explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1241: Annoying Ringtone Champion

2025-03-04T04:00:57Z

172.69.22.39: You gotta space em out

{{comic
| number = 1241
| date = July 22, 2013
| title = Annoying Ringtone Champion
| image = annoying_ringtone_champion.png
| titletext = It beat out 'Clock radio alarm', 'B-flat at 194 decibels', 'That noise from Dumb & Dumber', and 'Recording of a sobbing voice begging you to answer'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic satirizes the large variety of {{w|Ringtone|ringtones}} that may be used on their cell phones. While many are simply tunes that personalize a user's phone, some will use ringtones that resemble everyday sounds, such as doorbells, coughing, alarm noises, or in this case, the buzzing of a mosquito. Although rather innocuous, these ringtones can get very annoying to some people, which is what this comic is getting at.

Here, [[Black Hat]] has set his ringtone to "The sound a mosquito makes as it buzzes past your ear", the winner of the "Awful Ringtone Championship". [[Cueball]], hearing the sound, cries out and swats the air around his head, mistaking the ringtone for an actual mosquito buzzing past his ear. In addition to being an extremely unpleasant sound, it could also cause confusion to others, as shown in the comic, thus being unanimously decided as the most annoying ringtone. [[Black Hat]]'s response is likely a pun meaning both "Oh, I've got to take this [call]" (like someone who has been interrupted by a phone call) and need to leave and respond and "Oh, I've got to take this [competition]" since the ringtone is so annoying.

The title text refers to four other annoying ringtones, apparently none of which were deemed as annoying as a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMg-IgW7Dzg mosquito buzzing]:
*"Clock radio alarm". [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eaym36MR1A These] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F30q6fMGV3s sounds] are often loud and annoying, just to ensure that you really will wake up.
*"B-flat at 194 decibels". {{w|B♭ (musical note)|B-flat}} is a musical note with a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LaqyxPwSE pitch] of 466.16 Hz (or any power of 2 or 1/2 multiplied by that). 194 decibels is 501187233627% (most devices only go up to 100%/0dB) and is the {{w|Sound pressure#Examples of sound pressure and sound pressure levels|limit at 1 atmosphere pressure}}. Any more energy would create a shockwave. This could also be a reference to a crowd of {{w|vuvuzela}}s as they also produce sounds pitched around B flat. This may also refer to several B-flat-related phenomena discussed in an NPR story, [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7442915 Have You Heard About B Flat?] Specifically, B-flat has been found to agitate alligators, and waves passing through gas near a black hole have been found to resonate at a frequency which results in a B flat 57 octaves below middle C. Regardless of all this, a sound played as loud as 194 dB is quite literally deafening, so the ringtone would be not so much annoying as dangerous, which would probably have it disqualified from the competition.
*"That noise from Dumb & Dumber". {{w|Dumb and Dumber}} is a comedy movie from 1994. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBs The noise] from Dumb & Dumber is referring to the point in the movie when Harry and Lloyd asked, "Do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" and began shrieking in imitation of a loud fax machine.
*"Recording of a sobbing voice begging you to answer". Self-explanatory. Such a ringtone is obviously disruptive, annoying, and potentially worrying to those in the vicinity of the phone.{{citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[At the top of the frame is a humming tone. It is written in small letters, that gradually get larger until the middle "M", when the letters gradually shrink again. Cueball is cringing while raising his arms above his head. Black Hat is holding his phone and looking at it.]
:Ringtone: hMMMMMM<big>M<big>M<big>M</big>M</big></big>MMMMMMMM
:Cueball: <big>Augh!</big>
:Black Hat: Oh, I've gotta take this.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:By unanimous decision, the winner of the Awful Ringtone Championship is "the sound a mosquito makes as it buzzes past your ear".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Rankings]] 
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Music]]

Talk:2658: Coffee Cup Holes

2022-08-13T22:47:04Z

172.69.22.39:

