanation Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references the {{w|Event Horizon Telescope}}, an international project dedicated to releasing the first-ever picture of a {{w|black hole}}. The release of the picture is set for April 10, five days from this comic's release.

The comic shows [[Cueball]] giving a press conference on the recent photographing of a black hole. The joke lies in the spectacular failure of several systems:

* You cannot download the picture.
* You cannot screenshot the picture.
* The viewing period ends before a physical camera can be used.

In reality, none of this should be an issue as the picture would be immediately saved by the system and would not need to be downloaded from the site.

Cueball describes the system as being like {{w|Pinterest}}, where CSS prevents you from right-clicking on an image so that you could save it. Cueball states that they then tried to take a screenshot, but the key combination to make a screenshot instead turned off the monitor where the picture was being displayed. This references the fact many mobile phones incorporate the power button in their screen shot combination and the power button can also turn off the screen. Laptops and operating systems may also have undocumented key combinations that blank the screen, which users can accidentally press when in a hurry and create further stress for themselves. As a last act of desperation, Cueball took out his phone and attempted to take a photo of the observation, but by that time, the observation had ended, and the photo was lost.

Cueball then states that they would try to take a picture of a black hole again next year.

The title text explains that (after presumably five years of annual tries), the picture failed again as the telescope was too zoomed in and only captured a featureless square from the inside of the black hole rather than the more interesting edge known as an {{w|accretion disc}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind a lectern, with "Press Conference" and the EHT logo displayed on a projector screen behind him.]
:Cueball: We linked up our observatories, got everything aligned, and there it was:
:Cueball: The first image of a black hole!

:Out of panel: Can you share the picture?
:Cueball: Well, here's the thing...

:Cueball: Turns out our telescope feed is like Pinterest, where you can't right-click to save an image.
:Cueball: So we tried to take a screenshot, but the key combination kept turning off the display instead.

:[The projector screen has changed to show a blurry picture of a white computer screen against a black background. The EHT logo remains.]
:Cueball: I grabbed my phone and tried to take a picture of the screen, but I was too slow. The observation had ended.
:Cueball: We're planning to try again next year, and we'll definitely record the screen this time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:2130: Industry Nicknames

2019-03-31T04:59:47Z

172.68.65.24:

While I understand the humor value of using "big" as part of each nickname, "Detroit" would be a more realistic choice instead of "Big Car" (or even "Big Auto") for the car companies. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 16:04, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:I’ve never heard that referred to as Detroit or big Detroit, thought you’re right about big auto. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:22, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
::"Detroit" (not big) was a very common way to refer to the automobile industry as a whole, long after the 1980s when most car manufacturing exited Michigan. And mining is referred to by sector, e.g., "big oil," and, "big coal," primarily. Anyway, [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pocket+of+big&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpocket%20of%20big%3B%2Cc0 the idiom didn't come into widespread use until the late 1970s.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:29, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Real estate works too and rates pretty high: big house. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.210.16|172.69.210.16]] 17:24, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Big House often refers to prison. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
::Big Money: banking industry? own the mortgages. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:38, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

I, for one, welcome our new big horse overlords [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.22|162.158.255.22]] 18:59, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Belgians or Percherons? [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Thinking of the phrase "In the pocket of," I get thinking of clothing manufacturers: Being in the pocket of big shirt, or being in the pocket of big jeans. Mind you, you could look at the genetic analysis and manipulation industries, being in the pocket of big genes. That could work best phonetically. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Those are certainly lost opportunities for this one. Similarly billiards. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:36, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Is billiards "big pockets" or "big balls"?
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:37, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

The Big Cheese in the Big Apple obviously spent Big Bucks persuading Randall to avoid a mention [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 08:35, 30 March 2019 (UTC)
: Some could interpret this comment as noting that Randall is in the pocket of Big Energy corporations, as he put them as "Big Hole" way over on the right near groups that have little coercive power. Communities have been devastated in conflict with energy corporations, with many many deaths, see for example {{w|Coal Wars}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:59, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Little disappointed, here, that no one is in the pocket of Big Bird.
: Or Big Kanga! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:59, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2130: Industry Nicknames

2019-03-31T04:38:27Z

172.68.65.24:

While I understand the humor value of using "big" as part of each nickname, "Detroit" would be a more realistic choice instead of "Big Car" (or even "Big Auto") for the car companies. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 16:04, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:I’ve never heard that referred to as Detroit or big Detroit, thought you’re right about big auto. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:22, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
::"Detroit" (not big) was a very common way to refer to the automobile industry as a whole, long after the 1980s when most car manufacturing exited Michigan. And mining is referred to by sector, e.g., "big oil," and, "big coal," primarily. Anyway, [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pocket+of+big&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpocket%20of%20big%3B%2Cc0 the idiom didn't come into widespread use until the late 1970s.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:29, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Real estate works too and rates pretty high: big house. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.210.16|172.69.210.16]] 17:24, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Big House often refers to prison. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
::Big Money: banking industry? own the mortgages. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:38, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

