explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1416: Pixels

2024-09-22T19:48:06Z

172.69.43.226: /* Transcript */ hass

{{comic
| number = 1416
| date = September 3, 2014
| title = Pixels
| image = pixels.png
| titletext = It's turtles all the way down.
}}
{{TOC}}
*To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1416|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This interactive comic begins with a panel where [[Cueball]] is stacking turtles. This is a reference to the idiom "{{w|turtles all the way down}}", which refers to the problem of infinite recursion: if everything in the universe is "on top of" something else, so to speak, there must be a "bottom." A joking solution to the paradoxical nature of such a bottom is the proposition that the world rests on a semi-infinite stack of turtles.

The origins of the turtle story are uncertain. It has been recorded since the mid 19th century, and may possibly date to the 18th. One recent version appears in {{W|Stephen Hawking}}'s 1988 book {{W|A Brief History of Time}}, which starts:

:A well-known scientist (some say it was {{W|Bertrand Russell}}) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"''

:—Hawking, 1988

Several {{w|World Turtle|ancient myths}}, dating back thousands of years, involve a turtle which supports the whole world, or a part of it, although it is usually just one turtle, not an infinite regression. This is also repeated in {{w|Terry Pratchett}}'s {{w|Discworld}} novels, in which the world is supported by four elephants standing on the back of a single turtle called {{w|Great A'Tuin}}.

As can be read you should '''"scroll to zoom"'''. This can be done by placing the cursor inside the panel of the comic. When scrolling up (using the mouse wheel) the picture zooms in on the pixel beneath the cursor. Moving the cursor will also move the point to which the picture zooms. You can then zoom in until the pixels are visible. When you continue to zoom in on a pixel it then resolves into another comic picture, with black-on-white comic panels making up the white pixels and white-on-black panels making up the black pixels. Scrolling on until you can see the pixels of the comic picture you are now zooming into the process is repeated again and will be so for all subsequent sets of comic panels. Not all white and all black panels are the same; some sets involve more than two different panels, but all involve repetitive tiling.

Once you have zoomed in, you are able to click and drag the picture, thus enabling you to move from black to white picture pixel. This is reminiscent of the earlier [[:Category:Interactive comics|interactive]] comic [[1110: Click and Drag]].

==Themes==
*Below are all the themes relevant to cover all the images found when zooming in.
*They are sorted in the same order as in the gallery: [[1416: Pixels/Images]].
**Open the gallery in another window - zoom out and then you can see the pictures in this window as you read about them here below. You can see thumbnail versions of each picture at the top of the theme sub-section.

===Turtles===
[[Image:01-100-pixels-turtles.png|link=File:pixels-turtles.png]]
[[File:02-100-pixels-quiet-turtle.png|link=File:pixels-quiet-turtle.png]]
[[File:03-100-pixels-i-am-a-turtle.png|link=File:pixels-i-am-a-turtle.png]]

Apart from the first image there are two more with a single turtle in them. In one of these the turtle thinks "I am a turtle". This is a reference to [[889: Turtles]]. It may say so to the Cueball that is seen standing all alone in another picture.

===What if?===
[[File:04-100-pixels-blank-figure.png|link=File:pixels-blank-figure.png]]
[[File:05-100-pixels-whatif-trade.png|link=File:pixels-whatif-trade.png]]
[[File:06-100-pixels-whatif-king.png|link=File:pixels-whatif-king.png]]

There is a panel featuring just Cueball, followed by is a picture of the ''What If?'' book, large enough that all of the text is visible on the front cover. But there is also another version where the author's name is crossed out and replaced with {{w|Stephen King}}, the word "Spooky" has been added above the title, and the word "xkcd" below has been struck and replaced with "being afraid" to form the phrase "creator of being afraid". Stephen King is one of the most prolific and well-known horror authors of all time.

===Book Launch===
[[File:07-100-pixels-book-launch.png|link=File:pixels-book-launch.png]]

This comic was released on September 3, 2014, the day after [[Randall|Randall's]] book ''[http://whatif.xkcd.com/book/ What If]'' was launched. The book is shown and referred to in a number of frames; for example, it is [[:File:pixels-upgoer.png|'''literally''' launched]] as a part of an <s>rocket</s> [[1133: Up Goer Five|''up goer'']] built by Cueball. There is also a picture with Cueball holding his book, while being excited about the launch.

The model ''up goer'' is [[:File:pixels-assembly-1.png|made of Rocket Parts from KSP]]. KSP is the {{w|Kerbal Space Program}}, a spaceflight simulator which was also [[1350: Lorenz#Themes|part]] of the latest interactive comic [[1350: Lorenz]]. Perhaps xkcd's "parts" refers to KSP's large community of mod developers who contribute 'parts' to the game, although it was likely intended as nothing more than the humorous supposition that one could purchase physical rocket parts from a simulator. The frames showing the book launch use URLs that include the text "upgoer" in reference to the [[Up Goer Five]] comic.

In the end the up goer leaves the Earth after one orbit and then flies through space.

===Needs More Struts===
[[File:08-100-pixels-assembly-1.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-1.png]]
[[File:09-100-pixels-assembly-2.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-2.png]]
[[File:10-100-pixels-assembly-3.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-3.png]]
[[File:11-100-pixels-assembly-4.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-4.png]]
[[File:12-100-pixels-assembly-5.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-5.png]]
[[File:13-100-pixels-assembly-6.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-6.png]]
[[File:14-100-pixels-assembly-7.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-7.png]]
[[File:15-100-pixels-assembly-planet.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-planet.png]]
[[File:16-100-pixels-assembly-planet-1.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-planet-1.png]]
[[File:17-100-pixels-assembly-planet-3.png|link=File:pixels-assembly-planet-3.png]]

{{w|Strut|Struts}} are structural members in engineering, and are one of the components used in Kerbal Space Program to construct rockets. "Needs More Struts" is a meme amongst players of Kerbal Space Program along the lines of "when in doubt, overengineer"; it stems from a time when the ragdoll physics in the Unity engine underlying KSP was unstable enough to necessitate their overuse. Megan deems Cueball's rocket to be insufficiently structurally sound, and declares that it "[[:File:pixels-assembly-4.png|Needs More Struts]]".

The first three images depict Cueball building a Kerbal Space Program rocket out of parts from a box, labelled "KSP Rocket Parts". The top part of the rocket, usually where the crew module would be located, is made from the ''What If..?'' book. In the fourth panel Megan declares that it needs more struts, and in the next three panels, Cueball takes her advice and adds more struts.

Panel 8 shows the Earth from a distance, with somebody (presumably Megan) saying again "More Struts". Panel 9 shows the Earth alone, and panel 10 shows the Earth with the rocket nearby, having just launched.

===The Only Copy===
[[File:18-100-pixels-upgoer.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer.png]]
[[File:19-100-pixels-upgoer-2.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-2.png]]
[[File:20-100-pixels-upgoer-3.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-3.png]]
[[File:21-100-pixels-upgoer-4.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-4.png]]
[[File:22-100-pixels-upgoer-5.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-5.png]]
[[File:23-100-pixels-upgoer-6.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-6.png]]
[[File:24-100-pixels-upgoer-planet.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet.png]]
[[File:25-100-pixels-launch-planet.png|link=File:pixels-launch-planet.png]]
[[File:26-100-pixels-upgoer-planet-2.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet-2.png]]
[[File:27-100-pixels-upgoer-planet-3.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet-3.png]]
[[File:28-100-pixels-upgoer-planet-4.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-planet-4.png]]
[[File:29-100-pixels-upgoer-space.png|link=File:pixels-upgoer-space.png]]

This series of panels parallels the "Needs More Struts" series. The first four panels shows the rocket lifting off, and the subsequent gasses dissipating.

Cueball and Megan look up at the ascending rocket, and then turn to each other having just launched the What-If book rocket into space (construction and launch are seen in other panels). Perhaps Megan realizes they may have misunderstood the term "book launch", and that they may have just lost ''[[:File:pixels-upgoer-6.png|the only copy]]'' of the book.

Panel 7 shows the Earth from space; panel 8 also shows the Earth, with the words "Book Launch". The next three panels show the rocket circling around the Earth once before heading into deep space, and the last shows the rocket by itself on its journey.

===Space objects===
[[File:30-100-pixels-sun.png|link=File:pixels-sun.png]]
[[File:31-100-pixels-moon.png|link=File:pixels-moon.png]]
[[File:32-100-pixels-saturn.png|link=File:pixels-saturn.png]]
[[File:33-100-pixels-stars-1.png|link=File:pixels-stars-1.png]]
[[File:34-100-pixels-stars-2.png|link=File:pixels-stars-2.png]]

Here are five objects in space. It is possible that the What-If book rocket passes them by, or that these images are seen from the point of view of the rocket.

First is the Sun, shown with visible {{w|solar prominence}}s. Next is the Moon, shown in a crescent view with stars behind it. This is followed by Saturn, also in a crescent view with stars behind it.

There follow two images with just stars.

===Sky===
This is a reference to [[428: Starwatching]]:
[[File:35-100-pixels-sky.png|link=File:pixels-sky.png]]
[[File:36-100-pixels-sky-2.png|link=File:pixels-sky-2.png]]
[[File:37-100-pixels-sky-3.png|link=File:pixels-sky-3.png]]
[[File:38-100-pixels-sky-4.png|link=File:pixels-sky-4.png]]

In four pictures Cueball and Megan are sitting below the stars. In the second the following conversation takes place:
:Cueball: Someone once told me the great kings of the past look down on us...
:Megan: From the stars?
:Cueball: Just in general.
The second panel is a reference to Disney's [http://lionking.wikia.com/wiki/The_Great_Kings_of_the_Past The Lion King]. Early in the film, Mufasa tells Simba that the great kings of the past look down on them from the stars. Later on, Simba recalls this to his companions, Timon and Pumba (who don't take him seriously). In the film, the kings of the past literally look down on — and watch over — the characters, which is how Megan interprets Cueball's initial statement. Cueball's reply that they just look down on us in general shows that he means the kings of the past figuratively look down on us (they view us as inferior or beneath them).

