explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1881: Drone Training

2019-08-09T00:53:35Z

172.69.250.52: Added comment "Frankly, I'm surprised White Hat didn't think training a drone was a marvelous idea."

"This is the first comic to feature Black Hat, White Hat, and no other character." Is this correct. Which other comics feature both "hats".[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 14:15, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
:I've removed this from the explanation. Even when this is true it's not worth to be mentioned unless this really has a connection to the content of the comic. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:24, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Is that interpretation of the alt text likely? My initial thought was that Black Hat's Roomba would be taken custody of because of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. (Well, actually, it was more like "aren't shock collars a form of animal abuse?") [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.166|162.158.2.166]] 16:43, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Seems we both had the same idea at the same time 😄, I have added an explanation to that effect. Feel free to add the additional details you know. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 16:51, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

My interpretation of the title text is that Black Hat believes that White Hat's Roomba will be confiscated by animal control because White Hat is letting it run loose. In most American cities, you are required to keep your dog on your own property. This can be accomplished by a fence or pen, tying the dog to a stake or doghouse, or through the use of an invisible fence. A common form of invisible fence consists of a cable buried along the perimeter of the property which emits a radio signal, and a shock collar worn by the dog which beeps when the dog approaches the perimeter and then gives a mild shock if it gets closer. Animal control doesn't necessarily have to think the animal is terrorizing anyone, just that it's loose and could get hit by cars, dig up people's gardens, may be hungry or have parasites from living on it's own, etc.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.160|108.162.216.160]] 18:57, 25 August 2017 (UTC)Pat
:At xkcd Black Hat is always the bad (joking) guy. And when the "joke will be on him in a few weeks" it's clear that it's falling back to him. White Hat wasn't joking. Just imagine old fashioned dogcatchers from the movies trying to catch a Roomba... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:23, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

;Deep learning
With deep learning (or any kind of actively learning Artificial Intelligence), drones can learn from their experience. The question is if you need spray bottle for this (that is, if there is some programmatic way to teach it, like marking parts of home that it should not enter in an app, or a feedback from app), and if the spraying the drone would actually work (if the AI would actually take it for a negative reinforcement). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 10:33, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
: Imho it would be really cool if you could teach an AI things without using any software, e.g. no programmatic way or app needed. Personally I'd prefer using a spray bottle over an app or similar. And I'm saying this as a professional software developer. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:55, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
::It would still need to be PROGRAMMED to interpret spraying as negative reinforcement. Also have sensors capable of recognizing it has been sprayed. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:17, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
::: Of course, but that programming would have been done by the manufacturer (/edit: Or by the device itself). While I interpret JakubNarebski's comment as the programming needed to be done by the customer. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:07, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

: 60 years ago when televisions had vacuum tubes instead of integrated circuits and the picture would get fuzzy, you could ''teach'' it to behave by slapping the side of the case. *wink* [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:02, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
:: Indeed, but it didn't learn from it XD /edit: I'm not sure if you're exaggerating with the "60 years ago", though... It's more like 10 to 15 when CRTs vanished https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube#Demise. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:01, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
::: CRTs may have gone away more recently, but the vacuum tubes inside were replaced around 40 years ago. [[User:Rajakiit|Raj-a-Kiit]] ([[User talk:Rajakiit|talk]]) 17:41, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
:::: Well, besides of the fact that a CRT _is_ a vacuum tube... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:07, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

I was going to say the statement that there's 3 possible explanations was wrong, that the other 2 aren't feasible, the title text means Black Hat's Roomba is being abused and Animal Control will take it. I had to read these comments to understand the idea that Black Hat could be saying this, and he's predicting White Hat's Roomba will escape and be caught. And now I like that version better, LOL! I forget what the 3rd is, which shows how unlikely I find it. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:38, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

The shock collar works with a wire surrounding the allowed perimeter of the dog/roomba. The same technology is used for automatic lawnmowers which are basically garden-roombas. So this isn't as far fetched as one might think... [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.101|198.41.242.101]]