I, for one, welcome our new big horse overlords [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.22|162.158.255.22]] 18:59, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Belgians or Percherons? [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Thinking of the phrase "In the pocket of," I get thinking of clothing manufacturers: Being in the pocket of big shirt, or being in the pocket of big jeans. Mind you, you could look at the genetic analysis and manipulation industries, being in the pocket of big genes. That could work best phonetically. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Those are certainly lost opportunities for this one. Similarly billiards. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:36, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Is billiards "big pockets" or "big balls"?
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:37, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

The Big Cheese in the Big Apple obviously spent Big Bucks persuading Randall to avoid a mention [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 08:35, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

Little disappointed, here, that no one is in the pocket of Big Bird.

2130: Industry Nicknames

2019-03-31T04:35:59Z

172.68.65.24: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2130
| date = March 29, 2019
| title = Industry Nicknames
| image = industry_nicknames.png
| titletext = As far as "being in the pocket of Big Egg" goes, I think the real threat is Chansey.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BIG EXPLANATION. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
"Big industry" is a common nickname used to describe monopolistic or near-monopolistic practices in the United States. To be "in someone's pocket" means this person can readily influence the subject's behavior, whether by bribe, blackmail, law, threat, lobbying, social status, finances, freedoms, or affection.

Of the 8 industries listed, {{w|Big Tobacco}} and {{w|Big Pharma}} are nicknames that are commonly used. The mining industry may be referred to in this context by sector, as {{w|Big Coal}} or {{w|Big Oil}} (Randall uses the term "big hole", which sounds similar to these. Most but not all forms of mining involve large holes.) The U.S. automobile industry was until recent decades referred to as "Detroit," later meaning only the {{w|Big Three automobile manufacturers}} before falling out of common usage. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-27/warren-calls-for-breakup-of-big-ag-in-appeal-to-family-farmers Big Ag] is sometimes used to describe the farming and agricultural industry, and while the rest are purely fictional, Randall could be imagining a possible future in which these industries become big players in the political arena. "Big Foot" is likely a reference to the mythical creature {{w|Bigfoot}}. Those who have been on the rough end of how large organizations can push not only individuals but entire communities around in a mafia-like way may take issue with a medical board being equated with such groups.

[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Chansey_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Chansey], mentioned in the title text, is a type of {{w|Pokémon}} who carries around an egg in her marsupial-like front pouch. For Chansey the phrase "in the pocket of Big Egg" would be rather literal, except that the egg is in her pocket, rather than the other way around. Randall does not specify why Chansey would be a "threat" or why a Pokémon would be bribing people.

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

:'''Nicknames for Industries and Organizations'''
:Ranked by how silly it sounds when
:you say someone is "In the pocket of..."

:[Arrow pointing to the right:]
:Sillier

:[Items on a line from left to right:]
:Cigarette companies: "Big Tobacco"
:Drug companies: "Big Pharma"
:The farming industry: "Big Ag"
:Automakers: "Big Car"
:The International Equestrian Federation: "Big Horse"
:The Board of Podiatric Medicine: "Big Foot"
:The mining industry: "Big Hole"
:The American Egg Board: "Big Egg"

{{comic discussion}}

2130: Industry Nicknames

2019-03-31T04:34:22Z

172.68.65.24:

{{comic
| number = 2130
| date = March 29, 2019
| title = Industry Nicknames
| image = industry_nicknames.png
| titletext = As far as "being in the pocket of Big Egg" goes, I think the real threat is Chansey.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BIG EXPLANATION. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
"Big industry" is a common nickname used to describe monopolistic or near-monopolistic practices in the United States. To be "in someone's pocket" means this person can readily influence the subject's behavior, whether by bribe, blackmail, law, threat, lobbying, social status, finances, freedoms, or affection.

Of the 8 industries listed, {{w|Big Tobacco}} and {{w|Big Pharma}} are nicknames that are commonly used. The mining industry may be referred to in this context by sector, as {{w|Big Coal}} or {{w|Big Oil}} (Randall uses the term "big hole", which sounds similar to these. Most but not all forms of mining involve large holes.) The U.S. automobile industry was until recent decades referred to as "Detroit," later meaning only the {{w|Big Three automobile manufacturers}} before falling out of common usage. [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-27/warren-calls-for-breakup-of-big-ag-in-appeal-to-family-farmers Big Ag] is sometimes used to describe the farming and agricultural industry, and while the rest are purely fictional, Randall could be imagining a possible future in which these industries become big players in the political arena. "Big Foot" is likely a reference to the mythical creature {{w|Bigfoot}}.

[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Chansey_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Chansey], mentioned in the title text, is a type of {{w|Pokémon}} who carries around an egg in her marsupial-like front pouch. For Chansey the phrase "in the pocket of Big Egg" would be rather literal, except that the egg is in her pocket, rather than the other way around. Randall does not specify why Chansey would be a "threat" or why a Pokémon would be bribing people.

