explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3005: Disposal

2024-10-31T16:49:39Z

172.69.194.11:

That's either a giant Cueball, or a really tiny rocket. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:05, 30 October 2024 (UTC)
:It's an Electron? Or maybe Falcon 1? [[User:Redacted II|Redacted II]] ([[User talk:Redacted II|talk]]) 00:23, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

It seems strange to me to see Randall drawing a rocket landing with its engine pointing upward instead of downward, when he traditionally has expressed so much interest in rocket and space physics. It's also notable that the rocket-landing problem was solved by others before SpaceX was considered to have, I bumped into a successful project on a maker site in the past couple years. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.71|172.68.3.71]] 01:23, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
:SpaceX was the first to propulsively land an orbital booster. [[User:Redacted II|Redacted II]] ([[User talk:Redacted II|talk]]) 01:39, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
:Re downward-pointing, there's a possible side-reference to [[1133: Up Goer Five]]'s "you will not go to space today". But I think it's more that if you have the ability to send it down a hole to explode, you have no reason to finesse the (non-)landing and might as well just thread it in under as much of the full propulsion as you can handle.
:And the conceit of the rocket-tech is that they've solved the position+direction issue 'perfectly', even if they haven't solved the "how to then stop it just before/as it reaches the ground" and/or any usable ways of standing/hanging it upright once it does.
:It's a 7+D problem. Attaining a precise position (x,y,z) with a precise velocity (dx,dy,dz) in at least one precise angle (verticality; plus possibly also others, if rotation is important, plus dθ and dφ at near-zero) and at least to one further limit (fuel remaining >=0). 'All' Cueball's rocket has to do is to perfect 5 or 6 dimensional properties (thread through x,y,z, being aimed in a vertically downwards (or, at a push, upwards) orientation and no ''excessive'' horizontal motion... all the rest can be fudged somewhat). And no additional weight needed for landing/catching points. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.8|141.101.98.8]] 03:15, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
:The extra energy from impacting at high speed ensures the rocket is thoroughly disassembled for maximum packing efficiency. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 06:24, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
:I do not think it strange for the rocket engine pointing upwards, I think it funny. It was definitely on purpose. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.148|172.68.110.148]] 08:05, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

There’s a Space Category, and a Kerbal program Category and a Mars Rover Category, why not a Rocket category? I propose on creating one. All in favor? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:33, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
:AYE! [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg4bo-hj-mDyOOUp_Yp0pug youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 09:43, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

I remember when businesses would use canisters to hold receipts and send them through vacuum tubes from the checkout to accounting. The canisters would make a "THOOOONK" sound when sucked into the vacuum tubes. I suggest that is why the comic is expecting a "THOOOONK" sound when the rocket enters the disposal site. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 11:08, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

We have at least three supplimental jokes in the explination. If we keep this up we're going to need an explainexplainXKCD page. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.130|172.69.135.130]] 16:00, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
:Out of interest, what 'supplimental' jokes would you say these three things are? I see nothing that isn't actually explanation or explainable (if necessary) by the links embed in the text itself. Improvements are always welcome, but maybe we don't necessarily know where there needs to be more honed/expanded description unless you point out where it lacks it. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.11|172.69.194.11]] 16:49, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:522: Google Trends

2024-10-23T23:36:48Z

172.69.194.11:

This comic made me laugh and laugh and laugh, some of it even out loud. Randall for President in 2014! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 19:24, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
:The next election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Maybe [[Randall]] does create a xkcd party and he will run for that job; but I'm pretty sure he won't. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:50, 10 January 2014 (UTC)
::That makes me feel sad, he would make a far better candidate than either of the current ones. No matter who gets elected now, America has lost. We can only hope they don't destroy too much. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.60|162.158.2.60]] 11:47, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

I disagree with the explanation of the the title text; it makes no sense. Why would a car "lie back, nude, with his trademark stovepipe hat"? I think it's a reference to Obama pushing for more ethanol in fuels; the blend now averages at about 10%. Apparently Obama recently backed of increasing the number, but at the time, ethanol was a big political issue. I don't know why "ethanol" in particular, but it being a car is more than nonsensical: it doesn't fit the words. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.23|162.158.60.23]] 02:24, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