In the next image a shooting star is seen above them. The final picture is almost identical to the first (only four stars and a few pixels of ground are different).

===Mario===
[[File:39-100-pixels-mario-entry.png|link=File:pixels-mario-entry.png]]
[[File:40-100-pixels-mario-sitting-1.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-1.png]]
[[File:41-100-pixels-mario-sitting-2.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-2.png]]
[[File:42-100-pixels-mario-sitting-3.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-3.png]]
[[File:43-100-pixels-mario-sitting-b.png|link=File:pixels-mario-sitting-b.png]]
[[File:44-100-pixels-mario-n1.png|link=File:pixels-mario-n1.png]]
[[File:45-100-pixels-mario-n2.png|link=File:pixels-mario-n2.png]]
[[File:46-100-pixels-mario-n3.png|link=File:pixels-mario-n3.png]]

A series of 8 images are called ''Mario''. The first is called ''entry'', and has a picture of a TV on a low stand. The next four has Megan in front of said TV, holding a video game controller. The cable is connected to something inside the stand. She first kneels, then sits. In the third picture she is lying down. What follows is a picture which is an inverse of the sitting picture.

The last three images seem to depict a level from one of the {{w|Super Mario Bros.}} games. In the upper right one can see the iconic bricks which Mario can smash, two clouds appear stationary in the background, and a crude depiction of Mario is standing in the lower left. Over the course of the three images, a galaxy rises into the sky. It does not look like the Milky Way would from anywhere on Earth.

The view is reminiscent of a quote from Carl Sagan: "...from a planet orbiting a star in a distant globular cluster, a still more glorious dawn awaits. Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise. A morning filled with 400 billion suns. The rising of the milky way." The quote was also referenced in [[681: Gravity Wells]]

Randall often allows images of transcendent awe to take over mundane scenes. In this case, the galaxy-rise is a surprising twist revealing the true setting of the Super Mario Brothers games. At the same time it conveys how long Megan has been playing the game - day has turned into night in her room, and also within the game itself. Instead of playing it, she is simply watching the galaxy-rise, as the character on the screen has not moved. The view may contain a hidden pun, by calling to mind {{w|Super Mario Galaxy}}.

===Shut Down the Server===
[[File:47-100-pixels-server-1.png|link=File:pixels-server-1.png]]

Cueball tells an offscreen character that he is going to [[:File:pixels-server-1.png|shut down the server]], while carrying a bucket of water.

Usually shutting down a {{w|Server (computing)|server}} is done via the operating system or software. Directly turning it off or pulling the power plug also would technically work though not recommended for obvious reasons. But in this case it appears that Cueball is going to attempt to shut off the server by dousing it with water. This will likely result in serious water damage to the hardware, thus forcing it off as it no longer is able to function.

===Clouds===
[[File:48-100-pixels-clouds-1.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-1.png]]
[[File:49-100-pixels-clouds-2.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-2.png]]
[[File:50-100-pixels-clouds-3.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-3.png]]
[[File:51-100-pixels-clouds-4.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-4.png]]
[[File:52-100-pixels-clouds-5.png|link=File:pixels-clouds-5.png]]

In five pictures Megan is floating in the clouds. The first shows Megan flying to the right, the second and third show just clouds, the fourth shows Megan flying to the left, and the fifth shows birds flying.
This may be related to [[438: Internet Argument]], which features Megan flying in a somewhat similar manner.

===Walking===
[[File:53-100-pixels-walking.png|link=File:pixels-walking.png]]
[[File:54-100-pixels-stockholm.png|link=File:pixels-stockholm.png]]
[[File:55-100-pixels-time-turner.png|link=File:pixels-time-turner.png]]
[[File:56-100-pixels-walking-b.png|link=File:pixels-walking-b.png]]
[[File:57-100-pixels-fire-hydrant.png|link=File:pixels-fire-hydrant.png]]

In two images Cueball and Megan are seen walking. The first is a normal black-on-white close up, and the second an inverted image seen from afar. They are talking while walking; after the first walking image they discuss [[#Stockholm Syndrome|Stockholm syndrome]] and then [[#Time Turners|Time Turners]], and after the second walking image Black Hat discusses a [[#Fire Hydrant|fire hydrant]] with a firefighter.

====Stockholm Syndrome====
{{w|Stockholm syndrome}} is the name for a psychological phenomenon, in which hostages develop sympathy, empathy and/or positive feelings towards their captors. These feelings are usually seen as irrational, seeing as the hostage is held against their wishes, usually with the threat of physical harm or death.

[[:File:pixels-stockholm.png|This panel]] asks "How do we know anyone really ''wants'' to live in Stockholm?", questioning whether everyone who lives in the city of Stockholm is in fact held hostage there and only stays because they have developed to like life there (due to Stockholm Syndrome).

====Time Turners====
The time turner is a device from the {{w|Harry Potter}} series of novels by {{w|JK Rowling}}. It allows the user to re-live a period of time over again. In the third novel Hermione is given the time-turner to allow her to take extra classes, however it is eventually used to spare Buckbeak the hippogriff from execution. This prompted many questions regarding why time-turners weren't used on other occasions to save people's lives (among other things).

While J.K Rowling has "[http://pottermore.wikia.com/wiki/Time-Turner solved the problem to her own satisfaction]" she admits that she entered into the subject of time-travel too lightly.

[[:File:pixels-time-turner.png|This panel]] jokes that if the real life JK Rowling had a fictional time-turner which worked, she would have gone back and removed the time-turner plotline from the book, saving her all the hassle of dealing with the resulting time-travel questions. This act would result in a time-travel paradox.

====Fire Hydrant====
[[Black Hat]] is talking to a fireman, with a fire engine on fire in the background, he asks "To be fair, what else would you expect to come out of a "[[:File:pixels-fire-hydrant.png|fire hydrant]]"?"

Black Hat appears to have managed to replace the usual water supply to the {{w|fire hydrant}} with actual fire. Thus when the hydrant is used, the result is, quite literally, fire (or oil with possibly flint and steel contraptions to cause fire). In Black Hat's logic, a hydrant which delivers water should be called a water hydrant.

This completely ignores the meaning of the word "hydrant", a pipe which supplies water (derived from the English root ''hydro-'' meaning ''relating to water'', which is in turn from the Greek ''hudōr'' meaning ''water'').

An alternative explanation is that Black Hat has replaced the water that would normally come out of the fire hydrant with a strong alcoholic beverage, colloquially called {{w|firewater}}, with a high enough ethanol content to burn. If this were the case, the ability to douse a fire would be severely decreased, both due to the flammable component and because ethanol can absorb less heat per volume than water.

===Eeee===
[[File:58-100-pixels-e1.png|link=File:pixels-e1.png]]
[[File:59-100-pixels-e2.png|link=File:pixels-e2.png]]
[[File:60-100-pixels-e3.png|link=File:pixels-e3.png]]
[[File:61-100-pixels-e4.png|link=File:pixels-e4.png]]
[[File:62-100-pixels-e5.png|link=File:pixels-e5.png]]
[[File:63-100-pixels-e6.png|link=File:pixels-e6.png]]
[[File:64-100-pixels-eb.png|link=File:pixels-eb.png]]

Megan hears a very long stretched ''EEEEEEEEEEEEE'' sound which goes over 6 images. It turns out it is a large letter '''E''' that shouts ''EEEEEEE!!!''. In total there are 64 small E emanating from the big one. There is also a picture with two big white E on black background. Those E are larger than the E that shouts.

===Evolution===
[[File:65-100-pixels-evolution.png|link=File:pixels-evolution.png]]

The {{w|March of Progress}} image is a famous and instantly recognisable image showing the stages of human evolution by way of a series of primate figures as if marching in a line. The panel parodies the March of Progress image, with [[:File:pixels-evolution.png|5 ducklings following an adult duck]]. In this case, rather than portraying selected individuals millions of years apart, the March shows evolution in action on a human timescale, the mother taking care of her ducklings. The comic has some resemblance to [[537: Ducklings]].

===Rope===
[[File:66-100-pixels-rope.png|link=File:pixels-rope.png]]

Four ropes cross diagonally across this black picture. They might be strings.

===Chess and Cantor Set Fractals===
[[File:67-100-pixels-chess-b.png|link=File:pixels-chess-b.png]]
[[File:68-100-pixels-chess-w.png|link=File:pixels-chess-w.png]]
[[File:69-100-pixels-cantor.png|link=File:pixels-cantor.png]]

There are two chess boards on black and white background with smaller chessboards drawn upon them in a {{w|Fractal}} pattern.

[[:File:pixels-cantor.png|One panel]] contains a number of lines and dots, which are in fact a depiction of the first 5 steps of a {{w|Cantor set|Cantor Ternary Set}}, mirrored about the horizontal centreline (see {{w|File:Cantor set in seven iterations.svg|reference image}}). The Cantor ternary set is constructed by repeatedly deleting the open middle thirds of a set of line segments. In the comic, the two upper-left most segments and the two lower-right most segments are misaligned slightly.

The Cantor Set is one of the canonical examples of a fractal, a shape whose individual parts resemble the whole. The use of the Cantor Set in this comic is self-referential, in that the comic, itself, is composed of parts of the same shape as the whole.

===Atom etc===
[[File:70-100-pixels-particles.png|link=File:pixels-particles.png]]
[[File:71-100-pixels-atom.png|link=File:pixels-atom.png]]
[[File:72-100-pixels-string.png|link=File:pixels-string.png]]

There is a picture of tiny particles, quite spaced out. These probably represent atoms, and given how distant they are, they may well be a gas.

There follows a picture of a Bohr Model atom with point electrons surrounding a nucleus of protons and neutrons. The atom is a {{w|Carbon}} atom which is essential for all living matter and therefore for evolution. There is also a picture of what is probably a vibrating cosmic string fragment (a concept in {{w|string theory}}). Despite {{w|Werner Heisenberg|Heisenberg}}'s {{w|uncertainty principle}}, zooming down to the string does not mean that the cartoon viewer has reached the "bottom" of the comic - zooming in on the loop will show a picture of string.