Interesting .. are you proposing a new [Bechdel test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test) for XKCD? {{unsigned ip|162.158.62.15}}

My first wiki page, glad to see that what I wrote was kept! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.209|162.158.166.209]] 04:29, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

The explanation omits what seems to be a likely idea, that Black Hat is a prankster who is deliberately winding up White Hat by pretending his devices are animals, while in the title text animal control seeks to out-prank Black Hat by doing the same.11:44, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

I always though that it was to be taken away because it didn’t have a collar on, to which Black Hat will explain that it’s white hat’s fault.
== Mitchell and Webb ==

I feel strongly that the comic is a reference to the "The Mitchell and Webb look" episode "Poison" (can be found on YouTube) in which a man comes into a series of stores increasingly unlikely to find things that can kill, hurt or maim people, yet still persists in trying to attain such a thing from the store's owner. It is implied that he wants to use what he buys in order to get rid of his wife, with whom he seems to have had a falling-out. Should I include the possibility of a reference in the comic's explanation?

Frankly, I'm surprised White Hat didn't think training a drone was a marvelous idea.

467: X Girls Y Cups

2018-11-05T05:43:56Z

172.69.250.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 467
| date = August 25, 2008
| title = X Girls Y Cups
| image = x girls y cups.png
| titletext = Also no results: 1girl10000cups, 2girls(5+3i)cups, 65536girls65536cups, or 3frenchhens2turtledoves1cup.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic refers to ''{{w|Hungry Bitches}}'', a 2007 {{w|scat fetishism|scat-fetish}} pornographic film. The one-minute preview, unofficially nicknamed "2 Girls 1 Cup," is a {{w|viral video}} that became a well-known {{w|internet meme}}. It is therefore not surprising that only the input combination of x=2 and y=1 generates a significant number of search results, being 257 times as frequent as the runner-up, "1 Girl 1 Cup."

This table is an example of a rudimentary {{w|heat map}}. The cells in the table with zero hits are white. From 1 to 9 they are yellow, and above that they are orange - except the maximum, which is red. As the second largest count is below 10,000 (7503) and the maximum almost two million, it is impossible to say if the red color is reserved for the maximum or for any number above a given value, say from ten thousand or up to above a million hits.

The title text suggests other combinations like 1 girl to 10,000 cups (very large number of cups to one girl), 2 girls to (5+3i) cups (a {{w|complex number}}), 65536 girls to 65536 cups (216, the first {{w|Integer (computer science)|integer}} that can't be represented as a two-byte unsigned integer), and finally 3 French hens and 2 turtle doves to 1 cup. All are phrases with apparently no search results.

The last phrase is a reference to the song ''{{w|The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}''. After the publication of this comic, the phrase has been cross-posted at various sites in order to generate search results and prove the statement in the title text wrong. The same has happened to other entries, as it often happens shortly after [[Randall]] posts something regarding Google searches.

==Transcript==
:Google results for "<x> girls <y> cups"
:[There is a table with eight columns and eight rows. The cells are colored depending on the value in the cell: cells with the value 0 are clear/white, cells with values 1-9 are yellow, cells with values 10 and above are orange, and the cell with the highest value is red.]
:[Above the tabel is the label for the columns:]
:Cups
:[To the left the label for the rows:]
:Girls
:[0 girls 0 cups has value 3; 0 girls 1 cup has 375; 0 girls 2 cups has 9; 1 girl 0 cups has 7; 1 girl 1 cup has 7503; 1 girl 2 cups has 2007; 1 girl 3 cups has 10; 1 girl 4 cups has 5; 1 girl 5 cups has 3; 1 girl 6 cups has 6; 1 girl 7 cups has 2; 2 girls 0 cups has 9; 2 girls 1 cup has 1,929,000; 2 girls 2 cups has 247; 2 girls 3 cups has 7; 2 girls 4 cups has 14; 2 girls 5 cups has 13; 2 girls 6 cups has 2; 2 girls 7 cups has 1; 3 girls 0 cups has 7; 3 girls 1 cup has 6335; 3 girls 2 cups has 394; 3 girls 3 cups has 34; 3 girls 4 cups has 3; 3 girls 5 cups has 2; 3 girls 6 cups has 6; 4 girls 0 cups has 3; 4 girls 1 cup has 3513; 4 girls 2 cups has 34; 4 girls 4 cups has 63; 5 girls 0 cups has 1; 5 girls 1 cup has 9; 5 girls 2 cups has 5; 5 girls 3 cups has 3; 5 girls 6 cups has 3; 6 girls 0 cups has 3; 6 girls 1 cup has 1461; 6 girls 2 cups has 1; 6 girls 3 cups has 1; 6 girls 4 cups has 1; 7 girls 0 cups has 2; 7 girls 1 cup has 19; 7 girls 2 cups has 4; 7 girls 3 cups has 2; and the rest have 0.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Google Search]]