I was confused for a moment. That's a coffee ''mug''. And the correct answer is either one (the handle) or none (because below the macroscopic level (and above the theoretical sub-Planck scale of string-theory loops) it's increasingly not even mostly holes but very, very barely anything 'solid' jostling about in empty space giving no real impediment to any theoretical quantum-scale cheesewire without even being cut through). A coffee ''cup'' has no holes (regardless) if you don't count any form of sippy-lid it might have. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 22:25, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, the mug has two at the macro level (the hole that makes up the handle and the hole on the top). There could conceivably be more shallow holes inside the mug where the handle connects to the cup. At a plank-length level, the atoms could be viewed as holes in the vacuum bending space time around it.
::You're not a topologist, certainly. And a ''hydrogen-nucleus'' is approximately 10^20 times the planck-length. The whole atom on the order of 10,000 times larger, and the constiuent quarks 'only' 1,000th, or so, smaller, with the differences being the space betweenn that anything that cares isn't going to consider much of an obstruction. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.155|172.70.162.155]] 23:43, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
:There is no "hole" at the top - at best it count as an indention in the surface {{unsigned ip|172.70.211.134|23:38, 12 August 2022}}
::Hole has multiple meanings. A hole in the ground doesn't have to go all the way through the Earth. The point of panel three is that we don't know what definition the question is using, which makes it impossible to answer correctly.[[User:Zzyzx|Zzyzx]] ([[User talk:Zzyzx|talk]]) 00:47, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
:Do coffee “cups” not have handles wherever you are? Google image search shows white ceramic cups with rounded bottoms, wider than they are high, ''with round handles'' that a finger or two can pass through, on saucers; and that is indeed what I think of when I hear “coffee cup”. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_cup Wikipedia] shows similar examples in other colours and materials. In my understanding, it is entirely equivalent to a mug-with-a-handle topologically and has the same one hole. Oh, are you perhaps thinking of those cardboard cups you get from vending machines and cheap coffee shops? I wouldn’t call them “coffee cups” at all; just “paper cups”. [[User:Chortos-2|Chortos-2]] ([[User talk:Chortos-2|talk]]) 13:01, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
::For my part, "wider than tall and rounded (or even very tapered)" is a cup (it cups the liquid), hence "teacup", and they mostly do have handles, whilst the shape held in the comic is a mug for being more a height-dominant cylinder (or close to it). Topologically the same, but distinct in fully-fleshed form (at least for those of either not morphologically distorted towards the other, a tall cup or a wide mug, say).
::A "paper cup that coffee comes in" (or a similar re-usable "cup-for-life") that does not have a handle is, however, always a ''cup'' even if it's taller than wide, for reasons clearly more descriptivist than prescriptivist in origin. There are no "paper mugs", that I'm aware of; I know you have plastic cup-holding things that give you a (re-usable) handle to hold the thing that the cup sits in so that you don't have to grip a thin, fragile and ''very heated'' disposable/vendable cup skin-on-'skin', but that's a holder for a cup and it's still a cup that it holds.
::I have no compunction in calling the comic's container a mug, based entirely upon its appearance, though obviously applying my own cultural/learnt distinctions to this. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.171|172.69.79.171]] 19:08, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Mug_and_Torus_morph.gif] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.4|172.70.179.4]] 23:54, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

For something to be a hole, you need to consider what is capable of passing through the hole. For instance, a mesh screen might have no holes that my fingers can pass through, but it is full of holes for water or air to pass through. And while atoms might be mostly space, other atoms can't usually just pass through that space, although high-energy particles may. Also, the space can be considered filled with forces, which may act as barriers to certain things. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.171|172.70.130.171]] 00:36, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
:Sure, for one definition of “hole.” That’s the whole point of the comic: there are multiple definitions, and no single definition is correct. [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 01:01, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Is “cup” or “mug” better for the explanation? “Mug” is a better descriptor, but it’s described as “cup” in the comic, so that would be more faithful to what Randall intended. [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 01:25, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Linguist: Zero to Two... mostly. Given linguistic variation and local functional style the object being referred to may not have a closed handle, or any handle at all (Cup vs Mug), and the top may be considered a hole in the common usage. --- [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.34|172.69.71.34]] 01:33, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Part of the joke is that all five methods don't discern between a cup and a mug, the original cliché being that topologists are unusual because they don't. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 03:06, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Someone should mention that part of the joke is that when the topologist says it has one hole, they're referring to the hole in the handle, while in the next panel the "normal person" assumes the one hole they mentioned is the opening and questions its validity. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.51|108.162.241.51]] 03:25, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