===Holism, Reductionism, Mu===
[[File:73-100-pixels-mu.png|link=File:pixels-mu.png]]
[[File:74-100-pixels-mu-b.png|link=File:pixels-mu-b.png]]
[[File:75-100-pixels-holism.png|link=File:pixels-holism.png]]
[[File:76-100-pixels-holism-b.png|link=File:pixels-holism-b.png]]
[[File:77-100-pixels-reductionism.png|link=File:pixels-reductionism.png]]
[[File:78-100-pixels-reductionism-b.png|link=File:pixels-reductionism-b.png]]

These three words refer to "A MU offering", an essay by {{w|Douglas Hofstatder}} in his book {{w|Godel, Escher, Bach}} (which was referenced by Randall in [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]]). It includes a similar multiple level drawing: {{w|Mu (negative)|the word MU}} is composed of copies of the words [[:File:pixels-holism.png|HOLISM]] and [[:File:pixels-reductionism.png|REDUCTIONISM]], each of which are in turn made of smaller copies of the other, which are in turn made of [http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/two-more-letters/ tiny copies] of the word [[:File:pixels-mu.png|MU]].

{{w|Mu (negative)|Mu}} is an important word in {{w|Buddhism}}. Literally, it means "no" or "not", but in Buddhism it also refers to a state of being or thinking - or rather, of not being and not thinking. It could be said that the pairs of panels in this series are each other's Mu, being negative (white-on-black and black-on-white).

{{w|Holism}} is a philosophical principle that systems should be considered as a complete whole, not as a set of individual parts. For example, a human viewed holistically is a whole interconnected being which can only be fully understood in its own context.

{{w|Reductionism}} is essentially Holism's opposite, a philosophical principle that any complex object can be reduced to a collection of simpler objects. A human can be considered as a set of organs (e.g. the heart), which in turn is composed of tissue (in this case muscle), composed of many cells. Cells can then be reduced to organelles, such as the nucleus; this contains chromosomes, made of DNA, a molecule made of atoms; atoms are made of components including protons; and protons are composed of quarks (which may be considered as one-dimensional strings). Reductionism holds that a full understanding of the simplest components of a system, and how they interact, can lead to a full understanding of the system as a whole. The word was later reduced in [[1734: Reductionism]].

Holism and reductionism are complementary, rather than competing, philosophies, as both have their strengths and weaknesses. Holism can be very effective in understanding the larger-scale effects of a system by observing macroscopic events and how they are linked, but it ignores the more in-depth understanding gained by considering the smaller-scale components. Reductionism can in theory give us a complete understanding of the entire system by building it up from the smallest and simplest parts, but for a complex system, this is effectively impossible (a typical human contains roughly 1029 quarks, whose interactions cannot possibly be computed and understood in human terms or timescales).

"Pixels" is an example of a system best understood with a combination of holism and reductionism. Each panel can be fully explained in its own terms, but is more completely understood as part of a small series of panels. The interconnectedness of all the panels shows a more holistic understanding, yet even this cannot explain comic fully, which must be experienced, with its interactivity and sense of exploration.

These panels can be found inside panels with Megan.

===du===
[[File:79-100-pixels-du.png|link=File:pixels-du.png]]

"[[:File:pixels-du.png|du]]" is a {{w|POSIX}} (think {{w|Linux}}/{{w|Mac OS X}}) command to indicate the "disk usage" of a file or directory.

~$ du -s video/
4170882256

This is a command that shows how large all the files are in this user's "video" directory - presumably where they store their personal videos. The units of the result is probably kilobytes (depending on settings, could also be the number of 512-byte blocks).

This number is clearly large and difficult to parse, and the units are not clear (to a bystander). More appropriate units would be gigabytes rather than bytes. The du command offers an option to display units in "human readable format", which will adapt to use kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, etc. as appropriate. The next command purports to request the same result in more human-readable form.

~$ du -hs video/
A lot.
~$

It seems that the computer, rather than giving a specific answer, simply says that the size of the video directory is "A lot."

The final line indicates the computer is now ready to accept a new command.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball has stacked three turtles, and is about to put the fourth turtle on his pile. At the bottom right there is a small panel. Inside it is written:]
:Scroll to zoom

:[When zooming in there will be several panels with text. The transcript of these may not be possible to complete - but add the transcript of these panels here: [[1416: Pixels/Transcript|interactive transcript]]]

:The following code can be found by inspecting the comic's source code:
:<nowiki>[[A large picture of a person kneeling on the ground, stacking turtles.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>((In this strip, when you zoom into the panel, each pixel becomes its own panel. Each of those panels can be scrolled into, for the same effect. The story progresses as you scroll deeper.))</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The Earth as seen from space with the words BOOK LAUNCH.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A stick-Randall holding a copy of 'What If?' saying, "So excited about my book launch!"]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A copy of the cover of 'What If?' labeled "book."]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[Stick-Randall is assembling parts from a box labeled 'rocket parts' and preparing to 'launch' his book.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[Various stages of assembly.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A second person comes in, looks at SR's rocket set-up and says, "Needs more struts."]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[SR adds more struts.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The rocket launches.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A big cloud of smoke, which then dissipates.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[SR and the other person look skywards at the launched book.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The book is shown leaving Earth's orbit.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The other person turns to SR and says, "I think that was the only one."]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The two walk away.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>((The panels after this are a random assortment of these mostly stand-alone panels.))</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A momma duck with several ducklings in a row behind her, labeled 'Evolution.']]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The other person floating around in the sky.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A stick figure with a sploshing bucket of water saying, "I'm gonna shut down the server!"]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[Two people walking along, one saying, "But if the Time-Turners worked after Book 3, Rowling would have used one to go back and remove the Time Turner from Book 3."]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The code:</nowiki>
:<nowiki>~$ du -s video</nowiki>

:<nowiki>4170882256</nowiki>
:<nowiki>~$ du -hs video</nowiki>

:<nowiki>A lot.</nowiki>
:<nowiki>~$]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A cloud.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A flock of birds.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[MU]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A pixel.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[A person using a computer on the floor.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[HOLISM]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[Saturn]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[An atom.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[Two people star-gazing on a hill.]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[Person one says, "Someone once told me the great kings of the past look down on us..." Person two says, "From the stars?" The first person replies, "Just in general."]]</nowiki>
:<nowiki>[[The start of Mario World 1-1.]]</nowiki>

:<nowiki>{{Title text: It's turtles all the way down.}}</nowiki>

==Trivia==
===Gallery===
[[1416: Pixels/Images|This gallery]] contains the [http://azttm.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/xkcd-com-1416-pixels/ 79 images used in this comic]. The images are related in a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1416_Pixels_layout.png directed graph].

===Images Database===
This google sheet describes all possible images, their associated codes, and what possible images can be used as sub-images for each zoom level: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nldKAkeVcK606CY12KI9bah9rDmK9E7CZOyinsEj2Lo/edit?usp=sharing

===Image scraping script===
This gist recursively downloads all possible images:
https://gist.github.com/Aaron1011/d3b56325881cd639506a

===Bugs===
*Doesn't seem to work properly in all browsers (e.g. Firefox and Safari on MacOSX), giving "TypeError: this.data is null" in line 173 of zoom.js: "var item = this.data.get(dims)"
*Firefox on Lubuntu 14.04 (presumably other Ubuntu/Linux distros as well) will allow zooming in, and then freeze when each pixel is about 1/3 of the pane.
*Does not work on xkcd.org in Firefox and Chrome. Currently, you should visit https://xkcd.com for this comic to work properly.
*Very slow and consumes a ridiculous amount of memory (>4GB) in Firefox.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:The Lion King]]
[[Category:Harry Potter]]
[[Category:Kerbal Space Program]]
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:What If?]]

2984: Asteroid News

2024-09-12T07:50:40Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2984
| date = September 11, 2024
| title = Asteroid News
| image = asteroid_news_2x.png
| imagesize = 376x288px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Their calculations show it will 'pass within the distance of the moon' but that it 'will not hit the moon, so what's the point?'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an EXCITED EDITOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Blondie]] as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]] presents an image where an {{w|asteroid}} is seen zooming past {{w|Earth}} outside of the {{w|The Moon|Moon's}} orbit.

The comic is about this unnamed asteroid that is predicted to approach earth in 2063. It could possibly be related to the recently discovered asteroid [https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/06/Close_approach_of_asteroid_2024_MK 2024 MK] that made a close approach to Earth on June 29, 2024, but it could be any of the {{w|Jet Propulsion Laboratory}}'s Center for Near Earth Objects Studies' [https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/ Sentry objects].

Blondie mentions that according to the astronomers the asteroid only has a 'one-in-6000 chance of "doing something cool",' meaning that there is only a small chance that the asteroid will have a direct impact on Earth's surroundings. What Blondie deems as "something cool" would presumably be that the asteroid hits the Earth or the Moon. She then states that further observations has shown that this will not happen and the asteroid will just be yet another boring dot on the sky.

The joke is that most people are afraid that an asteroid getting close to us would actually hit, and hopes to hear that it will not. If this asteroid gets close enough that it will actually be a visible dot, then it is indeed very close to Earth given the normal sizes of {{w|Near-Earth object|near earth asteroids}}. Many people interested in the night sky would find it interesting to be able to see an asteroid with their naked eye.

The title text may refer to another asteroid that gets even closer than the one depicted, because this one should comes closer than the Moon according to calculations (presumably by the astronomers). But this asteroid will not hit the Moon even though it gets this close, so Blondie asks what's the point. Again she hopes for some visible effect.

Unlike almost all of [[Randall]]'s other comics, this one involves {{w|boredom}} or ''ennui''. Because something interesting does not occur is often the most important experiences in scientific inquiry, confirming the {{w|null hypothesis}}. See also [[13: Canyon]], [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]], [[52: Secret Worlds]], [[402: 1,000 Miles North]], [[731: Desert Island]], [[877: Beauty]], and [[895: Teaching Physics]].