467: X Girls Y Cups

2018-11-05T05:43:10Z

172.69.250.52: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 467
| date = August 25, 2008
| title = X Girls Y Cups
| image = x girls y cups.png
| titletext = Also no results: 1girl10000cups, 2girls(5+3i)cups, 65536girls65536cups, or 3frenchhens2turtledoves1cup.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|that table is transcript abuse}}

The comic refers to ''{{w|Hungry Bitches}}'', a 2007 {{w|scat fetishism|scat-fetish}} pornographic film. The one-minute preview, unofficially nicknamed "2 Girls 1 Cup," is a {{w|viral video}} that became a well-known {{w|internet meme}}. It is therefore not surprising that only the input combination of x=2 and y=1 generates a significant number of search results, being 257 times as frequent as the runner-up, "1 Girl 1 Cup."

This table is an example of a rudimentary {{w|heat map}}. The cells in the table with zero hits are white. From 1 to 9 they are yellow, and above that they are orange - except the maximum, which is red. As the second largest count is below 10,000 (7503) and the maximum almost two million, it is impossible to say if the red color is reserved for the maximum or for any number above a given value, say from ten thousand or up to above a million hits.

The title text suggests other combinations like 1 girl to 10,000 cups (very large number of cups to one girl), 2 girls to (5+3i) cups (a {{w|complex number}}), 65536 girls to 65536 cups (216, the first {{w|Integer (computer science)|integer}} that can't be represented as a two-byte unsigned integer), and finally 3 French hens and 2 turtle doves to 1 cup. All are phrases with apparently no search results.

The last phrase is a reference to the song ''{{w|The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}''. After the publication of this comic, the phrase has been cross-posted at various sites in order to generate search results and prove the statement in the title text wrong. The same has happened to other entries, as it often happens shortly after [[Randall]] posts something regarding Google searches.

==Transcript==
:Google results for "<x> girls <y> cups"
:[There is a table with eight columns and eight rows. The cells are colored depending on the value in the cell: cells with the value 0 are clear/white, cells with values 1-9 are yellow, cells with values 10 and above are orange, and the cell with the highest value is red.]
:[Above the tabel is the label for the columns:]
:Cups
:[To the left the label for the rows:]
:Girls
:[0 girls 0 cups has value 3; 0 girls 1 cup has 375; 0 girls 2 cups has 9; 1 girl 0 cups has 7; 1 girl 1 cup has 7503; 1 girl 2 cups has 2007; 1 girl 3 cups has 10; 1 girl 4 cups has 5; 1 girl 5 cups has 3; 1 girl 6 cups has 6; 1 girl 7 cups has 2; 2 girls 0 cups has 9; 2 girls 1 cup has 1,929,000; 2 girls 2 cups has 247; 2 girls 3 cups has 7; 2 girls 4 cups has 14; 2 girls 5 cups has 13; 2 girls 6 cups has 2; 2 girls 7 cups has 1; 3 girls 0 cups has 7; 3 girls 1 cup has 6335; 3 girls 2 cups has 394; 3 girls 3 cups has 34; 3 girls 4 cups has 3; 3 girls 5 cups has 2; 3 girls 6 cups has 6; 4 girls 0 cups has 3; 4 girls 1 cup has 3513; 4 girls 2 cups has 34; 4 girls 4 cups has 63; 5 girls 0 cups has 1; 5 girls 1 cup has 9; 5 girls 2 cups has 5; 5 girls 3 cups has 3; 5 girls 6 cups has 3; 6 girls 0 cups has 3; 6 girls 1 cup has 1461; 6 girls 2 cups has 1; 6 girls 3 cups has 1; 6 girls 4 cups has 1; 7 girls 0 cups has 2; 7 girls 1 cup has 19; 7 girls 2 cups has 4; 7 girls 3 cups has 2; and the rest have 0.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Google Search]]