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

:'''Nicknames for Industries and Organizations'''
:Ranked by how silly it sounds when
:you say someone is "In the pocket of..."

:[Arrow pointing to the right:]
:Sillier

:[Items on a line from left to right:]
:Cigarette companies: "Big Tobacco"
:Drug companies: "Big Pharma"
:The farming industry: "Big Ag"
:Automakers: "Big Car"
:The International Equestrian Federation: "Big Horse"
:The Board of Podiatric Medicine: "Big Foot"
:The mining industry: "Big Hole"
:The American Egg Board: "Big Egg"

{{comic discussion}}

446: In Popular Culture

2017-12-23T04:04:17Z

172.68.65.24: /* Explanation */ made "citation needed" a real link

{{comic
| number = 446
| date = July 7, 2008
| title = In Popular Culture
| image = in_popular_culture.png
| titletext = Someday, the 'in popular culture' section will have its own article with an 'in popular culture' section. It will reference this title-text referencing it, and the blogosphere will implode.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Wikipedia}} is a popular online encyclopedia with articles that are created and edited by the general public [[Citation needed]] . Wikipedia entries have many sections, with the first few explaining the general concept and details behind the subject.

When this comic was written many Wikipedia articles had a section at the end entitled "in popular culture", listing TV shows, movies, songs and so on which made reference to the subject at hand. In many cases, this list was extensive, possibly because the people editing the articles were such fans of the subject or the pop culture in which it is referenced, they couldn't help but go into great detail, listing many esoteric and seemingly irrelevant elements of pop culture which were peripherally related to the subject of the article. As an example, see the old article [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apollo_in_popular_culture&oldid=153446837 Apollo in popular culture] which as of August 2007 redirects to {{w|Apollo}}.

The joke in this case is that even such a mundane article such as one on {{w|wood}} could have an "in popular culture" section and obviously, wooden items are common enough that there are any number of instances of popular culture which could be considered to "reference it", even if that's something as basic as a wooden item being used as a prop in a TV show. Such information would be of little or no use to anybody and only somebody obsessed with wood, a particular element of pop culture in which wood makes an appearance or the concept of placing pop culture references in encyclopedia articles would bother to create or maintain such a section.

Also, wood being such a popular material, the list of references could be virtually endless. This is a reference to the fact that the "in popular culture" sections of many Wikipedia articles contained dozens of items, even for articles on fairly arcane subjects. Note that the end of this particular "in popular culture" section is not visible so we don't know how long it is.

The title text states that in the future there will even have to be a wiki page with the subject "In popular culture". This article will also need an "in popular culture" section and it will be obvious to make a reference directly to this title text, as xkcd is part of popular culture and because this title text predicted the creation of and need for such a page. However this would then create a circular reference. This could be considered a form of infinite loop which is one way to cause a computer to crash (lock up). The joke is that the blogosphere could follow this endless train of circular links and itself crash, causing an "implosion".

This comic was mentioned in {{w|Wikipedia:"In popular culture" content}}. However, on April 23, 2014, the reference was edited out. It has since been added under the external links section of {{w|Wikipedia:xkcd in popular culture}}. The reference was added back in May 2015.

==Transcript==
:[A fictional screen capture of the Wikipedia article for "wood" is shown. There is a picture of wooden boards labeled "wooden boards".]
:'''Wood''' is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many plants. It has been used for centuries for both fuel and as a construction material for... [cut in page.]
:In popular culture:
:In episode 6 of ''Firefly'', "''Our Mrs. Reynolds''," Jayne is given a wooden rain stick by a villager.
:In the Buffyverse, Buffy often slays Vampires using stakes made of wood.
:The wand used by Harry Potter is made of wood from a holly tree.
:The fence around the back yard of the house in ''The Simpsons'' is wooden.
:In the 2004 TV series ''Battlestar Galactica'' [rest of page is cut.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1922: Interferometry

2017-12-02T02:13:03Z

172.68.65.24: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1922
| date = November 29, 2017
| title = Interferometry
| image = interferometry.png
| titletext = It's important to note that while the effective size of the dog can be arbitrarily large, it's not any more of a good dog than the two original dogs.
}}

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

An {{w|Astronomical interferometer|astronomical interferometer}} is an array of separate telescopes that are able to work together as a single telescope, effectively providing higher resolution using a process known as {{w|Aperture Synthesis|aperture synthesis}}.

In the comic, [[Beret Guy]] and [[Cueball]] are walking Beret Guy's dogs when Beret Guy makes a comment on how interferometry is really cool. Interferometry is the practice of overlapping two different waves to get a different signal, which can be used to determine the distance between two reflecting surfaces. Beret Guy states that two dogs placed at a consistent interval will function as a larger dog. While this idea works on waves, it probably won't work on dogs{{Citation needed}}, which is why Cueball is confused and starts to correct him. Before he can respond, however, Beret Guy jumps on this "large" dog and appears to be floating in midair. The large dog is further proven when it gives out a large bark. Cueball looks on speechless{{Citation needed}} while Beret Guy appears to exhibit another of his [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]].