All frames except the first and last depict a mug; a topologist most definitely discerns between a a cup and a mug because they give different answers, the "normal" person is only questioning a specific feature, and the philosopher is clearly considering a mug. If it's part of the joke the only contrast is the question. Seems way too subtle for Mr Munroes normal style. probably just what he is used to calling it. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.208|172.69.69.208]] 07:04, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

We have a lot of visual aids for topology in this comic, and none for the article about 2625: Field Topology. That seems backwards to me.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.39|172.69.22.39]] 22:47, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

2658: Coffee Cup Holes

2022-08-13T13:32:42Z

172.69.22.39: /* Explanation */ Reword

{{comic
| number = 2658
| date = August 12, 2022
| title = Coffee Cup Holes
| image = coffee_cup_holes.png
| titletext = Theoretical physicist: At the Planck length, uncountably many.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CAFFEINE MOLECULE WITH A HOLE DRILLED IN ITS SIDE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[File:Mug and Torus morph.gif|thumb|150px|The coffee mug and donut shown in this animation both have genus one.]]

This comic depicts people in different fields of study answering the question, "How many holes are there in a coffee cup?" This question can have multiple interpretations, in particular concerning the definition of a hole.

[[Ponytail]], a {{w|topology|topologist}}, states the coffee cup belongs in the {{w|Genus (mathematics)#Topology|genus}} of one hole. A common joke is that topologists can't tell the difference between a coffee cup and a donut since they're homeomorphic to each other — they have the same genus. From the topologist's point of view, the coffee cup definitely has one hole. See [[2625: Field Topology]] for more information about topology.

[[Hairy]], a normal person, is not sure (the acronym "IDK" stands for "I don't know") and asks for clarification about whether the opening at the top counts as a hole. This shows flaws in the question, which suffers from the mathematically imprecise, ambiguous common usage of the word hole. Topologists would refer to the opening as a concavity, not a hole, and while they consider such geometrical properties generally outside their field, most practical applications of topology do involve geometrical components.{{cn}}

[[File:Double torus illustration.png|thumb|150px|A genus-2 surface]]

[[Hairbun]], a philosopher, answers the question with an elucidating counter-question, considering a hypothetical scenario. Drilling a new hole should increase the number of holes by one, and after the hole has been drilled, a common teacup or mug has two holes according to topologists. Since drilling a hole increases the number of holes by one, the philosopher's question requires the original questioner to reveal the answer to their own question.

[[Cueball]], a chemist, looks at the coffee in the cup on a molecular level, which means it has very many holes: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1021 or 1 sextillion) “in the [https://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/jmol.php?model=CN1C%3DNC2%3DC1C%28%3DO%29N%28C%28%3DO%29N2C%29C caffeine] alone.” The implication is that there are more in the cup itself, depending on what material it’s made out of. Also, the coffee itself could have other holes, depending on the type of coffee. For example, espresso contains significant amounts of niacin and riboflavin, each of which has at least one hole in its chemical structure. However, this ignores the fact that bonds are not discrete sticks as portrayed in many molecular models. The "holes" in the middle of a caffeine molecule are not completely empty but instead merely have lower electron densities/probabilities. In a {{w|space-filling model}}, a caffeine molecule has zero holes. So the point-cloud duality of electron orbitals and bonds might not satisfy a topologist's, normal person's, or philosopher's criteria for a connected substrate in which holes may be formed.