I'm gonna be real I'm pretty sure the "bloggers" he talks about aren't real [[User:Rubbish|Rubbish]] ([[User talk:Rubbish|talk]]) 17:41, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Can someone check that "ironic" claim about the daughter of Sarah Palin? I am not deep into that topic, and the wikipedia page is a bit confusing, but if I see it correctly, she became a abstinence advocat AFTER her teen pregnancy. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:17, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Could it be that “come” means orgasm? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 22:57, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:That or "ejeculate" (which may overlap significantly with "orgasm", even in females, although not ''always'' in a 1:1 match), almost certainly. Some use the spelling "cum", or leave "come" to make it deliberately ambiguous (or punny) against the term 'to arrive' (itself another possible euphemism!). But I don't see so much intent to allude to "arriving (with) alcohol", so I read it more as a ''single-''entendre from the start. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.11|172.69.194.11]] 23:36, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

472: House of Pancakes

2024-10-21T12:23:41Z

172.69.194.11: /* Transcript */ Revised the Transcript to be more like a Transcript (only descriptions/literal footnotes in []s, no formatting, extended and perhaps more appropriate description of formatting/layout details within transcript-description bits.

{{comic
| number = 472
| date = September 5, 2008
| title = House of Pancakes
| image = house_of_pancakes.png
| titletext = Fuck it, I'm just going to Waffle House.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] is parodying Mark Z. Danielewski's novel ''{{w|House of Leaves}}'' by renaming it ''House of Pancakes'' (after the American fast food franchise {{w|International House of Pancakes}}). ''House of Leaves'' has an unconventional page layout and style, including the colouring of every instance of the word "house" in blue, as is done on the menu. It includes footnotes within footnotes like Randall did here.

In ''House of Leaves'', protagonist Johnny Truant (whose meta-narration is marked by Courier font as mimicked in the comic) discovers a book called ''The Navidson Record'' (represented here by the pancake menu), which in turn details a film of the same name, which in turn details a horror story of a family living in a sentient house. Truant, who is clearly intelligent and cultured, probes deeper into notating ''The Navidson Record''—and into insomnia—until ''The Navidson Record'' consumes his mind horrifically, the same way the film in the novel consumed the author of ''The Navidson Record'', the same way the house in the novel consumed part of the family.

''House of Leaves'' lends itself to many interpretations, but has been called a "satire of academic criticism," which makes this comic essentially a satire of a satire. Since part of the appeal of ''House of Leaves'' is that it takes itself extremely seriously with its intricacy, multitude of both real and made-up references to academic and popular culture, and layered emotional conflict, Randall's reduction of the ''House of Leaves'' to the (International) House of Pancakes cuts a humorous edge to a dark story. The tone of the comic parodies the tone of ''House of Leaves'': lonely, fear-inducing, and increasingly insane, but using pancakes instead of darkness.

Additionally, the mysterious "Mohawk Girl" referred to in the comic may be a nod to the ''House of Leaves'' character Delial, or to [[147: A Way So Familiar]].

The word "house" is in blue in every instance, which is a stylistic attribute of Mark Z. Danielewski's novel. Every Minotaur reference is marked out in red ink, and every use of "house" or a foreign language's equivalent, such as 'haus' and 'maison' is in blue. This is not a reference to hyperlinks. It is often thought that the house is printed in blue because houses have 'blueprints.'

The censored portion of the Big Steak Omelette is "...fresh green peppers, onions, mushrooms,..." per IHOP's website for the Big Steak Omelette: "Tender and tasty strips of steak, hash browns, fresh green peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and Cheddar cheese." Also, Omelette is misspelled, but that's probably just a typo.

The title text refers to the {{w|Waffle House}}, another US restaurant chain. The joke is that the protagonist has decided that maybe all this angst isn't worth it, and he'll just go to a different restaurant.