467: X Girls Y Cups

2018-11-05T05:42:37Z

172.69.250.52: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 467
| date = August 25, 2008
| title = X Girls Y Cups
| image = x girls y cups.png
| titletext = Also no results: 1girl10000cups, 2girls(5+3i)cups, 65536girls65536cups, or 3frenchhens2turtledoves1cup.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|that table is transcript abuse}}

The comic refers to ''{{w|Hungry Bitches}}'', a 2007 {{w|scat fetishism|scat-fetish}} pornographic film. The one-minute preview, unofficially nicknamed "2 Girls 1 Cup," is a {{w|viral video}} that became a well-known {{w|internet meme}}. It is therefore not surprising that only the input combination of x=2 and y=1 generates a significant number of search results, being 257 times as frequent as the runner-up, "1 Girl 1 Cup."

This table is an example of a rudimentary {{w|heat map}}. The cells in the table with zero hits are white. From 1 to 9 they are yellow, and above that they are orange - except the maximum, which is red. As the second largest count is below 10,000 (7503) and the maximum almost two million, it is impossible to say if the red color is reserved for the maximum or for any number above a given value, say from ten thousand or up to above a million hits.

The title text suggests other combinations like 1 girl to 10,000 cups (very large number of cups to one girl), 2 girls to (5+3i) cups (a {{w|complex number}}), 65536 girls to 65536 cups (216, the first {{w|Integer (computer science)|integer}} that can't be represented as a two-byte unsigned integer), and finally 3 French hens and 2 turtle doves to 1 cup. All are phrases with apparently no search results.

The last phrase is a reference to the song ''{{w|The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}''. After the publication of this comic, the phrase has been cross-posted at various sites in order to generate search results and prove the statement in the title text wrong. The same has happened to other entries, as it often happens shortly after [[Randall]] posts something regarding Google searches.

==Transcript==
:Google results for "<x> girls <y> cups"
:[There is a table with eight columns and eight rows. The cells are colored depending on the value in the cell: cells with the value 0 are clear/white, cells with values 1-9 are yellow, cells with values 10 and above are orange, and the cell with the highest value is red.]
:[Above the tabel is the label for the columns:]
:Cups
:[To the left the label for the rows:]
:Girls
:[0 girls 0 cups has value 3; 0 girls 1 cup has 375; 0 girls 2 cups has 9; 1 girl 0 cups has 7; 1 girl 1 cup has 7503; 1 girl 2 cups has 2007; 1 girl 3 cups has 10; 1 girl 4 cups has 5; 1 girl 5 cups has 3; 1 girl 6 cups has 6; 1 girl 7 cups has 2; 2 girls 0 cups has 9; 2 girls 1 cup has 1,929,000; 2 girls 2 cups has 247; 2 girls 3 cups has 7; 2 girls 4 cups has 14; 2 girls 5 cups has 13; 2 girls 6 cups has 2; 2 girls 7 cups has 1; 3 girls 0 cups has 7; 3 girls 1 cup has 6335; 3 girls 2 cups has 394; 3 girls 3 cups has 34; 3 girls 4 cups has 3; 3 girls 5 cups has 2; 3 girls 6 cups has 6; 4 girls 0 cups has 3; 4 girls 1 cup has 3513; 4 girls 2 cups has 34; 4 girls 4 cups has 63; 5 girls 0 cups has 1; 5 girls 1 cup has 9; 5 girls 2 cups has 5; 5 girls 3 cups has 3; 5 girls 6 cups has 3; 6 girls 0 cups has 3; 6 girls 1 cup has 1461; 6 girls 2 cups has 1; 6 girls 3 cups has 1; 6 girls 4 cups has 1; 7 girls 0 cups has 2; 7 girls 1 cup has 19; 7 girls 2 cups has 4; 7 girls 3 cups has 2; and the rest have 0.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Google Search]]