==Transcript==

:[Close-up of Blondie as a newscaster speaking, alongside an image to the left of an asteroid passing by Earth. The path of the asteroid is shown as a dashed line near the top-left, with the moon orbiting the earth below it.]
:Blondie: Astronomers initially said there was a one-in-6,000 chance that the newly-discovered asteroid might "do something cool" in 2063, but further observations determined it will be "Just a boring dot like all the others."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

2970: Meteor Shower PSA

2024-08-12T10:41:31Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2970
| date = August 9, 2024
| title = Meteor Shower PSA
| image = meteor_shower_psa_2x.png
| imagesize = 561x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you hold the meteor too long, it may imprint on you and form a contact binary, making reintroduction to space difficult.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REHABILITATED BOT ABOUT TO BE RELEASED BACK INTO THE WILD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a {{w|public service announcement}} (PSA) regarding what to do in case you discover a {{w|meteorite}} from the upcoming {{w|Perseid}} {{w|meteor shower}}. (See here regarding [[1723: Meteorite Identification]]).

In the first panel of the comic [[Cueball]] discovers a {{w|meteorite}} on the ground from the {{w|Perseids}} meteor shower. He then proceeds to try and throw it into space again. This is of course not possible, but this is not the reason why this action is marked as wrong with an X.

Rather, the PSA claims, in the next panel, that what he should do is contact, and then deliver the meteorite to, an observatory where astronomical "rehabbers", like [[Ponytail]], will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch. This is marked with a check mark to show that this is the correct procedure to save meteorites.

This conflates meteoroids that have fallen to the Earth from the sky with baby animals separated from their parents, and in need of rehabilitation (especially baby birds that have fallen from their nests, though more often in trees rather than "the sky"). Like he says, if you find a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal, your best bet is to find a nearby wildlife rehabilitator to care for it and return it to the wild, as members of the public will rarely have the same knowledge and expertise as one who has the training and experience. However, this advice does not apply to meteors.

The title text says that if you handle the meteor too long you'll form a {{w|contact binary (small Solar System body)|contact binary}}, which in this context is two space rocks lumped together. A contact binary is also a type of binary star system, but it's unlikely that a person and a rock will form this.{{cn}} In the process of rehabilitating young animals, preventing imprinting is important as the animal cannot rely on the human caregiver to succeed in the wild (in either sense). Also, while it may be possible to return the animal to its parents, inadvertent disturbance caused in the process may cause the parents to abandon the young.

[[1475: Technically|Technically]], [[Randall]] has the terminology wrong. "Meteor" refers to the shooting star you see in the sky when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere. If it makes it to the ground, the piece that survives is called a "meteorite" (although some call it [[1405: Meteor|magma]]). But this may just be part of the "lost baby bird" analogy, in that (as a meteor, just like the chicks of birds that don't practice {{w|Bird nest#Type|some variation of ground-nesting}}) an 'actual meteor' should never have been found on the ground in the first place.

If you find a recently fallen meteor(ite), or a {{w|Meteor air burst|surviving fragment}} of one, do not touch it since it may be ''very cold''. Although the surface of the meteor will have been {{w|Aerodynamic heating|heated by the atmosphere}}, the interior will still be about as cold as space and quickly cool whatever surface was not already ablated or lost. The size/fragmentation and time it has lain on the ground will dictate how cold it is, unless it was {{w|Impact crater#Impact craters on Earth|big enough}} to release enough further heat from the {{w|Lithobraking|impact}} itself.

A more important reason, from the perspective of experts who would wish to study your find (rather than 'return it to the sky'), is that handling it directly may contaminate it more than necessary. (Or, in the case of {{tvtropes|GreenRocks|more dangerous examples}}, it could contaminate ''you''!)

==Transcript==
:[A two panel comic with the panels next to each other.]

:[In the left side of the first panel, Cueball spots a meteorite on the ground. It lies a bit buried in the earth between tufts of grass. On the right side, he's shown throwing the rock into the air, with small lines indicating the flight of the meteorite. There's an "X" above him. Above this there is the following text:]
:This meteor shower weekend, remember: If you find a meteor on the ground, don't try to return it to the sky yourself.

:[In the left side of the second panel, Cueball is holding the meteorite in one hand and talking on his cellphone in his other hand, there's a check mark above him. In the middle of the panel Cueball is holding the meteorite out in both hands handing it to Ponytail who is also holding both hand out to receive it. To the right in the panel a rocket is blasting upwards with fire coming out beneath it and a plume of smoke showing its ascending path. Above this there is the following text:]
:Instead, contact an observatory where astronomical rehabbers will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

2970: Meteor Shower PSA

2024-08-12T10:40:05Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2970
| date = August 9, 2024
| title = Meteor Shower PSA
| image = meteor_shower_psa_2x.png
| imagesize = 561x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you hold the meteor too long, it may imprint on you and form a contact binary, making reintroduction to space difficult.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REHABILITATED BOT ABOUT TO BE RELEASED BACK INTO THE WILD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a {{w|public service announcement}} (PSA) regarding what to do in case you discover a {{w|meteorite}} from the upcoming {{w|Perseid}} {{w|meteor shower}}. (See here regarding [[1723: Meteorite Identification]]).

In the first panel of the comic [[Cueball]] discovers a {{w|meteorite}} on the ground from the {{w|Perseids}} meteor shower. He then proceeds to try and throw it into space again. This is of course not possible, but this is not the reason why this action is marked as wrong with an X.

Rather, the PSA claims, in the next panel, that what he should do is contact, and then deliver the meteorite to, an observatory where astronomical "rehabbers", like [[Ponytail]], will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch. This is marked with a check mark to show that this is the correct procedure to save meteorites.

This conflates meteoroids that have fallen to the Earth with baby animals separated from their parents, and in need of rehabilitation, especially baby birds that have fallen from their nests (often up in the air, as per this comic's objects, albeit in trees rather than "the sky"). Like he says, if you find a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal, your best bet is to find a nearby wildlife rehabilitator to care for it and return it to the wild, as members of the public will rarely have the same knowledge and expertise as one who has the training and experience. However, this advice does not apply to meteors.

The title text says that if you handle the meteor too long you'll form a {{w|contact binary (small Solar System body)|contact binary}}, which in this context is two space rocks lumped together. A contact binary is also a type of binary star system, but it's unlikely that a person and a rock will form this.{{cn}} In the process of rehabilitating young animals, preventing imprinting is important as the animal cannot rely on the human caregiver to succeed in the wild (in either sense). Also, while it may be possible to return the animal to its parents, inadvertent disturbance caused in the process may cause the parents to abandon the young.

[[1475: Technically|Technically]], [[Randall]] has the terminology wrong. "Meteor" refers to the shooting star you see in the sky when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere. If it makes it to the ground, the piece that survives is called a "meteorite" (although some call it [[1405: Meteor|magma]]). But this may just be part of the "lost baby bird" analogy, in that (as a meteor, just like the chicks of birds that don't practice {{w|Bird nest#Type|some variation of ground-nesting}}) an 'actual meteor' should never have been found on the ground in the first place.

If you find a recently fallen meteor(ite), or a {{w|Meteor air burst|surviving fragment}} of one, do not touch it since it may be ''very cold''. Although the surface of the meteor will have been {{w|Aerodynamic heating|heated by the atmosphere}}, the interior will still be about as cold as space and quickly cool whatever surface was not already ablated or lost. The size/fragmentation and time it has lain on the ground will dictate how cold it is, unless it was {{w|Impact crater#Impact craters on Earth|big enough}} to release enough further heat from the {{w|Lithobraking|impact}} itself.

A more important reason, from the perspective of experts who would wish to study your find (rather than 'return it to the sky'), is that handling it directly may contaminate it more than necessary. (Or, in the case of {{tvtropes|GreenRocks|more dangerous examples}}, it could contaminate ''you''!)

==Transcript==
:[A two panel comic with the panels next to each other.]

:[In the left side of the first panel, Cueball spots a meteorite on the ground. It lies a bit buried in the earth between tufts of grass. On the right side, he's shown throwing the rock into the air, with small lines indicating the flight of the meteorite. There's an "X" above him. Above this there is the following text:]
:This meteor shower weekend, remember: If you find a meteor on the ground, don't try to return it to the sky yourself.

:[In the left side of the second panel, Cueball is holding the meteorite in one hand and talking on his cellphone in his other hand, there's a check mark above him. In the middle of the panel Cueball is holding the meteorite out in both hands handing it to Ponytail who is also holding both hand out to receive it. To the right in the panel a rocket is blasting upwards with fire coming out beneath it and a plume of smoke showing its ascending path. Above this there is the following text:]
:Instead, contact an observatory where astronomical rehabbers will care for it, and hopefully release it back into the wild with the next space launch.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

2969: Vice President First Names

2024-08-08T13:59:20Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2969
| date = August 7, 2024
| title = Vice President First Names
| image = vice_president_first_names_2x.png
| imagesize = 364x556px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [Political pundit on the ScrabbleTV News channel] "After four years of defying orthographic pressure, Joe ceded the top of the ticket to Kamala, who--after considering Josh, Mark, Andy, Roy, and Pete--picked Tim."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by CORNELIUS LYSANDER THROCKMORTON "BOT" BOTTINGFORD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Randall correctly observes that American {{w|Vice President of the United States|Vice Presidents}} since the 80s have almost all had short first names; each yellow name in the VP column uses the shortened form of their first name (as with Joseph 'Joe' Biden). This comic was published one day after {{w|Kamala Harris}} (who replaced Biden as presidential candidate) chose {{w|Tim Walz}} as her running mate for the {{w|2024 United States presidential election|2024 presidential election}}. Both the Republican and Democratic tickets are present for 2024, since the 2024 election had not yet concluded when this comic was made. Either party winning would match the observation. JD Vance is a special situation, since "JD" is a preferred nickname based on his initials.

In the comic's caption, Randall amusingly describes this as an emerging "political consensus."