The title text states that the effective giant dog is not any more 'good' than the two original dogs. This is analogous to sensitivity for astronomical interferometers. Interferometery does not increase the light-gathering area, so it cannot view dim objects as well as a single large telescope could. This is likely also a reference generally to dog-owners calling their dogs "good dog" or "good boy/girl" and more specifically to the [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/theyre-good-dogs-brent They're Good Dogs, Brent] meme.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking behind Beret Guy, who is walking two small dogs on two leashes.]
:Beret Guy: Interferometry. Is so cool!

:[They stop and Beret Guy is holding the leashes in his hand. He has taken them of the dogs and points at the dogs which he has placed facing outward so they are standing a couple of paces apart. The distance between them is indicated by a labeled line.]
:Beret Guy: If you put two small dogs a large distance apart, they can function as a single giant dog.
:Line: d

:[Cueball begins to speak but is cut off by Beret Guy yelling as he jumps into the space above the two dogs, with each leg a good distance above one of the dogs. (The leashes have disappeared as well as the distance line).]
:Cueball: I'm not sure that's-
:Beret Guy: '''''Hyah!'''''

:[As Cueball watches Beret Guy floats on top of the invisible giant dog about a meter above the two small dogs, and then he rides away with the two small dogs still seen below as they run to the right, leaving Cueball standing in the dust the "big" dog creates in its wake. The invisible giant dog barks from a position just in front of Beret Guys face far above the two small dogs.]
:Invisible giant dog: <big>'''''Woof'''''</big>
:Beret Guy: ''Away!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1373: Screenshot

2017-05-17T18:14:36Z

172.68.65.24: /* Explanation */ typo

{{comic
| number = 1373
| date = May 26, 2014
| title = Screenshot
| image = screenshot.png
| titletext = I'M PLUGGING IN MY PHONE BUT THE BATTERY ON THE SCREEN ISN'T CHARGING
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is viewing a {{w|screenshot}} of a text-message exchange via his own phone's web browser. Such screenshots are frequently posted online, to show content ranging from [http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/ humorous typos] to [http://www.reddit.com/r/creepyPMs creepy behavior]. In this screenshot, in addition to the text messages' content, we see a battery bar reflecting a charge of 6%; this effectively "{{w|photobombing|photobombs}}" (or distracts Randall from) the actual content of the original screenshot. On the other hand, the phone on which the shot is viewed is charged at a healthy 85%.

The phone the screenshot is taken from is an iPhone, while the phone being viewed is an Android. Another iPhone screenshot was the joke in [[1815: Flag]].

The title text suggests that Randall has plugged in his phone to quell the anxiety induced by the 6% charge in the screenshot, mistaking it for the actual battery indicator of his own phone. This measure is obviously unsuccessful, as charging his own phone does nothing to change the charge of the phone in the picture. A similar phenomenon is when a screenshot is viewed and the viewer attempts to use the controls (e.g. buttons) in the image. Randall's fear of losing power to his phone was later explored in [[1802: Phone]], where he brings an extra battery.

An alternative interpretation for the title text is that the screenshot was posted as part of a thread asking why their phone isn't charging. This would be ironic, as Randall's focusing on the battery level means his eyes are being drawn to the very problem being spoken about, yet he is too distracted by it to read that this is the problem!

This may also be a reference to {{W|mirror neurons}}. Mirror neurons are according to many neurobiologists a biological basis of empathy. If you see someone stick a needle in their hand, it feels as if you hurt yourself and some people experience a tightness of the chest when hearing a wheezing asthma patient on the radio. Here, Randall's mirror neurons start to fire as he feels the anxiety associated with a phone losing battery power.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:When someone posts a screenshot of their phone,

:[The panel shows the screen of an Android phone. At the top there is a black Android status bar with icons like WiFi, battery charge and the time, all in white:]
:85% 10:02 PM

:[Below the status bar is the open program, which is an internet browser, which shows the address field with an unreadable address and the tap icon to the right and the three dots for options. Below that is the page viewed in the browser. It seems to be a post from a person. Below the address bar is a picture of a user with dark hair in a square frame. To the right are two lines of unreadable user information. The post contains a picture posted by the user, and it is a screenshot of a chat/SMS conversation from another phone. The screen is light blue and the conversations has three blue speech bubbles to the left and two replies in between those in green to the right. All posts are unreadable, as are all other words in the picture. At the bottom of the picture the top of another users post, i.e. half the users image, can be seen. At the top of the picture, the status bar from this iPhone screen shot can be seen with icons both left, center and right. To the right the charge icon battery shows a very low charge, indicated with a small red line at the bottom of the battery. Around this low charged battery icon there is drawn a large red circle like spiral and four exclamation marks are written above this. The only thing that can be read in the picture is the charge percentage:]
:''!!!!''
:6%