812: Glass

2018-11-04T14:38:39Z

172.69.250.52: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 812
| date = October 29, 2010
| title = Glass
| image = glass.png
| titletext = I read in this one article that the breaking of electroweak symmetry is the reason we have SOULS. This guy with a degree said so!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Title text not fully explained; what is electroweak symmetry? Why is a link between it and souls comedically absurd?}}
In the beginning of the comic, [[Megan]] is trying to break a wine glass like an opera singer. This is a rather famous trick where the vocalist sings at the resonant, or natural frequency of the glass and cause it to resonate more and more until it can no longer handle the stress and breaks - for more info, see the {{w|Mythbusters}} episode about the Earthquake Machine. If the resonant frequency of the glass is outside of the singer's range, then putting some water in the glass will lower its resonant frequency. This effect can be used to play different notes on the rim of a glass by varying the amount of water in it. For example, see this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULiNR-k4m70 video].

While Megan is trying to break the glass by hitting its resonant frequency, she is actually creating something new. This is similar to particle physics where a new particle can be identified by a {{w|Resonance_(particle_physics)|resonance}} peak in the differencial cross section of a scattering experiment: Known particles plus some very specific amount of energy lead to the creation of a new particle, the Higgs boson. This is represented in the comic with the water and the pitch of Megan's voice creating blood.

The term "God Particle" was coined by 1993 by physicist {{w|Leon M. Lederman}} to describe the {{w|Higgs boson}} because it's "central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive." He originally called it the "goddamn particle", but this was considered offensive, and his editor shortened it to just "God particle", maybe to promote interest in the particle from non-academics too. Many people misinterpret the name to be some kind of link between physics and religion, so physics is getting back at them by playing pranks that resemble famous miracles from Christian tradition:
*Jesus turned water into wine at the marriage in Cana.
*The first of the ten plagues in Egypt turned all of the water into blood — the rivers, canals, ponds, pools, and every sort of container holding water.
*The wine turning into blood is also a reference to the Catholic ritual of {{w|Transubstantiation}}.

Notice that, in the last panel, the blood seems to have dripped out of [[Cueball]]'s hand onto the table and solidified, further proof that Physics don't apply in this scenario.

The title text refers to the electroweak force “breaking” into electromagnetism and the weak force. There are four known fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. It’s known that electromagentism and the weak force unify, at high enough energy levels, into a symmetrical, single “electroweak” force; the Higgs Boson is the particle which may explain how this happens. As with many scientific terms, these can be used incorrectly in order to lend credibility to unrelated and nonsensical claims. Similarly, a degree can be used to lend the appearance of credibility to a person pushing such an idea, regardless of what field it was earned it or whether said person has any competence.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is singing, Cueball is staring at a glass of water on a table.]
:Megan: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... Anything break?
:Cueball: No, but the water in the glass turned to wine.

:[Cueball picks up glass]
:Megan: Weird.
:Cueball: No, wait. This is blood.