While not a "political" consensus per se, the observed phenomenon is a type of consensus — reflecting a multi-decade change in US societal norms — and is not simply a random coincidence.
* There has been a national US trend toward shorter names since the 1980s and 1990s, with a rise in the popularity of baby names like Ryan, Kyle, Amy, and Lisa. (The trend has continued, with even shorter names like Ava, Mia, and Max becoming more common in the 2000s and 2010s.)
* This has paralleled a trend in shorter business names, with companies like Dell, Cisco, and eBay before the turn of the millennium and Google, Uber, and Lyft after. Product naming also began to simplify in the late 20th century, driven by marketing strategies that favored brevity and memorability, exemplified by Apple's iconic "iMac" and "iPhone" products.
* All of these naming trends reflect a ''general'' societal trend toward minimalism and less formality, also seen with corporate logos, product design (Apple), clothing design (Gap), furniture design (IKEA), and web/app design.

This societal shift explains why many politicians with given names like Danforth, Albert, and Richard might have preferred to go by shorter, more approachable names like Dan, Al, and Dick to match the zeitgeist. Indeed, the politicians' names since the 1980s not in yellow mostly have names that don't easily shorten, such as George, Barack, and Kamala.

The exception, Donald Trump (which can be shortened to Don), did not become a politician until late in life when he was already nationally famous using his full name.

The '''title text''' amusingly suggests (1) the existence of a ScrabbleTV News channel (named after {{w|Scrabble|the word game}}) staffed with (2) political pundits who (3) report Biden's decision to end his re-election campaign as being driven by orthographic (related to the writing of words) pressure to conform to the aforementioned political consensus. As long as Kamala was VP, this orthographic consensus was being violated. This could also be a subtle joke about political pundits tending to give confident, inaccurate hot-takes. (Biden's decision was driven, among other things, by worsening polling, a poor debate performance against Trump, and subsequent pressure from other leading Democrats.)

The other Democratic vice-presidential candidates mentioned were all considered to be the top six candidates during the final days before Harris' VP announcement of Tim Walz: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper, and Pete Buttigieg. (Interestingly, of the three other VP candidates vetted by the Harris campaign in late July 2024, two had short names: Wes Moore and Gina Raimondo.)

This is Randall's second recent comic engaging in observational comedy about US politics and Kamala Harris, the first being [[2962: President Venn Diagram]] which was published right after she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket.

===Trivia: Other ways to shorten names===
Politicians can also use a more casual name by employing their middle name (as with {{w|Mitt Romney|Willard Mitt Romney}}). Even when they're not shortened to four or fewer letters, names can be made more casual in other ways (as with {{w|Bernie Sanders|Bernard 'Bernie' Sanders}}). As well, some politicians were commonly called by short nicknames even if they did not run under those names (Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower).

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Presidential Ticket Names
! Year !! President !! Vice-President
|-
| 2024 || Donald (John {{w|Donald Trump|Trump}}‎) Kamala (Devi {{w|Kamala Harris|Harris}}) || '''JD''' (''James David'' {{w|JD Vance|Vance}}, né James Donald Bowman)‎ '''Tim''' (''Timothy'' {{w|Tim Walz|Walz}})
|-
| 2020 || '''Joe''' (''Joseph'' Robinette {{w|Joe Biden|Biden}} Jr.) || Kamala (Devi Harris)
|-
| 2016 || Donald (John Trump)‎ || '''Mike''' (''Michael'' Richard {{w|Mike Pence|Pence}})
|-
| 2012 2008 || Barack (Hussein {{w|Barack Obama|Obama}} II)‎ || '''Joe''' (''Joseph'' Robinette Biden, Jr.)
|-
| 2004 2000 || George (Walker {{w|George W. Bush|Bush}}) || '''Dick''' (''Richard'' Bruce {{w|Dick Cheney|Cheney}})
|-
| 1996 1992 || '''Bill''' (''William'' Jefferson {{w|Bill Clinton|Clinton}}, né W. J. Blythe III) || '''Al''' (''Albert'' Arnold {{w|Al Gore|Gore}} Jr.)
|-
| 1988 || George (Herbert Walker {{w|George H. W. Bush|Bush}})‎ || '''Dan''' (James ''Danforth'' {{w|Dan Quayle|Quayle}} )
|-
| 1984 1980 || Ronald (Wilson {{w|Ronald Reagan|Reagan}})‎ || George (Herbert Walker Bush)
|-
| 1976 || ‎Jimmy (''James'' Earl {{w|Jimmy Carter|Carter}} Jr.) || Walter (Frederick {{w|Walter Mondale|Mondale}})
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1974 || ‎Gerald (Rudolph {{w|Gerald Ford|Ford}} Jr, né Leslie Lynch King Jr.) || Nelson (Aldrich {{w|Nelson Rockefeller|Rockefeller}})*
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1973 || ‎Richard (Milhous {{w|Richard Nixon|Nixon}}) || Gerald (Rudolph Ford Jr.)*
|-
| 1972 1968 || ‎Richard (Milhous Nixon) || Spiro (Theodore {{w|Spiro Agnew|Agnew}})
|-
| 1964 || Lyndon (Baines {{w|Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson}}) || Hubert (Horatio {{w|Hubert Humphrey|Humphrey}} Jr.)
|-style="background-color:lightgray"
| 1963 || Lyndon (Baines Johnson)† || ''vacant''
|-
| 1960 || '''John''' (Fitzgerald {{w|John F. Kennedy|Kennedy}}) || Lyndon (Baines Johnson)
|-
| 1956 1952 || Dwight (David {{w|Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower}}, né David Dwight Eisenhower) || Richard (Milhous Nixon)
|}

:Darkened rows show transitions not made via an {{w|List of United States major party presidential tickets|electoral 'ticket'}}.
::''* Replacements made in response to political scandal''
::''† Accession to Presidency due to assassination, VP position left unfilled until next election (not shown in comic)''

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Tables are bad? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A table is shown in a panel. Names of "Four letters or fewer" are shown in the comic on a yellow background (bolded in the table below).]
:{| class="wikitable"
! !! President !! VP
|-
| 2024 ||? Kamala ? Donald || '''Tim ? JD ?'''
|-
| 2020 || '''Joe''' || Kamala
|-
| 2016 || Donald‎ || '''Mike'''
|-
| 2008 || Barack‎ || '''Joe'''
|-
| 2000 || George || '''Dick'''
|-
| 1992 || '''Bill''' || '''Al'''
|-
| 1988 || George || '''Dan'''
|-
| 1980 || Ronald‎ || George
|-
| 1976 || ‎Jimmy || Walter
|-
| 1974 || ‎Gerald || Nelson
|-
| 1973 || ‎Richard || Gerald
|-
| 1968 || ‎Richard || Spiro
|-
| 1964 || Lyndon || Hubert
|-
| 1960 || '''John''' || Lyndon
|-
| 1952 || Dwight || Richard
|}

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Since the 1980s, a political consensus has emerged: vice presidents should have short first names.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Elections]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]

2969: Vice President First Names

2024-08-07T15:05:15Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */ Could do with click-throughs on every name (at least on first/most-recent appearance).

2965: Chili Tornado Quake

2024-07-30T12:44:31Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */ Looks better, speculating upon the possible/probable combination only after pointing out that we aren't told the specifics (with minimal rewrites).

{{comic
| number = 2965
| date = July 29, 2024
| title = Chili Tornado Quake
| image = chili_tornado_quake_2x.png
| imagesize = 302x252px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SCALED GHOST PEPPER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]], as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], is reporting from a tornado that struck a chill pepper processing plant during an earthquake.


Cueball rates the event as 55,000 on the Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale. The {{w|Richter scale}} is a historic (but still well known) logarithmic scale for rating the intensity of {{w|earthquakes}} that theoretically ranges from minus infinity to infinity, with practically relevant scores ranging from about 3 to 9.5. The {{w|Fujita scale}} is a scale for rating the intensity of damage caused by {{w|tornadoes}} which ranges from 0 to 5. The {{w|Scoville scale}} is a scale for the spiciness of {{w|chili peppers}} and can go from 0 (not at all spicy) all the way up into the millions.

As with the recent [[2950: Situation]], and occasional other comics, [[Randall]] has contrived an incident that combines multiple scenarios into an improbable whole. In this case, the purpose is to give a value to the scale of the disaster based (in some undefined way) upon the combination of the various scales that might be used to measure the individual elements.

It would seem fairly likely that the three base numbers are multiplied, as with {{w|Foot-pound (energy)similar}} compound-unit calculations, to give the single combined measure. Given the image this is not a 5 on the tornado scale. Also since the building is still there it is not a 9 on the Richter scale. So at worst it would be 4x8 for those two. This would then leave the rest for the Scoville scale, which would give around 1700 on that scale as a minimum. The other two numbers could easily be smaller so that the Scoville number would be reaching above 3000.

In the title text it is mentioned that buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating. The {{w|Mohs scale}} is a scale for mineral hardness ranging from 1-10, with lower numbers being softer and higher numbers being harder. Chili peppers are strong in a spicy sense, but very soft on the Mohs scale, so if it was only the chilies that hit other buildings it would only be very very soft material that would take any damage. Of course there would also be building material hitting nearby houses, thus they would do more damage than the chili. A number, where the hardness of the materials hitting nearby buildings was taken into consideration, could have been giving, adding a fourth number to consider in the title text mentioned scale. But no number is given in the title text.

The comic [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]] also dealt with a hybrid multi-disciplinary amalgum of measurements.

==Transcript==
:[Close-up of Cueball, a news anchor, next to an image with a headline above it to the left of him. The image shows of black tornado descending from sky-cover above. It is striking a building that has been damaged near where the tornado hits. Two large chilies can be seen flying through the air in the foreground, with pieces of the building and more chilies flying off further away. Straight beneath the building and going up in the middle of it there is a crack, that divides into three inside the building. The ground is also higher to the right of the point where the crack enters the building. Cueball is speaking which is shown above the image and him.]
:Headline: Breaking news
:Cueball: A tornado that struck a chili pepper processing plant during an earthquake was rated 55,000 on the Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale.