In the title text, the theoretical physicist looks even deeper, at the subatomic scale of {{w|Planck units}}. Since fundamental particle interaction is governed by fundamental forces and collision (per the {{w|Pauli exclusion principle}}) instead of tensile or ductile solid connectedness, the theoretical physicist posits that any definition providing for a single hole would also describe a number of holes akin to the factorial of the number of particles in the universe, or at least within the cup's {{w|light cone}}, which is a number impractical to accurately count, but not uncountable in a mathematical sense.

Part of the joke could be that all five methods of inquiry don't discern between a cup (as described) and a mug (as depicted), the cliché being that topologists are unusual because they don't. Or, as many people use the terms interchangeably, [[Randall]] may too.

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

:[The first panel has text only. The "Q:" below is a large letter Q representing a question, not a character name.]
:Q:
:How many holes are there in a coffee cup?

:[Each of the next four panels has a caption at the top to indicate the kind of person answering the question.]
:Caption: Topologist
:[Ponytail stands holding a coffee mug.]
:Ponytail: One.

:Caption: Normal person
:[Hairy stands to the right of Ponytail, holding a coffee mug at an angle to look into it.]
:Hairy: IDK, does the opening count as a hole?

:Caption: Philosopher
:[Hairbun is shown in closeup, with two drawings of coffee mugs to her left.]
:Hairbun: To answer that question, consider another: If we drill a hole in the side, how many holes are there now?

:Caption: Chemist
:[Cueball stands with a drawing of a caffeine molecule above him and to the right.]
:Cueball: 1021 in the caffeine alone

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

2658: Coffee Cup Holes

2022-08-13T13:12:16Z

172.69.22.39: /* Explanation */ Planck units

{{comic
| number = 2658
| date = August 12, 2022
| title = Coffee Cup Holes
| image = coffee_cup_holes.png
| titletext = Theoretical physicist: At the Planck length, uncountably many.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CAFFEINE MOLECULE WITH A HOLE DRILLED IN ITS SIDE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[File:Mug and Torus morph.gif|thumb|150px|The coffee cup and donut shown in this animation both have genus one.]]

This comic depicts people in different fields of study answering the question, "How many holes are there in a coffee cup?" This question can have multiple interpretations, in particular concerning the definition of a hole.

[[Ponytail]], a {{w|topology|topologist}}, states the coffee cup belongs in the {{w|Genus (mathematics)#Topology|genus}} of one hole. A common joke is that topologists can't tell the difference between a coffee cup and a donut since they're homeomorphic to each other — they have the same genus.  From the topologist's point of view, the coffee cup definitely has one hole. See [[2625: Field Topology]] for more information about topology.

[[Hairy]], a normal person is not sure (the acronym "IDK" stands for "I don't know"), and asks for clarification about whether the opening at the top counts as a hole. This shows flaws in the question, which suffers from the mathematically imprecise, ambiguous common usage of the word hole. Topologists would refer to the opening as a concavity, not a hole, and while they consider such geometrical properties generally outside their field, most practical applications of topology do involve geometrical components.{{cn}}

[[File:Double torus illustration.png|thumb|150px|A genus-2 surface]]

[[Hairbun]], a philosopher, answers the question with an elucidating counter-question, considering a hypothetical scenario. Drilling a new hole should increase the number of holes by one, and after the hole has been drilled, a common teacup or mug has two holes according to topologists. Since drilling a hole increases the number of holes by one, the philosopher's question requires the original questioner to reveal the answer to their own question.

[[Cueball]], a chemist, looks at the cup on a molecular level, which naturally means it has lots and lots of holes: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1021 or 1 sextillion) “in the [https://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/jmol.php?model=CN1C%3DNC2%3DC1C%28%3DO%29N%28C%28%3DO%29N2C%29C caffeine] alone.” The implication is that there are more in the cup itself, depending on what material it’s made out of. Also, the coffee itself could have other holes, depending on the type of coffee. For example, espresso contains significant amounts of niacin and riboflavin, each of which has at least one hole in its chemical structure. However, this ignores the fact that bonds are not discrete sticks as portrayed in many molecular models. The "holes" in the middle of a caffeine molecule are not completely empty but instead merely have lower electron densities/probabilities. In a {{w|space-filling model}}, a caffeine molecule has zero holes. So the point-cloud duality of electron orbitals and bonds might not satisfy a topologist's, normal person's, or philosopher's criteria for a connected substrate in which holes may be formed.