Clicking on the original comic links to the amazon.com page for House of Leaves.

From ''[[xkcd: volume 0]]'':
{{quote|This is a parody of the fascinating book ''House of Leaves''.}}

==Transcript==
:[All instances of the word "House" are in blue. Text is a mix of 'Printed' (hi-res serifed proportional font), 'Typed' (more crude-looking non-proportional serifed font) and 'Written' (freetext, in standard xkcd AllCaps style, having the occasional decoration and emphasis added).]
:[Above the 'frame' is Typed text:] Every day a new city, a new IHOP. And yet every night the dreams get worse. I ply the highways, a nervous eye on the rear-view mirror, the back seat piled with stolen menus. Their doors are opened 24 hours, but forever closed to my soul. This is what my life has become. This is my hell.
:[A bordered frame, in the style of an (illustrated and annotated) menu. We see two columns of product descriptions, three full ones and in each column and a hint of a fourth going beyond the bottom of the frame.]
:[Each clear description generally start with a product name, in bold, and a product description, all in Printed text. To the left of these are an illustrative image which has a barely legible caption seemingly identical to the product namr header, and a stylistic 'angled shadow' set subtly behind it. In each description text there may be at least
one footnote-number in superscript and square-brackets. Below each are Typed footnote paragraphs (mostly) relating to the footnote numbers in the above description. Additional scribbles are Written around and alongside the above, as text, doodles and other marks of one type or another.]
:[Menu header:]
::[Sidenote left, Written:] International
::[Printed header:] House of Pancakes
::[Scribbled-out sidenote, Written to the right:] BLOGSPOT

:[Item subheader, top of first column:] Strawberry Banana Pancakes
::[Item description:] Four pancakes filled with sliced fresh banana and crowned with cool strawberry topping, more [17] bananas and [23] whipped topping.
::[Footnote 17, with three smudged fingerprints over parts of this and the top of the next item down (a fourth, perhaps, far to the bottom of the framed area):] Driven by a nameless fear, a whisper in the dark behind me, I flee ahead of I know not what. Whenver I turn, there's nobody behind me. And yet someone is clearly stealing the ketchup. WHY?
::[Footnote 23, sandwiched incongruously and sideways from low to high, mostly between the images of the Stuffed French Toast and Ham and Egg Melt items, to the right:] My life is feeding, fleeing, fighting, and forgetting.

:[Item subheader, second down on left column:] Rooty Jr.
::[Item description, a splash of red (ketchup/blood) within it, further (secondary?) spatters and red marks, possibly including an attempt to create mostly unintelligable letters, spread on or around lower passages:] A kids only [19] version of our house signature Rooty Tooty. One scrambled egg, one strip of bacon, one pork sausage link and one fruit-topped buttermilk pancake.
::[Footnote 19:] The decision not to hyphenate "kids only" is likely connected to the omission of the serial comma. I wonder if the author is British. I wonder if he sleeps at night.

:[Item subheader, third down on left:] Rise 'N Shine
::[Item description:] Two eggs, toast and hash browns served with your choice [21] of two strips of bacon or two pork sausage links.
::[Footnote 21, starting with an small word (possibly (I") made illegible by one of the spatters of red:] rent a storage unit. Sleep there. Fill it with pancakes. Leave.

:[Item subheader, top of right column:] Stuffed French Toast
::[Item description:] Cinnamon raisin French [18] toast stuffed with sweet cream cheese filling, topped with cool strawberry or your choice of fruit compote and whipped topping.
::[Footnote 18:] Nightmares again. I wake up covered in sweat, and what appears to be a thin sheen of maple syrup

:[Inserted text, Written with emphasis and underlined:] WHO IS MOHAWK GIRL?

:[Item header, second down at right, which is sideways (low to high) in the general position that the horizontal text would normally be, next to the normally-set product image:] Ham & Egg Melt
::[Item description, also sideways and consistently 'below' (to the right of) its header:] Grilled sourdough bread stuffed with ham, scrambled eggs, Swiss and American cheeses. [20]
::[Footnote 20, normally orientated and positioned:] Ordered this in at an IHOP in Rochester, New York. There was blood on the floor. Some of it was mine.