==Trivia==
*It seems the title text is missing the word "due":
**"Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts '''due''' to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Earthquakes]]

2964: Olympic Sports

2024-07-30T08:12:12Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2964
| date = July 26, 2024
| title = Olympic Sports
| image = olympic_sports_2x.png
| imagesize = 553x328px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Thankfully for everyone involved, the Winter Olympics officials spotted me and managed to stop me before I got to the ski jump.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A VERY CONCERNED OLYMPIC OFFICIAL - Provide an explanation of each sport for the convenience of those unfamiliar with some or all listed sports. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic was officially published on the day of the opening ceremony of the {{w|2024 Summer Olympics|2024 Paris (Summer) Olympics}}, though it actually appeared early the following day.

In this comic, [[Randall]], who has no athletic training, imagines himself participating in various Olympic events, with his degrees of failure measured in terms of their humor potential.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Olympic sports ranked by how funny it would be if a regular person competed
! How funny !! Sport !! Reason
|-
|rowspan=5| Not that funny || {{w|Rowing}} - One or more people row a boat to a destination.|| The person would struggle to row effectively, falling out of cadence and fouling the oars of the other rowers in their boat. However, if Randall competed in the single sculls, such coordination would not be an issue, and he would likely just be much slower than the other competitors. Or fall in the water.
|-
| {{w|Fencing}} - Two contestants attempt to land hits on each other with a long fencing weapon.|| Contrary to what is often portrayed in movies, sword fights of any kind are very quick, often lasting just a few seconds. Olympic fencing matches are especially fast, and an untrained layman watching the fight would probably be unable to tell the difference between a fight between two experts and a fight in which one person had no experience, aside from that said person would lose every bout.
|-
| {{w|Weightlifting}} - Contestants lift weights, which, in the Olympics, get heavier with each round, until all but one fail to lift.|| They might just fail to lift the weights.
|-
| {{w|Golf}} - Contestants attempt to use golf clubs to hit a golf ball into one or more holes in as small a number of hits as possible.|| They would likely miss the ball or hit poorly, due to an incorrect stance/swing when hitting, using a club whose loft (angle of the front face) is inappropriate, or just basic lack of skill.
----
''The comic illustrates this by having Randall putt and miss the hole at very close range.''
|-
| {{w|Archery}} - Using a bow and arrow, contestants attempt to hit a target with as much accuracy as possible.|| Arrows might miss the target, but it's not particularly amusing (unless Randall forgoes armbraces & discovers the bowstring's propensity for smacking the inside of his wrist after releasing it).
----
''The comic shows Randall missing all his shots on the target.''
|-
|rowspan=5| Pretty funny || {{w|Swimming}} - Contestants swim to a destination or complete lengths as fast as possible.|| They might struggle to stay afloat (particularly in open water swimming, where they would be buffeted by other contestants) or {{w|Eric Moussambani|swim awkwardly}}. They are also likely to have a markedly different physique to the other competitors, which would have a comic effect.
|-
| {{w|Long jump}} - Contestants, with a running start, attempt to jump as far as possible.|| They would likely make a very short jump, or perhaps foul every jump.
|-
| {{w|Pole vault}} - Using a bendable pole, contestants attempt to propel (vault) themselves over a bar.|| They might miss the plant and end up dropping the pole and running under the bar. If they did manage to get some lift, but failed to get enough to reach the mat, it would probably be concerning, rather than funny.
|-
| {{w|Diving}} - Contestants attempt to fulfil multiple criteria while diving into water.|| Awkward or painful-looking dives could ensue. Potential for injury would be high.
|-
| {{w|Hurdles}} - Contestants run on a track with hurdles positioned at various places.|| They might trip and fall over the hurdles, or just knock them all over as they fail to clear them.
----
''Drawn in this section, Randall repeatedly and unpleasantly runs into the hurdles, unable to jump over any of them. He has his arm raised bent in front of his face in a classic hurdler's pose, but appears to have failed to get much, if any, height off the ground.''
|-
|rowspan=5| Incredibly funny || {{w|Figure skating}} [The only Winter Olympic discipline featured in the main comic] Competitors perform artistic routines set to music while skating on an ice rink, and are judged on a combination of skating skill, composition, and presentation. || They might slip and fall continually on the ice, with a high risk for sprained joints or bone fractures. This might have particular comic potential if Randall were skating as part of a pair, awkwardly attempting to lift and spin a partner, or perhaps doing nothing but being lifted and dragged around by them.
|-
| {{w|Horizontal bar}} - A horizontal bar is used to perform gymnastics.|| They might fail to perform any flips or lose their grip on the bar, falling to the safety mats below. In all likelihood, having been lifted to the bar, they would simply hang helplessly beneath it, managing minimal swings backwards and forwards.
|-
| {{w|Equestrian sports}} - Various activities involving the use of horses.|| They might struggle to control the horse or fall/get thrown off.
----
''Randall is shown completely unable to control his horse. He is in the process of falling off and is flailing his arms.
|-
| {{w|Freestyle BMX}} - Contestants ride BMX bikes and perform various tricks, and are then judged by trick quality.|| They might crash or fail to perform tricks.
|-
| {{w|Pommel horse}} - Using a gymnastic device somewhat similar to a horse, gymnasts perform various tricks.|| They might awkwardly flop around, fall off, or lose their balance & risk crushing {{tvtropes|GroinAttack|a particularly squashy part}} of their anatomy, which could, depending on one's sense of humor, the context, & the exact aesthetics of the incident, elicit laughter.
----
''Depicted, Randall is awkwardly perched atop a pommel horse with the rather basic {{w|The_Lexicon_of_Comicana|agitrons}} surrounding him suggesting that he is wiggling some body parts but otherwise not moving much at all. However, he seems to be unaware of this, excitedly demanding that people look at what he presumably thinks is an impressive feat of athleticism.
|}

The title text may be a reference to ski jumper {{w|Vinko Bogataj}}, whose spectacular crash at a (non-Olympic) {{w|Ski_flying|ski flying}} event in 1970 in Oberstdorf, (then) West Germany became emblematic of the expression "the agony of defeat" in the opening narration of the popular US television program "{{w|Wide World of Sports (American TV program)|Wide World of Sports}}". Alternatively the reference may be to {{w|Eddie the Eagle}}, whose poor performance in the {{w|Ski_jumping|ski jump}} at the {{w|1988 Winter Olympics}} led to the introduction of a rule requiring entrants to be ranked internationally in the top 50 and top 30%.

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

:[Header above three panels:]
:Olympic Sports ranked by how funny it would be if I, a regular person without athletic training, snuck onto the team to compete:
:[Three panels are shown with a header, a bullet list with five listed sports in each, and one or two depictions of sports.]

:Not that funny
:Rowing
:Fencing
:Weightlifting
:Golf
:Archery
:[Cueball putts a ball with a golf club and misses the hole from a close distance.]
:[Cueball is aiming with a bow. Three arrows are on the ground at various distances from the target.]

:Pretty funny
:Swimming
:Long jump
:Pole vault
:Diving
:Hurdles
:[Cueball runs stomach-first into a hurdle, while holding an arm in front of his head. Another hurdle behind him has fallen down.]
:Cueball: [Bonk] Ow! [Bonk] Ow!

:Incredibly funny
:Figure skating
:Horizontal bar
:Equestrian
:BMX freestyle
:Pommel horse
:[Cueball tries to balance himself on a pommel horse. His both hands and one leg are down, while the other leg is slightly raised.]
:Cueball: Look! Look!
:[A horse rider wearing a black helmet is struggling to maintain balance on the running horse, with both hands and one leg raised.]
:Horse rider with black helmet: AAAAA!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]

Talk:2961: CrowdStrike

2024-07-21T11:50:57Z

172.69.43.226:

how will this impact the status of vs sonic.exe rerun [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.177|172.70.90.177]] 18:25, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Somewhat bemused that there's a comic for this on Day 0, yet there was no comic about the xzutils backdoor earlier this year… [[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.19|162.158.49.19]] 20:21, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
:How do you know there wasn't a secret comic about the xzutils problem, [[2347: Dependency|set up well before]] any impact became obvious? ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.185|172.69.43.185]] 21:09, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Right now, reading this explanation, this is the first I've ever heard anyone mention "crowdstrike" at all. - [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.193|141.101.109.193]] 08:19, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

: Some early reports called it "cloudstrike" which certainly reminds us of our vulnerable positions as providers of truth. Look up “We built this city on sausage rolls.” [[Special:Contributions/172.68.70.122|172.68.70.122]] 13:33, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

Seriously, this comic came out yesterday, the same day as the thing happened? How did Randall do that, seriously???
[[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 14:51, 20 July 2024 (UTC)
:Sounds like a good start of a conspiracy theory. But wouldn't it have been ironic if he tried to publish it, and the service provider for explainxkcd.com was down because of Crowdstrike? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:11, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
::That's not irony, that's coincidence. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.173|162.158.212.173]] 03:24, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
:he's been drawing stick figures for years, probably really easy for him. [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 05:53, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

Is there an English Dialact in which the Titletext is pronounced resembling a Haiku? {{unsigned ip|172.70.250.183|11:04, 21 July 2024}}
:Fully enunciated, it's 18 syllables. Whilst "going to" can easily be reduced to "gonna", it still makes it hard to split nicely intoto three phrases of 5/7/5 'on'/syllables.
:The "...is on hold" is the clincher, at just three and no obvious way to self-bulk to five (requiring other bits to merge further down). Awkward to donate ''part'' of "compiling" (three on its own, hard to reduce to two without slurring). I suppose a strategic ellision might help draw it in.
:The two immediate options I would give are therefore:
:*"We were going to / try swordfighting, but all my / compiling on hold." (meh)
:*"We were gonna try / swordfighting, but all my comp... / ...iling is on hold." (...a bit of non-verbal onomatopoeia invoked? Might be considered even the more poetic for it)
:Or rewrite, for explicit nod to the haiku:
:*"From our office chairs / neither compile nor swordfight / at this time of pause." (usefully, for the form, "time of" becomes a poetically better seasonal reference)
:In fact I was at one point going to add to my latest exit to the Explanation that, based just upon this and Compiling, it seems that 'office-sanctioned idling' ''must'' involve the ubiquetous office-chair (which, BTW, '''surely deserves a Category:Office Chair'''... if someone cares to create it, there being any number of appearances being sat/kneeled/stood upon) to be allowable. But maybe wait for a third demonstrative example to be posted/remembered. Maybe if I go and manually look for all Office Chair Category candidates I'll stumble across just such an example that I'd forgotten... But later. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.226|172.69.43.226]] 11:50, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

2961: CrowdStrike

2024-07-20T13:20:10Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */ Knock-on effects... You computer works ok, still, but can't get updates from the 3rd-party service/etc....