In the title text, the theoretical physicist looks even deeper, at the subatomic scale of {{w|Planck units}}. Since fundamental particle interaction is governed by fundamental forces and collision instead of tensile or ductile solid connectedness, the theoretical physicist posits that any definition providing for a single hole would also describe a number of holes akin to the factorial of the number of particles in the universe, or at least within the cup's {{w|light cone}}, which is a number impractical to accurately count, but not uncountable in a mathematical sense.

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

:[The first panel has text only. The "Q:" below is a large letter Q representing a question, not a character name.]
:Q:
:How many holes are there in a coffee cup?

:[Each of the next four panels has a caption at the top to indicate the kind of person answering the question.]
:Caption: Topologist
:[Ponytail stands holding a coffee mug.]
:Ponytail: One.

:Caption: Normal person
:[Hairy stands to the right of Ponytail, holding a coffee mug at an angle to look into it.]
:Hairy: IDK, does the opening count as a hole?

:Caption: Philosopher
:[Hairbun is shown in closeup, with two drawings of coffee mugs to her left.]
:Hairbun: To answer that question, consider another: If we drill a hole in the side, how many holes are there now?

:Caption: Chemist
:[Cueball stands with a drawing of a caffeine molecule above him and to the right.]
:Cueball: 1021 in the caffeine alone

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

2201: Foucault Pendulum

2022-07-28T19:41:14Z

172.69.22.39: citation needed

{{comic
| number = 2201
| date = September 11, 2019
| title = Foucault Pendulum
| image = foucault_pendulum.png
| titletext = Trust me, you don't want to get on the wrong side of the paramilitary enforcement arm of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Black Hat]] is attending what appears to be a guided tour of a museum with a {{w|Foucault pendulum}}. [[Megan]] is explaining to him, [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] about the device which demonstrates the rotation of the Earth.

Black Hat, being himself, immediately sees an opportunity to cause chaos and seizes it with both hands, quite literally — he grabs the pendulum, which causes the others to shout after him to stop. At first this would seemingly be for fear of ruining the delicate demonstration. However, in the final panel, the [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]] [[Blondie]] reveals to us that by arresting the motion of the pendulum, Black Hat has somehow stopped the rotation of the Earth. However, it was only briefly, since the local {{w|geophysicists}} managed to wrestle him down, and it must be assumed that they then quickly restarted the pendulum and thus the Earth's rotation.

This of course is blatantly impossible, since the Foucault pendulum's motion is tied to the Earth's rotation, not the other way around (at least in any significant way, see below). A Foucault pendulum is a regular {{w|pendulum}} that swings from a bearing that allows rotation in any direction, like your shoulder joint instead of your elbow, as a demonstration that the Earth is rotating beneath it. If the Earth were stationary, the pendulum's plane of oscillation would not change relative to its immediate surroundings, but the Earth is not stationary{{citation needed}}, so the pendulum's plane of oscillation will appear to rotate over the course of a day, although in reality it is the Earth that rotates. The low-friction bearing doesn't allow the rotation of the Earth to affect the motion of the pendulum, so it tends to stay aligned with its original inertial reference frame rather than with its surroundings, which rotate with the Earth. A Foucault pendulum located at one of the poles will take a full day to "move" one full round. At the equator there is no movement, and in between it will take longer than 24 hours (24 hours divided by the sine of the latitude).