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I can't pay attention to the content if their battery is low.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]

374: Journal

2017-05-16T14:29:42Z

172.68.65.24: Undo revision 137564 by 172.68.34.58 (talk): rvv

{{comic
| number = 374
| date = January 23, 2008
| title = Journal
| image = journal.png
| titletext = And the journal is filled with all the things I'd say to her if I were nice like you. I burn it when it's full.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] isn't the type of person to keep a journal, so [[Cueball]] is understandably surprised when he sees Black Hat's journal. Black Hat lives up to his reputation though, as it turns out that the journal is just part of a plot to hurt innocent, preferably shy, girls.

He explains his scheme to Cueball, about how he sits in a train and writes in the journal while sitting across from such a girl. His intention is to make eye contact with her, only to look bashfully down. This is construed to make her believe that he is an emotional guy, that is embarrassed, both about writing the journal, but also because she has caught him staring. He also tries to let her believe that he may be interested in her. He is just waiting for her to start smiling, and then he gets to the point of it all. By rolling his eyes at her while giving her a quick glare only to resume writing he attempts to make her feel {{w|Social alienation|alienated}}. Black Hat assumes that this feeling will stay with the poor girl for the rest of they day. The only thing Black Hat gets out of this is the knowledge of having ruined the girls day. As he says ''It's great!''

Cueball thinks Black Hat is sickening. And exclaims that "this is why we can't have nice people". This is probably a reference to the meme [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things].

Black Hat excuses himself for doing this because it is so easy. He mixes two different concepts together while doing so. {{w|Shooting fish in a barrel}} is an {{w|idiom}}, describing an effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success. So that is easy pleasure. The adding of ''lonely [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=angsty angsty]'' makes the fish sound more like teenagers. The girls Black Hat targets are probably best described as ''lonely angsty teenagers'' which may be a way to describe several young people. And they are the easy targets, i.e. the fish in the barrel, for him to shoot. And this is just so easy and so fun that he cannot help himself.

The title text implies that Black Hat actually does write in the journal, filling it with the kind of things a nice guy like Cueball might wish to say to a shy girl. But that is only so he can burn it when it is full, thus again cementing the fact that he is a complete sociopath.

It is clear from the comic that he has already done this several time with great success, but where this comic might be interesting in it self, it was actually only the setup for introducing [[Danish]], whom we meet for the first time in the second installment of the [[:Category:Journal|Journal]] series, of which this comic was just the first. Danish turns out to be a match for Black Hat in every way of the word. If you want to see how Black Hat's scheme worked on Danish, check out [[377: Journal 2]], released the following week after this one.

The whole "[[:Category:Journal|Journal]]" story are:
*[[374: Journal]]
*[[377: Journal 2]]
*[[405: Journal 3]]
*[[432: Journal 4]]
*[[433: Journal 5]]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball picks up book from a table, as Black Hat turns his head towards Cueball while sitting at his desk with his computer.]
:Cueball: Since when do you keep a journal?
:Black Hat: Oh, I pretend to write in it on the train, and wait for a shy-looking girl to sit across from me.

:[Scene change to inside a train wagon with two poles and two rows of seats facing each other across the central pathway. Black Hat writing in his journal is sitting to the right across from Megan to the left who sits with her arm on her handbag standing on the seat next to her. The windows of the train are completely black. The door to the next wagon can be seen at the back of the wagon. Black Hat is telling the story from the previous frame, so the text is written above the two characters but does not belong to the Black Hat in the panel.]
:Black Hat (narrating): I glance up and wait for her to make eye contact, then look down bashfully and, if I can, blush.

:[Scene back to original room with Cueball looking down while holding the journal down, and Black Hat has turned around in his chair to face towards Cueball. Black Hat leans back on the chair with both arms behind him.]
:Black Hat: Then, when I see her start to smile at me, I roll my eyes and hit her with a quick glare, then resume writing.
:Black Hat: The alienation stays with her all day. It's great.

:[Cueball looks at Black Hat who has turned back starting to type on his computer.]
:Cueball: You're sickening. This is why we can't have nice people.
:Black Hat: I can't help it. It's like shooting lonely, angsty fish in a barrel.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Journal|01]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Journal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

The Rise of Open Access

2017-05-12T14:36:14Z

172.68.65.24: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| date = October 4, 2013
| title = The Rise of Open Access
| image = the_rise_of_open_access.jpg
| before = The accelerating pace of scientific publishing and the rise of open access, as depicted by xkcd.com cartoonist Randall Munroe.
| ldomain = sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full#
| extra = yes
}}

* The comic above is from the article "[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full. The Rise of Open Access]" in Science.
* A much larger version of this image, where the two parts (upper and lower) has been moved so the bottom part instead continued the upper part can be found bu clicking the image in the article, or click [http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/scicomm/infographic.jpg here].
** This version has also been [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20150825153049%21the_rise_of_open_access.jpg uploaded to xkcd].