:Megan: Okay, physics, quit fucking with us.
:Physics: You stop looking for the Higgs boson and we'll talk.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Religion]]

Talk:367: Fandom

2018-11-01T16:35:44Z

172.69.250.52:

"The text says that Ron Paul wants the New Republic to adopt the Corusca gem as standard currency." Not quite. This is a riff on the term {{w|Gold Standard}}, which is where the actual currency unit (whatever the local version is, e.g. various national versions of dollars, pounds, franc, mark, etc...) is directly linked to an actual physical bit of gold (or rather, ''en mass'', the total currency corresponds to the entire gold reserve). It's like the government saying "I'll pay you in gold, but we can keep it safer than you, so we'll keep hold of the gold and give you a note/token to say that you own a share of it". Tokens/notes get passed around as indirect ownership of the gold is transfered in exchange for goods and services. The total money in the economy is tied directly to the gold possessed. This rather has the effect of making gold worth "as much as gold is worth" (transaction fees excepted) if it's a fairly constant commodity. (Although you can still mine gold, and gold is also useful as a resource, e.g. in electrical and electronic connections. And creating works of art in gold create items that are worth more than just the material costs, while melting them down returns only the material costs and the added difference is lost once more.) In times of old this was reflected in gold coinage (and subserviant coinage), but we'd long since transitioned to the 'gold by proxy' situation.

Anyway, without unilaterally revaluing the proxy currency (giving them a different, usually lesser, share of the gold reserves) or significantly expanding the reserves this rather constrains the growth of the economy, for whatever reason that might be desired or required. This may limit international trade, as well as the ability to 'virtualise' money for non-physical transfers, government bonds, etc. For this reason every single (last I heard) currency in the world, that is not still made of gold itself (probably none of them, BICBW), is 'off the Gold Standard', and there's effectively as much money in a country as a government says there is, with the physical (and non-physical?) money being a Fiat Currency (Fiat=="Let it be.."). This can make everyone 'richer' (see also Quantative Easing), or at least have higher values, whether or not their actual purchasing power increases accordingly, and is very easy to integrate with the manipulation of 'virtual money'. But as seen over recent times there are problems.

Even before these problems, there have been some hard-nosed economists (or politicians, either with a considered point of view, or just looking for a distinct personal platform to impress various sectors of the electorate with) trying to get one or other national currency back to the Gold Standard. The arguments for and against such a reattachment (as with the arguments for and against the original disconnection) are many and varied, and I wouldn't personally care to suggest the best course of action. (Or whether a different limited resource, along the same lines, should be adopted as Gold Equivalent, where not already applicable.)

I'm not entirely sure if Ron Paul is calling for a return to the Gold Standard, IRL, although it's the kind of thing that politicians like him do like to say (whether or not they actually mean it). However, it seems as if the Extended Universe version of Ron Paul is calling for the Star Wars equivalent, tying the equivalent currency of the Republic (Galactic Standard Credit?) to reserves of an equivalent limited resource of value (the Corusca Gem). I have no idea if the gem can be used for anything practical, but sounds like it is probably mainly valuable for its appearance (and the fact that it is already used in trading), rather like Latinum in the Star Trek universe which apparently cannot be produced (or duplicated) by replicators. Unlike gold itself, which is relegated to a convenient substrate within which the naturally liquide latinum itself is more handily encased and handled.

...er, yes. Much too much information (and possible errors in explanation) there. But just saying. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:46, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I think it's worth mentioning, that Ron Paul retired from Congress in January 2013, and the linked article about Corusca gems says that "The first canonical appearance of Corusca gems was in the 2014 mobile-game Star Wars: Galactic Defense, in which they are used as in-game currency", thus it seems that (probably just one imagined by Mr. Munroe, but nevertheless) Ron Paul has achieved his goal. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.58|141.101.104.58]] 17:21, 10 August 2016 (UTC)

The Expanded Universe is no longer canon after the release of The Force Awakens. Can this be updated?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.90|108.162.237.90]] 20:44, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

I have not been actively involved with anything Star Wars for years, but I do know the movie "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" slated for release December of this year,2017, is what is being advertised as the Final Star Wars Movie. So it confused me greatly when the last paragraph stated "in the final movie" with no citation as to which it was actually referring to. Since this movie has not been released yet if I knew how I would have put the incomplete Tag on this page with this question. Actually no I would have waited until I got home and was able to actually log in. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.231|162.158.62.231]] 11:30, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

Honestly, the idea of Mr. Munroe supporting Ron Paul makes me rather....... uncomfortable. After all "Paul has faced allegations of racism dating back to the late 1970s, when he published newsletters that contained references to black men as criminals and called Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Hate Whitey Day.”"(source: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/395176-ron-paul-tweets-racist-cartoon-faces-backlash).

Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul

2018-10-03T02:54:42Z

172.69.250.52:

[[File:RonPaul.jpeg]]
{{w|Ron Paul}} is a US politician, serving as a member of the {{w|United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives}} for a Congressional district in Texas. While technically a member of the Republican Party, his politics are extremely {{w|libertarianism|libertarian}} and not accepted by mainstream Republicans. His philosophy of small government calls for the end of the wars on terror and drugs as being contrary to the proper role of the Federal government, as well as costly and ineffective. These policies have made him popular among independent-minded geeks. That philosophy also calls for the end of the war on poverty, elimination of Federal support for education, and elimination of Federal civil rights protections, also as being contrary to the proper role of the Federal government.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians|Ron Paul]]

878: Model Rail

2018-10-03T02:47:21Z

172.69.250.52:

{{comic
| number = 878
| date = March 28, 2011
| title = Model Rail
| image = model rail.png
| titletext = I don't know what's more telling--the number of pages in the Wikipedia talk page argument over whether the 1/87.0857143 scale is called "HO" or "H0", or the fact that within minutes of first hearing of it I had developed an extremely strong opinion on the issue.
}}

==Explanation==
In model rail construction, the {{w|HO scale}} refers to the most popular scale for modeling railroads, in which 3.5 millimeters in the model corresponds to 1 real-world Imperial foot. As the comic suggests, it works out to a ratio of about 1:87.1. In Europe, the scale is defined as exactly 1:87 instead, to avoid references to non-metric measurements.

This comic features [[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|two Cueballs]] conversing; we'll refer to them as Lefty and Righty to avoid confusion. The conversation takes place in Lefty's basement. Lefty is apparently a less-experienced train modeler, and he tells Righty that he wants to make an HO model layout of his town. However, the more-experienced Righty points out that this is a bad idea, due to nesting. To make it a perfectly accurate model, Lefty would have to include a model of his house, which includes his basement, which includes the model. So, he would have to make a model of the model, which will include a smaller model of the model, and so forth. This is illustrated in the comic.

At the end of these six nested models ''The Matryoshka limit'' is stated: "It is impossible to nest more than six HO layouts". {{w|Matryoshka doll|Matryoshka dolls}} are toys of Russian origin that can be stacked inside one another. Here, the "Matryoshka limit" is the hard barrier that follows as a result of the nesting. Matter is not infinitely divisible; once one gets to the level of atoms, it is impossibly difficult to go any smaller. The unit shown in the last diagram is the {{w|Angstrom|ångström}}, a very small unit of measurement (1/10000th of a {{w|micrometre}}, 1/10 of a {{w|nanometre}}, 100 {{w|picometre}}s or 10−10 m) which was created when humans started discovering objects on an atomic scale, such as crystal structures or wavelengths. The last nested model looks like the atoms on a surface as seen using a {{w|scanning tunneling microscope}} (STM).

The rules of model train layouts reference the 1999 cult classic ''{{w|Fight Club}}'', where the first rule of Fight Club is "do not talk about Fight Club." However, while the club instituted the rule because their activities were morally and legally questionable, the rule in the comic was instituted by friends and family members who were apparently sick of hearing the train enthusiasts talk about model train layouts all the time.