:[Small drawn doodle, inserted, of three instances of a Cueball, the middle one holding out an item (gun?) to the right, followed by a ground feature (pool of liquid?)]
::[Written above the second (and third) Cueball:] Enough with your pancakes.
::[Written above the 'pool', two words heavily bolded:] Enough with your GOD DAMN pancakes.

:[Item header, third on the right:] The Big Steak Omlette
::[Item description, a few words of text has been censored by a black strip:] Tender strips of steak, hash browns, [censorship strip, long enough to obscure perhaps 4-6 typical words] tomatoes and Cheddar cheese. Served [22] with house salsa.
::[Footnote 22:] Woke up in Las Vegas. They're closing the Star Trek Experience today. The IHOP up the strip had pancake platters named after various states. None of them sounded like home.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Footnotes]]

3000: Experimental Astrophysics

2024-10-19T05:58:25Z

172.69.194.11: /* Explanation */ Tweak and flow.

{{comic
| number = 3000
| date = October 18, 2024
| title = Experimental Astrophysics
| image = experimental_astrophysics_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x490px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our experiment will be expensive, but we believe it will produce important spin-offs, especially if we manage to hit the sun from the right angle.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a THORNE-ŻYTKOW BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Thorne–Żytkow object}} is an object theorized by Kip Thorne and Anna Żytkow, which is a red giant or red supergiant with a neutron star at its core. There have been no confirmed sightings, but HV2112 in the small Magellican cloud (SMC) and HV 11417 are both strong candidates.

Normally, astrophysical science is an observational discipline, in which the existing situation is understood from afar. It would not be unusual to seek funding for telescope time, or even an entirely new telescope, in order to make such investigations possible. The scene in the comic itself might be the logical conclusion of that kind of proposal/{{w|elevator pitch}}, complete with a diagram of how such an object may form, but the title of the comic (made sxplicit by the title text) suggests that this is intended to be a 'practical' experiment to induce a KŻO into existence by actually sending a neutron star into our own Sun.

The reason that nobody would grant money for this is, mainly, common sense. First, you would need to find a neutron star and bring it here, which we have no plausible ability to do (even if we could find/create a handy neutron star) and would doubtless be ruinously expensive to accomplish. Secondly, having a neutron star anywhere near the solar system would most likely destroy the entire solar system,{{Actual citation needed|wouldn't be healthy, but need not 'destroy' it}} and would definitely change the nature of the Sun. Thirdly, the experiment calls for the Sun to be a red giant, which normally takes billions of years and will [[1606|ruin the weather]] — even if this transformation is the spontaneous result of introducing the neutron star (rather than another implausible and expensive stage of the experimental setup), the Earthbound funding committee are by now guaranteeing the premature destruction of their own planet.

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

:[Cueball is standing on a circular stage in front of a poster. The poster shows two stars, one much larger than the other. The smaller star has an arrow pointing to it to the center of the large star.]
:Cueball: A Thorne-Żytkow object is a hypothesized nested star—a red giant with a neutron star inside it.
:Cueball: So far, no TŻOs Have been definitively observed, but your grant could help us change that.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:We're struggling to get funding for our project to slingshot a neutron star into the sun.:

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia

2024-10-18T15:18:47Z

172.69.194.11:

He forgot the Idaho abbreviation. [[User:Danger Kitty|Danger Kitty]] ([[User talk:Danger Kitty|talk]])
hello[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.64|172.68.54.64]] 19:49, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: And Mississippi has stolen Michigan's abbreviation! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.240|172.70.206.240]] 23:18, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