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Not in main comic thread. Apparently abandoned.}}
This comic is a one-off exclusive created for the journal {{w|Science (journal)|Science}} by [[Randall Munroe]].It shows how much "Science" there is and how much of it will be Open access. It is not part of the main comic series.

It shows how much Science is there by showing how much papers have been published. It states that there can be 140 citations per page. On a Word document with a narrow margin and regular font, then you could fit about 140 citations in one page with a word size of 6. It then states that we can fit 1000 pages per book. !000 pages is a lot for children's books {{Citation needed}} and even adult fiction books such the Harry Potter series have about 600 pages. However, many reference books and dictionaries have over 1000 pages. For a size reference, picture Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 1.3 times larger. We then start stacking books, each one having 14000000 citations in them.

The comic then says that a list of papers published in 1880 will have 100 pages or 14000 citations, not even one book. By 1920 the pile will be growing at 500 pages per year. This means that if it were linear, there will be 50 books or 50000 pages in 2020. However, this growth is clearly exponential as shown by the 1975 volume alone would have 4 books. In the time this comic was published there were 5 books each year and growing.

The comic then shows a timeline with [[Cueball]], [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] on the timeline, from 1880 to 1900 there are barely any books, at 1900 there are three books, however, this drops back to one until 1920 where there is four, at 1930 there is nine and at 1940 there is a whopping 14. It is further shown at the second timeline that the number continues to grow exponentially. Along the timeline there is random bits of trivia.

The second part of the comic shows how much of all that information will be open access or available to the public without many copyright laws. For example, xkcd is Open access because it can be viewed and copied for non profit means. As the comic states, more science is becoming open access due to the web. The second picture is another timeline with Cueball, Megan, [[Black Hat]] and [[Danish]] in a area labeled Open Access. As it states, more than half of the information is open access and more is becoming open access as shown by the bits of fact stating milestones for open access.

==Transcript==
{{Incomplete transcript|needs more}}

:'''How much science is there?'''

:Scientific publication has been accelerating--a new paper is published roughly every 20 seconds. Let's imagine a bibliography listing ''every'' scholarly paper ever written. How long would it be?

:If we can fit 140 citations per page... [image of page] > [image of stack of pages] > ...1000 pages per book... [image of book labeled "All of Botany" "Volume VII"] > ...and then we start stacking books... [image of stack of books]

:[The books in the stack are the aforementioned "All of Botany Volume VII", "Math (100000? papers)", "Applied Psych 1-17?", and "Weird Science 1984".]

:A list of papers published in 1880 would fill 100 pages.
:By 1920, the list would be growing by 500 pages a year.
:The 1975 section would fill four huge volumes.
:Today we're up to 15 volumes per year--a page every 45 minutes.

:'''...This is what the full list would look like:'''

:[Chart below showing the approximate number of volumes per year. On the right end, starting around 1990, a bubble with the words "Moved to open access" points upward to a different chart under the header "How open is it?" Under the cloud is a header "Traditional Publication", referring to the volumes in the chart. There is a box around approximately 2000-2010, with a note underneath saying detail. The years 1999 to 2014 are in a separate chart below.]

:Cueball: All scholarly articles from before 1880 fit in just a few volumes.

:[The rest are notes added to various points on the graph.]

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Note
|-
| 1869 || First issue of ''Nature''
|-
| 1880 || ''Science'' founded
|-
| 1987-89 || First online journals appear
|-
| 1991 || Paul Ginsparg launches ARXIV for physics preprints
|-
| 1999 || NIH director proposes an archive of free biomed papers
|-
| 2000 || Pubmed Central debuts Plos founded
|-
| 2001 || 30,000 scientists call for a boycott of journals that don't allow free access on Pubmed within 6 months
|-
| 2002 || Biomed central begins charging $500 author fee HHMI agrees to pay author feeds for open-access publication
|-
| 2003 || ''PLOS Biology'' launches, charges $1500 author's fee
|-
| 2006 || U.K. medical research council mandates free access within 6 months PLOS raises top author fee to $2500, launches ''PLOS One'', which reviews for scientific rigor, not importance
|-
| 2008 || NIH requires that papers it funds be made free within 12 months Harvard faculty agree to post papers in university repository
|-
| 2010 || PLOS becomes profitable ''PLOS One'' becomes world's biggest scientific publisher by volume
|-
| 2013 || White House orders all scientific agencies to plan to make papers free within 12 months
|-
| 2014 || European Commission will require free access within 6-12 months
|}

:[The following publications are also noted in speech bubbles in bibliography form, but are cut off by the edges of the bubbles.]