The "Philistines" comment is not referring to citizens of ancient Palestine (at least not directly), but rather the philosophy of {{w|Philistinism}}. {{w|Friedrich Nietzsche}} defined a Philistine as someone who is purely negative in how they define style, i.e. they know exactly what they hate and don't really have anything they like. A common stereotype for artists is to refer to anyone who dislikes their work as "Philistines," thus dismissing their criticism as being part of a larger personality defect on the critic's part rather than any particular failing of the artwork in question.

The title text references {{w|HO scale}} and, more specifically, whether it should be spelled with the letter "O" or the number zero (0). Such debates often seem petty to the "layman", yet the people involved in the debates can form ''very'' strong feelings for their side. Randall recognizes "nerdy tendencies" almost immediately when he gets the urge to take a side. It should be noted that the day this comic went up, it was then repeatedly referenced in the HO talk page by several people commenting on the arguable triviality of the edit war. The comic [[1167: Star Trek into Darkness]] is about a similar debate on Wikipedia.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball to the left and his friend, who also looks like Cueball, are standing in the friend's rather large basement, where the celling is held up by six thin columns, and the walls are shown angling in towards a point of perspective, to display how big the room is.]
:Friend: I want to build a perfect HO-scale (~1/87) model train layout of my town.
:Cueball: In your basement? Bad idea. Never make a layout of the area you're in.

:[Zoom in on the two friends without the basement visualized.]
:Friend: Why not?
:Cueball: Because it'd include a little 10" replica of your house.

:[Zoom in Cueball's friend who takes his hand to his chin.]
:Friend: So? That's be cool! I'd make tiny replicas of my rooms, my furniture—
:Cueball (off-screen)l: —And your train layout?

:[Beneath this first row of the comic is the zoom-out of how the full model would look in the basement. The town lies beneath some small mountains. There is some water with a bridge over it continuing to the roads going through the city. There is no frame around this section, but instead there follows five zoom-outs, each one going from the friend's house, that proceeds to a circular frame. Within each of these is shown a nested model. Starting to the right of the main model, and then moving down, then left, and then down and right. Each layer has a broken arrow above the model between two vertical lines to indicate the scale, the length being written between the two parts of the arrow. Some foreign objects are also labeled to help understand the scale.]

:[Layer 1, the model with the two friends standing to the left of it.]
:18 m

:[Layer 2, looks exactly as the model, but without the friends.]
:21 cm

:[Layer 3, with a mosquito shown for comparison. It stands over half the model covering the mountains.]
:2.4 mm

:[Layer 4, with a strand of spider silk (labeled) shown for comparison. The silk is much thicker than the roads, almost as thick as the mountains and much longer than the model. But the model still looks fairly much like the original one.]
:28 μm
:Spider web

:[Layer 5, with a cold virus (labeled) shown for comparison. It covers roughly a quarter of the model, taking up the water part of the model. At this level the whole model becomes notably "fuzzy" as individual atoms are discernible, and most of the features apart from the mountain is indiscernible. There may be two viruses. The other would then be to the right of the one in the water but above the model. The label stands between them.]
:320 nm
:Cold virus

:[Layer 6, is simply spheres (atoms) at this point. The mountain near the back is the only noticeable feature, consisting of five atoms jutting out from the surface of atoms, which is by now mean flat, but has no other features than the mountain.]
:37 Å

:[Beneath these six versions of the model is a caption:]
:The Matryoshka limit:
:It is impossible to nest
:more than six HO layouts

:[Back to the two friends in the basement, still not showing the basement.]
:Friend: My God.
:Cueball: Yeah. It's the second rule of model train layouts: No nesting.

:[Zoom in on the heads of the two friends.]
:Friend: ...What's the first rule?
:Cueball: "Do ''not'' talk about model train layouts." That rule was actually voted in by our friends and families.
:Friend: Philistines.

==Trivia==
* The city of Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England actually contains such a model. Although, it only has 4 nestings, and is built at a larger scale.
* The Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, the biggest model rail construction in the world, contains a 1:7500 version of the Miniatur Wunderland with movable vehicles.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Recursion]]