5 likes and I will make this a reality [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:10, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Probably this is because I'm more familiar with the map of Australia than of the US, but Melbourne seems to have moved quite a bit to the east and is now presumably in Gippsland? Oddly that's the most jarring change for me... [[User:Zoid42|Zoid42]] ([[User talk:Zoid42|talk]]) 20:26, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Yep. {{w|Melbourne Florida}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.10|172.70.47.10]] 21:56, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
::: Yes, I guess that explains the location -- though I'd not heard of the Melbourne in Florida previously. The other jarring thing is (on the east coast at least) the climates don't match up. Florida is closer to Queensland in terms of climate (and maybe culturally), Tasmania is colder and I guess probably closer to the north-eastern US states. Plus I can't really see Adelaide as being that much like New Orleans... {{unsigned|Zoid42|21:58, 17 October 2024}}

An eight-legged gator with fangs the size of your arm, six eyes, and the ability to spin webs is truly a horrifying thought. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:07, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: At that point most of the NT would become to dangerous for people to live. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 23:21, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

If find it weird how tasmania is florida, as while they are in the same place, they are the least alike 2 places you could think of. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 22:35, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Agreed. If cartoons and television have taught me anything, one is home to a bunch of snarling, slobbering, ravenous beasts, moving across the landscape as whirlwinds of wanton destruction. And the other is Tasmania. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]] 04:59, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Part of the joke is that the contiguous 48 States plus DC have nearly the same area as Australia, though the US has a larger total area. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 01:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

As an Australian citizen, this map hurts my soul. This is amazingly painful and I kinda love it. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 01:36, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:: I apparently now live in Adelaide/Louisiana (or New Orleans/South Australia). [[User:FourW|FourW]] ([[User talk:FourW|talk]]) 06:32, 17 October 2024 (UTC)FourW

Environmentalists will be upset with Randal for finally finishing the {{w|Cross Florida Barge Canal}}. And just in time for the centennial!--[[User:The Mess|The Mess]] ([[User talk:The Mess|talk]]) 07:33, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:I was wondering if it was a sidelong comment upon the effects of {{w|Hurricane Milton}}... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]]

:: No, no, no. It's the Gap Chasm.[https://xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Gap_Chasm] {{unsigned ip|172.71.183.173|17:26, 17 October 2024}}

The distortion of Washington State, where I live, is painful, but funny. Can't wait for comic 3000! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.58|172.71.146.58]] 16:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:I know, it's probably going to be sometime on monday- i saw a website who said they would rank all 3000 comics then! [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 09:44, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Being about to shift to the right at an election next weekend, it is very prescient (and scary) that SE Queensland, where I live, is in North Carolina. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.212|172.68.64.212]] 18:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

That's great! As a Sydney resident this cartoon gave me an earworm. I'll be singing it all day; "South Carolina On My Mind". [[User:Ozhamada|Ozhamada]] ([[User talk:Ozhamada|talk]]) 22:18, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Stralia might not have anything directly equivalent to Hawaii and Alaska (significantly distant non-contiguous states), but it does have an island state (Tasmania) as well as several non-state island territories, and a mahoosive chunk of Antarctica that might have done in place of Alaska.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.35|172.70.90.35]] 09:05, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
:Well, Tasmsnia's already there, you'll note, which is there for that broken-Florida-like bit. Torres Straight islands and wider-afield territories/semi-adopted aren't really as handy replacements for the non-contiguous bits of the US, though. I can see why it was only taken as far as it was, for parody purposes. Diminishing returns on anything further. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.11|172.69.194.11]] 15:18, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

==Request: Map Merge/Morph==
Could someone please post a simple map outline of the contiguous US and of Australia, and then try to merge / morph the two maps together? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.88|172.70.47.88]] 17:24, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:could you please elaborate on how you want to merge these two maps? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:22, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Anyone else see a *very* similar map on social media recently? I think it might've been one of those "bad maps" X accounts that posted one that's almost identical but with different labeling a couple days ago, clearly the inspiration for Randall. Probably worth mentioning that in the explanation somewhere.
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 22:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

I have been referencing this map for years, to try to explain how isolated Perth is. I say: imagine San Francisco is the only city on the west coast, and the edge of the state runs south from the Montana/Dakotas border. And the next nearest city is Houston. Although I guess I need to change that to SLO and New Orleans.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.0.190|172.68.0.190]] 01:06, 18 October 2024 (UTC)