:{{w|Albert Einstein|Einstein, A.}} "{{w|Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen}}." (1905)
:Einstein, A. "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light." (1905) 
:Einstein, A. "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper." (1905)
:Einstein, A. "Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?" (1905)

:{{w|Edwin Hubble|Hubble, E.}} "Effects on Red Shifts on the Distribution of Nebulae." Proceedings by the National Academy of Sciences Volume 22 Number 11 (1936)"

:{{w|Hans Bethe|Bethe, H.}}, {{w|Ralph Alpher|Alpher, R.A.}}, and {{w|George Gamow|Gamow, G.}} "{{w|Alpher–Bethe–Gamow_paper|The Origin of Chemical Elements}}." Physical Review Volume 73 Number 7 (1948)
:(Although all other names are listed in a lastName, firstInitial format, Randall put "G. Gamow" instead of "Gamow, G.".)

:(The author listed (Watson, J.D.) did not write the article (Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids) but he did write another paper on DNA that was published in the same article of ''Nature''.)
:{{w|James Watson|Watson, J.D.}} and {{w|Francis Crick|Crick, F.H.C.}} "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" Nature 171, 737-738 (1953)
:{{w|Maurice Wilkins|Wilkins, M.H.F.}}, Stokes, A.R. & Wilson, H.R. "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" Nature 171, 738-740 (1953)

:{{w|Kurt Godel|Godel, Kurt}}, B. Meltzer, {{w|Richard Schlegel|Schlegel, Richard}} "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems." Physics Today Volume 17 Issue 1 (1964)
:(Again Randall switches the order of last name / first name and puts "Richard Schlegel".)

:'''How open is it?'''

:Since the advent of the web, much of scientific publishing has been moving to ''open access.'' According to Science-Metrix, open access reached a "tipping point" around 2011: more than 50% of new research is now made available free online.

:[The following text is inside a cloud shaped bubble.]

:'''Open access papers'''

:Megan: As journals move to open access and digitize their archives, old papers from every period move here...
:Cueball: ...In addition to the flood of new papers being published here directly.
:Black Hat: 25% of open-access papers are freely available on publication. The rest becomes free within 12 months on journal websites or other repositories.

:[Next to Cueball, a woman fishes a book out of a pile of volumes with a fishing rod.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]

Talk:1814: Color Pattern

2017-03-27T06:33:51Z

172.68.65.24:

This link, note 1, may help whomever is going to be editing the comic explanation, I don't have time this morning. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:40, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

May help '''''whoever is going to be editing ...'''''

Did a quick google and copy/pasted from the Wikipedia page on Moiré patterns. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 13:51, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:This is a copyright infringement. The contents of Wikipedia are not in the {{w|public domain}}. When using text from Wikipedia anywhere, you must indicate the license (CC-BY-SA 3.0).--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.82|162.158.150.82]] 13:58, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::This is fine. Wikipedia text is licensed for re-use by anybody, provided the original is referenced; Xseo referenced the source material in his comment above, and an explicit link is given in the article; furthermore, this entire website is CC-BY-SA 3.0, as indicated in the footer on every page. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 15:16, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

I can't be the only one for whom the note emoji are not showing up.
:I don't see them either. I'm running Chrome 48 Portable. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 14:18, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::Running Chrome 57, Chromium 53, and Firefox 52; the note emoji doesn't work on any of these (Linux Mint 17.3 64-bit). I wonder why? [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 15:19, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::: Works for me, Firefox 52. Bring up the menu bar (Alt or F10), "View > Text Encoding > Unicode". If you still don't see the notes, it may be an issue with the font settings. You could try to fiddle with "Tools > Options > Content > Default Font". Instead of using the menu, you can bring up "Options" by entering "about:preferences" in the address bar. If that doesn't work, you need professional help. ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.106|162.158.114.106]] 06:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
::Chrome 56 for Android, they display for me. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 10:24, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

AFAIK moiree patterns would not show up on an image that have been *properly* sampled, such moiree patterns are IIRC a byproduct of poorly sampled digital images. See WP for "aliasing" and "digital sampling" for reference. My two cents... [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 14:31, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:Good Lord. 24 hours! If any of you guys are actual engineers you should be ashamed of yourselves! I am not an engineer, but I do know a a tiny bit about signal theory, hence the tip. But then again this just shows how cheap shit chinese gizmos proliferate. Quality just cost too much, haha! Just need the looks, not the brainz! Only the zombies loves them BRAINZZZZZ! hurr hurr. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 19:17, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::What are you trying to say with 24 hours. At this moment the comic has been up for 6 hours... If you think the explanation could be improved this is luckily a wiki, so you could just improve instead of rant ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:::Did I say that too early? Well it certainly is 24+ hours now and you guys still don't know where the dart target is. :D The comic suggests some matches of geometry in the digital age are highly prone to distortions. That's interesting in it's own, but feel free to ignore it. As I hinted the real issue here relates to digital sampling and aliasing problems related to this. There are more than one way to fix artifacts in images, but one method involves oversampling at about twice the nyquist frequency and running the signal through a band-pass filter. That's fairly common, but I think that will only solve aliasing related to sampling not moiree patterns occurring naturally due to geometry. I suspect a digital photo of a digital screen might be one such case, of "naturally" occurring distortion patterns. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 18:08, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
::::I cannot see this has anything to do with the explanation. Cueball has a moiré pattern on his picture of his lap top screen as taken by the phone, which obviously do not sample properly. I have seen the same using my phone and camera. This comic explains in a song why a moiré patterns forms, and the explanation above explains why such a pattern occurs. I cannot see any connection with what you write. But if you think it is relevant feel free to try and include a paragraph on the subject, it is a wiki. In case it does make sense, then it is probably just me that do not understand what you write, but hey I'm not an engineer so... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