{{comic
| number = 2961
| date = July 19, 2024
| title = CrowdStrike
| image = crowdstrike_2x.png
| imagesize = 322x384px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We were going to try swordfighting, but all my compiling is on hold.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an UNAFFECTED BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the {{w|2024 CrowdStrike incident}} occurring on the day of the comic's release. CrowdStrike makes security software to protect computers from malware, ransomware and other cyberattacks. The software is sold to businesses and large enterprises like hospitals, airlines and retailers. CrowdStrike frequently releases updates to their software to handle new types of malware they know about.

A faulty update for one of their software products caused computers with the software installed to crash (a {{w|Blue Screen of Death}}) very early on when booting up. This meant the computers could not be quickly or automatically fixed. Because many large businesses with large numbers of computers used CrowdStrike's software on at least some of their systems, or relied upon yet other businesses that did, the resulting disruption was very widespread and very visible, preventing those businesses from operating and, in many cases, preventing their employees from working while their computers were affected. Apparently, Cueball and Ponytail's company, or possibly a company providing a service their work depends on, uses CrowdStrike to secure their computers. Without being able to work, they have found something more entertaining to do -- Cueball, riding a scooter and with a rope tied around his waist, is towing Ponytail, who is sitting on a swiveling chair, around their office or neighborhood. Performing this activity is probably a bad idea.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x6l5ziR7Fc</ref>

Of course, CrowdStrike itself is a software company. As the caption suggests, its employees don't have the luxury of slacking off while their computers are broken: they have to address the faulty update, and help the businesses using their software to fix their computers. In the event, CrowdStrike had released a patch for the software around six hours after it came to light, at which point it is then the responsibility of those companies' own IT departments to roll out the necessary fixes (as well as continuing to deal with the original fallout, while the workers dependent upon their work wait for personal resolutions to their issues).

The title text refers to [[303: Compiling]], in which Cueball also found a good way to spend time at work when he couldn't use his computer, albeit for a more mundane reason.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[White Hat is gesturing with his finger and addressing Ponytail, who is crouched on a moving office chair, holding with both hands onto a rope tied around the waist of Cueball, who is riding an electric scooter.]
:White Hat: Hey, aren't you supposed to be working on the—
:Ponytail: Sorry, that's all on hold today because of the CrowdStrike thing.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Protip: As long as you're not actually in charge of ''fixing'' the CrowdStrike thing, you can use this excuse for pretty much anything you want to do today.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Computer security]]

Talk:1090: Formal Languages

2024-07-17T20:19:45Z

172.69.43.226: ...added an 'unsigned'...

;Where to dicuss (moved from article body)
Maybe the word "Grammar" is just supposed to sound like "Ta-Da" (as in the fanfare sound made in circuses). Which - as odd as this is going to sound - is somewhat similar to how grammar is used in formal languages.

Is it possible that the word crash is some sort of play on the computer term 'crash'? I know that formal linguistics is important to computer science... Just throwing that out there.

You know, either:

a) I'm REALLY dumb (98% probability) and I simply can't find the comments on this comic (or any other for that matter now "it's come to this" (the Wiki). Or...

b) (2% probablity) nobody else has managed to work out how to comment yet either. Is this the way to do it? (seems logical) or is option a) corect? In which case, can someone give me a Noddy's Guide to how to find the comments and add them, please?
(Obviously kindly delete this if option a) is indeed correct!) Steve B. -- ''The explaination is up now. Basically it's a big play on the words 'context free grammar' ''

If only there were some sort of Discussion page where comics could be discussed. There could be a convenient link at the top of the page right next to a link back to the comic page itself. Maybe it could be colored red to stand out from the rest of the page. ''-- It's a blue button next to "Prev"''

;Formal Language
Because the conference heading implies it is about formal programming languages.
Grammar is about the correct for of language and it's formality and rules (which I break all the time).
It's a pun.

[[Special:Contributions/202.167.15.165|202.167.15.165]] 06:21, 21 November 2012 (UTC)beany
:Formal language is a much broader concept than just programming languages. [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:37, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

;Formal Language
I'm thinking the page needs a brief description of what a "formal language" is. I linked to the wikipedia article on formal languages, but we should probably add a summary relevant to the comic here. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 10:39, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

^
|
'''"Formal languages"''' in a formal language, is '''"Formal languages"'''.

;Norvig vs. Chomsky
It may be related to this news: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/norvig-vs-chomsky-and-the-fight-for-the-future-of-ai

;Grammar vs Language
The pun seems clearly to be related to the difference between a formal language and a formal grammar. A language X is the set of all it's valid statements. On the other hand, a grammar for a language X is a description that can be used produce every single valid statement in the language X, even if it's a language with infinite valid statements. So him shouting "''GRAMMAR''" in a formal ''languages'' forum is most likely meant to be as if he said in a shorthand way everything there was to be said about (the) language. {{unsigned ip|108.162.212.51}}

Someone please fix the explanation, I cant because A) I know nothing about this and B) As my age is every time I try to learn this I fall asleep.[[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 04:08, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

;Why do we need to define context-free grammar?

cant you just say that its a thing that exists and be done with it? it certainly doesnt add to the joke to know the definition
[[User:TheJonyMyster|TheJonyMyster]] ([[User talk:TheJonyMyster|talk]]) 21:46, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

:I agree. I have added a sentence though, as I've encountered quite a bit of uproar about removing incompleteness notifications willy-nilly. <gir> 20:55, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

Since the man bursts in from the left, is the podium an LL(1) parser? {{unsigned ip|172.70.174.227|19:57, 17 July 2024}}

Talk:2958: Hatchery

2024-07-14T12:40:22Z

172.69.43.226:

Aren't hatcheries usually about breeding fish, not farming them?[[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 23:26, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
:Well farming sheep often involves the lambing process (though you ''can'' just buy in fresh surplus tups every year, from wherever happens to suit your price/quality thresholds, if that's your thing), so "farming" is a wide application in terms of animal husbandry (as well as agriculture, though ''perhaps'' in some arboriculture/horticulture/viniculture situations you needn't do the initial seeding, and just buy in the juvenile plants).
:Open-water "Fish-farms" may be more likely to get their fry/big-enough-to-keep-netted-youngsters from an 'on-shore' breeding facility that ''may'' be a separate supplier, but I'd probably accept the description of the breeding facility (in 'barrels', quite possibly) as 'farming', even if it's not a full-lifetime aquaponics setup, just had mysteriously internet-accessible firearms trained upon the various tanks of growing fish. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 10:42, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
:Comic does not say "farm" anywhere? [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 20:53, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

Reading it, I first thought it was about Call of Duty, an fps game series. Its usual abbreviation is COD, but this might be coincidence.[[User:Intara|Intara]] ([[User talk:Intara|talk]]) 01:44, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

:As funny as that is, it is almost certainly coincidence. An incredible, hilarious one to be sure, but still most likely a coincidence.[[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 06:50, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

::I noticed [[792]] also features Black Hat, is about hacking and mentions CoD4 tournaments, but I guess it isn't part of this comic's joke. [[User:Asdf|Asdf]] ([[User talk:Asdf|talk]]) 08:52, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

:::I actually think the 'CoD' connection might be something. A hatchery is (amongst other things) where fish spawn. Someone sitting at a computer remotely executing cod as they spawn definitely feels like it might be some kind of 'spawn camping' joke. Also he mentions shooting and there's a 'blam' sound effect. Both of which I don't think fit that well with the pure cod/code pun, but make more sense if it's partially a reference to killing helpless players in an FPS as they first spawn. It feels intentional to me, but also very awkward, so I suspect I'm missing something. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.226|172.69.43.226]] 12:40, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

2954: Bracket Symbols

2024-07-04T10:32:19Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2954
| date = July 3, 2024
| title = Bracket Symbols
| image = bracket_symbols_2x.png
| imagesize = 592x569px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = ’"‘”’" means "I edited this text on both my phone and my laptop before sending it"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ([{《"complicated function"》}]) - Please~~ change this comment when editing this page. Do *NOT* delete this tag too soon.}} WAKE UP, NERDS! Come explain to me why this is funny!