The fact that the Earth's rotation does not influence the motion of the pendulum does NOT mean that other forces can't affect it - for example, someone running up and manually repositioning the pendulum. Of course, the apparent rotation of the pendulum's plane relative to the Earth is an effect of the planet's motion, rather than the cause of it. Thus, stopping a Foucault pendulum manually does not entail pausing the rotation of the Earth.[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]

If it were somehow possible for a Foucault pendulum to control Earth's rotation (see above), Black Hat would probably not want to alter the momentum of the pendulum if he were not at one of the Earth's poles. That is assuming he was told that it was related to Earth's rotation and assuming that he would prefer to preserve his own life over creating chaos (unless he has some means to prevent his being slammed into a nearby wall at the speed of sound). This is because, if the rotation of the Earth were to be stopped for even very short amounts of time (a few seconds), it would cause everything on Earth that wasn't bolted/fastened to the ground to move eastward compared to the now stationary ground. Objects near the Equator would suddenly be moving at a speed of 300-360 meters per second, likely causing the death of most lifeforms on Earth beneath a certain latitude almost instantaneously. Those close enough to the poles may survive, though. Also this will cause massive windstorms, tsunamis, volcanic and tectonic events on a scale not previously observed on Earth. This would likely cause a mass extinction event and wipe out most of humanity in the initial events (which would eventually lead to our total extinction). It is possible that Black Hat's grabbing the pendulum would cause a gradual slowing prior to stopping, minimizing the issue (though this doesn't seem to be the case), but the results would still be catastrophic, as the aforementioned events are still likely to occur (specifically the tsunamis and volcanic events). However, as mentioned above, if this pendulum were located at the South Pole, then Black Hat and other people around him would not be affected immediately, and he could both do it, survive and be stopped again. The question is whether there would be any more news stories to cover this, given what would happen to the rest of the world! If there was no one to readjust the pendulum's rotation, then certain events would happen after the initial damage (see this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_T7L8rt1Ec]). [[Randall]] previously covered this scenario in detail in his [[what if?]] book, see [https://io9.gizmodo.com/xkcds-creator-explains-what-would-happen-if-earth-stopp-1625068208 XKCD's Creator Explains What Would Happen If Earth Stopped Spinning].

To be completely correct, the angular momentum of the Earth+pendulum system is constant, so that when Black Hat "stops" the pendulum's rotation with respect to the Earth, he actually transfers to the pendulum some of Earth's angular momentum, thereby ''slightly'' slowing Earth's rotation. But the order of magnitude of that effect is (at most) in proportion to the pendulum-to-Earth mass ratio. Earth's mass being ~6 x 1024kg, the effect for any practical pendulum would be beyond the 20th decimal place and would therefore go totally unnoticed.

The title text mentions the {{w|International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service}}, an organization providing standards for global time and reference frames; this organization would have a very rough day after the fiasco with Black Hat. The title text refers to a (probably) fictional paramilitary enforcement arm of this organization and the foolishness of tangling with such a force. If Foucault pendulums were somehow able to influence the rotation of the Earth in any measurable way, the IERS enforcers would probably strictly control their installation and monitor their use (and misuse). Black Hat is likely in for a rough day as well. It seems likely that some on this team are geophysicists, since they were the ones who took Black Hat down.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is addressing Cueball, Black Hat and Ponytail as they are looking a pendulum, which consists of a large swinging sphere with a spike beneath it hanging on a string coming down from above with seven small markers under it. Megan is pointing at it while it is swinging towards them, as indicated with lines behind the sphere and the string.]
:Megan: This Foucault pendulum demonstrates Earth's rotation. It stays in a fixed plane while the Earth rotates under it.

:[Close-up on Black Hat holding a hand to his chin.]
:Black Hat: Hmm, really.
:Black Hat: So that means...

:[Zoom out to Black Hat running to the pendulum grabbing it with both hands. He knocks over two of the seven markers that can now be seen to be small pegs standing up on he floor beneath the pendulum. A line goes from his hand on the pendulum up to a sound bubble. Two people off-panel yell at him.]
:Character off-panel 1: Hey!
:Character off-panel 2: Stop him!
:Sound: ''Grab!''

:[Blondie as a news anchor uses her held out hand to indicate Black Hat who is shown on a screen next to her. There is a caption in two lines above it. The first line in normal text, the second line in white in a black rectangle. There are further unreadable text below the picture.]
:Blondie: The Earth's rotation was briefly halted today until geophysicists wrestled the intruder to the ground...
:Breaking
:''news''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Physics]]