The Dean Martin version, which likely is the only version anyone younger than I has heard goes like this- When the moon hits your eye -
like a bigga pizza pie -
That's amore - -
When the world seems to shine -
like you've had too much wine -
That's amore [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 04:25, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
: At first I thought Russell was alluding to [[wikipedia:Tom Lehrer|Tom Lehrer's]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7VQFfusQJk "That's Mathematics"]. :D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.106|162.158.114.106]] 06:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

"Amore" is pronounces as /aˈmɔːrɛ/ in Italian. The initial vowel is a clean open "a" and there's no final "ei" but rather a clean open "e". Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Italian (Not counting I am Italian myself!)

Sorry, I can't help myself, but... If it's swimming in the sea and it's long and slippery, that's a moray [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 07:54, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

: "When you try write a song, but the rhythm is wrong, that's a pity... (but still witty)" ^_^ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.180|141.101.107.180]] 10:28, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

: When it's sometimes quite slow but on average it goes, that's amor...tized
: If your alphabet soup is tied up like a sloop, that's a mored A
: (This nonsense definitely not by [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 10:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC))
: If a diet's your wish, but you can't avoid the dish, that's a moreish [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 12:10, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Is it bad I came to the talk page specifically for more song lyrics? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.30|172.68.65.30]] 05:29, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
: Then you'll be happy to hear that Jamie Zawinski and Michael Bayne wrote another verse for their [https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/ Moiré screensaver]:
:: ''When the lines on the screen''
:: ''Make more lines in between,''
:: ''That's a moiré!'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.167|162.158.91.167]] 07:18, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
:::Now I'm happy ;-) I have also added this to the list of songs that precedes Randall's. Wonder if he knew about this, or got the idea by himself independently? I think (and hope) he did. He has before [[1723:_Meteorite_Identification#Trivia|given credit]] on xkcd to one that had made a similar joke to his before him. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
:"When you've stopped for the night,"
: "and the dock's not in sight,"
: "That's a mooring!"
:"When the anchor's in view"
: "And there's nothing to do"
: "That's a mooring!"
:--[[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 19:18, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Does anybody else think that the title text may just as well refer to "amore" as to "a moire"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.209|162.158.91.209]] 15:40, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
:Yes I think that is relevant. Have added it to the title text explanation. Thanks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
::Hmmm... the explanation would also be valid the other way round. Cause (amore) and effect (tight spacing) ... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.209|162.158.91.209]] 11:15, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

"When an eel bites your toe, and he just won't let go, that's a moray..." [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 01:21, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

Spider Robinson either invented most of this or at least used it in The Callahan Touch (1993)

Talk:383: Helping

2017-02-12T23:50:20Z

172.68.65.24:

Most depressing XKCD ever? [[Special:Contributions/71.201.53.130|71.201.53.130]] 14:24, 22 August 2013 (UTC)
:Every time when I see this comic I'm close before some tear drops running out of my eyes ;( --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:42, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Waitwaitwait. So the guy was in the building all along, witnessing the suicide/self-harm, and he failed to stop a woman from apparently successfully knocking herself out? 16:19, 24 May 2014 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.205}}

I thought Cueball was choking her![[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.169|108.162.238.169]]

I thought maybe it was about Randall's wife. Just like some of the comics feature her implicitly, I thought maybe this one did. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.20}}

I think the explanation is a bit off. Sometimes getting someone into a hospital is helping. I've had to call 911 to get friends help. Things usually got bad for a while after that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.124|108.162.216.124]] 21:46, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

The first time I saw this one, it was some 2 or 3 days after I had to call the police for a friend who was attempting suicide. It hit way, way too close to home, to the point where I wanted to cry. I ended up just getting up right then and going for a long walk in the woods to clear my head. 7:24, 2 July 2015 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|173.59.1.79}}

To 108.162.216.20, he married in 2011... this comic was made in 2008. Unfortunately, we may never know who he is referring to. {{unsigned ip|141.101.84.114}}

Am I the only one who feels that the point is he tried to talk to someone to cheer them up, but the woman was so distraught by what cueball said, it lead to self harm? {{unsigned ip|107.136.89.38}}