'The preliminary nerd has arrived and did his best to fix the article.' (Even though I'm not British, I thought it might be funny to reference the comic. {See what I did there?} )

Bracket symbols are meant to put around a text. This comic shows a variety of bracket symbols and Randall's description.
Here is a list of what these symbols may mean as a preliminary to a full proper explanation: (feel free to update or completely replace this)

{| class="wikitable"
|+Descriptions
|-
! Symbols
! Comic text
! Real use
! Explanation of the joke
|-
|()
|Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside
|Used to mark side remarks (like explanations) in regular text. Also used in mathematical expressions and programming languages to show the sequence of operations or separate other things like function arguments.
|Normal parentheses. No joke here.
|-
|[]
|Square brackets (more secure)
|Used in regular text to mark still less important remarks, like glosses, omissions, translator and editorial notes etc. In mathematics, often used for {{w|Matrix (mathematics)|matrices}} or {{w|Interval (mathematics)|closed intervals}}. Sometimes used as outer parentheses for easier visual matching in complicated expressions. In programming languages used to mark specific syntactic elements, like array indexes, lists etc.
|The sharper edges and corners may suggest these brackets hold things in more securely, so the contents is less likely to fall out. They resemble staples used to hold things in place securely.
|-
|{}
|This stuff is expensive so be careful with it
|Rarely used in normal text. In mathematics, usually used to denote {{w|Set (mathematics)|sets}}, but other usage is possible. In programming languages most often used to denote begin and end of a separate block of code, but other uses are also extant.
|All that graphical detail in the bracket, if manufactured as a physical object, would increase the production cost making it more expensive than "regular" brackets. Their relative rarity compared to "regular" or square brackets might also increase the monetary value. They may also look 'fancy', like gates with ornate ironwork.
|-
|"" or “”
|Someone is talking
|Used to denote speech or citations in normal text. The first version is commonly used in programming languages to denote text that is not a program, such as messages displayed to the user.
|Normal quotation marks. Some languages or communities use different typographical conventions such as „German quotation marks“. See also below for British and French.
|-
|<nowiki>''</nowiki> or ‘’
|Someone British is talking
|British quotation marks. Some programming languages use the first version to denote non-program text.
|Some British media use these to note when people are talking, though in modern usage the double quotes above are more common, while single quotes are more often used as '{{w|scare quotes}}'.
|-
|‹› or <>
|An Animorph is talking
|Angle brackets
|Books like the series {{w|Animorphs}} or science fiction novels use these when a character is communicating nonverbally, for example via telepathy.
|-
|«»
|A French Animorph is talking
|French quotation marks. In some languages used for quotes within quotes. For quoting conventions in different languages, see [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/formex/physical-specifications/character-encoding/use-of-quotation-marks-in-the-different-languages this document].
|These symbols are literally called French quotation marks and are used in French texts as the first-level quotes. Here Randall is mixing the SF convention described above with actual French use.
|-
|<nowiki>|</nowiki>|
|I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me
|Vertical bars in mathematics are used for the Absolute Value function.
|The absolute value of a number is its value with all negative and positive signs stripped off; in practical terms this is used to ensure a given value is positive (ex. <nowiki>|-69| = 69</nowiki>). If for whatever reason you need to "protect" your equations from negative numbers (which does come up in programming from time to time) the absolute value function has you covered — though it may not always be denoted with vertical bars.
|-
|**, __, //
|I have a favorite monospaced font
|In the past, these symbols were conventionally used in purely text-based computer communications (such as emails, chats, Usenet News articles) to denote *bold*, _underlined_, or /italic/ font; some client programs even interpreted them and displayed actual bold text etc.
|{{w|Monospace font}} is a font (set of shapes used for letters, numbers and symbols) in which every character has the same width, unlike {{w|Typeface#Proportional_font|variable-width (proportional) font}}, in which the letter I is much narrower than W. While proportional font is more pleasant to read, monospace is easier to represent in simple mechanical or electronic devices, and has been used almost exclusively in the advent of computer technology, specifically in text-only environments such as {{w|computer terminals}}; these most often had only one factory installed font. Today, a person still using these symbols is probably using a {{w|terminal emulator}}, which allows to select a (preferably monospace) font from a wide set of fonts installed in the operating system.
|-
|~~
|I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014
|
|Strikethrough markup commonly used on sites like Tumblr to indicate that you don't really mean something you said. This is a somewhat archaic trend, but I still use it...
|-
|[([{()}],)]
|These Python functions are not getting along
|The square brackets denote a mutable [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/introduction.html#lists list], the round brackets an immutable [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#tuples-and-sequences tuple] , and the curly brackets a [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#sets set]. It is valid to have nested them like this. [] could also be a slice (a bit of a list or tuple) and {} could be a [https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/datastructures.html#dictionaries dictionary], but the syntax is wrong for these.
|Random parentheses - Spaghetti code (badly maintained or written) in programming languages including Python will often be badly organized creating a mess of indentations and brackets used to create functions or loops etc.
|-
|⌊⌋
|Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary
|Mathematical symbols meaning "floor" (i.e. round down to the nearest lower integer).
|By "actual numbers" Randall means {{w|real number}}s. Unlike {{w|natural number}}s, they are somewhat difficult to understand to a person learning basic mathematics and thus "scary". The "floor" operation makes a (positive) real number a natural number, thus not "scary".
|-
|∫ ∫
|Why are you trying to read my violin?
|There is currently no such type of bracketing used in typography. See Explanation.
∫ looks like the {{w|Integral symbol}} which itself is derived from a {{w|Long s}}. In mathematics it is usually paired with the differential of the variable of integration (e.g., dx). A reverse integral symbol is usually not used in mathematics.
The symbols could also be a lowercase {{w|Esh (letter)}} and its reversed symbol.
|Violins are known for their characteristic {{w|F-hole}}s.
|-
|<nowiki>|⟩</nowiki>
|Don't stop here–this is quantum country
|This {{w|Bra–ket notation|notation is used in quantum mechanics}} to notate a vector. This is called a ket, and the mirrored sign <nowiki>⟨|</nowiki> is called a bra. Combining them as bra-ket gives the inner product <nowiki>⟨|⟩</nowiki>.
|
|}


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

Bracket Symbols

and what they mean

( ) Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside

[ ] Square brackets (more secure)

{ } This stuff is expensive so be careful with it

" " Someone is talking

' ' Someone British is talking

‹ › An Animorph is talking

« » A French Animorph is talking

| | I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me

<nowiki>*</nowiki> * _ _ / / I have a favorite monospaced font

~ ~ I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014

[ ( [ { ( ) } ] , ) ] These Python functions are '''''not''''' getting along

⌊ ⌋ Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary

ʃ ʅ Why are you trying to read my violin?

| ⟩ Don't stop here--this is quantum country

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]

Talk:2952: Routine Maintenance

2024-07-01T22:55:44Z

172.69.43.226: 172.68 was clearly not replying to 172.70, so adjusting subsequent reply levels.

Ooooh, if this were only true... All the "Nobody tells me what to do" stubborn people would have died out years ago, and Covid would have been a LOT shorter! :) Added an initial explanation, all I found here was a basic transcript.

The vent off of Alaska is poking out, is there a volcano around there? Feels a little north to be Mount Fuji, but I have a suspicion most if not all are supposed to be actually volcanos... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:12, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
:Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula (the long "teardrop" hanging below the Siberian Peninsula) is very volcanically active. The others look like reasonable places to expect volcanoes - I've added a couple of lines. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.207|172.68.64.207]] 05:25, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Is the image SUPPOSED to be that tiny? It's not even 800 pixels! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 05:46, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

Should the direction of up/down actually being away/towards the planet due to gravity and not the panel's up/down direction be addressed in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.31.150|172.71.31.150]] 13:34, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

The current explanation says that cans of compressed air are pressurized with a propellant gas. This seems unlikely to me, but it's not ''impossible''... it's just that I'd expect a can of compressed air to be only that, without needing a propellant. What I'm seeing in a quick search on-line supports that. Do cans of air/propellant exist? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:09, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
:It would be impractical to have ''just normal air, compressed''. A typical spray can cannot hold the pressures needed to have significant (i.e. useful) amounts of compressed 'normal air' (still gas, but a ''lot'' of it... think, basically, of a cylinder of Nitrogen gas, because air is mostly that anyway). And 'typical air' doesn't readily liquify (the way of concentrating it without ''necessarily'' extreme pressure), not without applying/maintaining extremely low temperatures.
:On the whole, regular mostly nitrogen plus significant oxygen plus some CO2 and a host of trace gases would never practically fit in a handy spray can such as you could hold (and, probably, afford to use) as an alternative to any pumped compressed (or fan-blown) air in 'trivial' tasks such as just blowing a tiny bit of dust off of a mobo.
:What the 'air' is, in such cans, is probably (mostly) whatever handy liquid-adjacent gas is usable as an actual propellant. As you only need the 'general gas', you might as well just put propellant in the thing (one that works well) and ''nothing else''. (Unlike things like air-fresheners/bug-spray, which need the 'freshener'/insecticide as well. There's no advantage to reducing the propellant to fit 'air' in, which would soon be so diluted by gasified propellant that you'd basically have no 'air' left).
:The listed possible gases in a {{w|gas duster}} are the likes of butane, propane, 1,1-difluoroethane, 1,1,1-trifluoroethane or 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, with the first two being flammable (so would be problematic in some circumstances) and the rest being more inert but still not being 'safe' if improperly used. Or abused.
:I don't actually have a can, at hand, or I'd check its stated ingredients (and warnings). I probably am more likely to (carefully) blow dust away with my own breath, or get the vacuum cleaner out with a suitable attachment. In fact, I've used very few, ever, though I probably first did back in the early '80s (which means it ''might'' even have been basically an example (or mix) of a CFC gas, before the problems with that became 'a thing'), as part of a cleaning kit sold to service my BBC Micro. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.35|172.70.86.35]] 17:44, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
:The popular 'can dusters' are '''NOT''' compressed ''air'' (oxygen/nitrogen mix) despite the label -- air cannot stay liquid at room temperature, it is high above the critical points of both nitrogen and oxygen. Many of such dusters don't display ingredients, but have a prominent '''FLAMMABLE''' warning sign! It is a propane/butane mix most of the time, maybe some CFCs in old ones. You could make a flame torch out of them! so be careful, turn off your device and provide very good ventilation. Best use it outdoors or on a patio, etc. -- [[Special:Contributions/172.68.159.20|172.68.159.20]] 18:04, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
::I was looking at [https://www.amazon.ca/EMPACK-EMP47020-Duster-500-295-74-Moisture-Free/dp/B007Z7OK3Y this] product, which claims to be VOC-free. But when I dug into [https://emzone.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/p7-047020___________emzone_air_duster_-_284_g_en.pdf its SDS], I saw that it's based on 1,1-difluoroethane. "Non-flammable product. However, content in liquid form is flammable." [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:38, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

2943: Unsolved Chemistry Problems

2024-06-17T08:52:05Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2943
| date = June 7, 2024
| title = Unsolved Chemistry Problems
| image = unsolved_chemistry_problems_2x.png
| imagesize = 361x386px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I'm an H⁺ denier, in that I refuse to consider loose protons to be real hydrogen, so I personally believe it stands for 'pretend'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a caffeinated biochemist - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Every field of research has [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|unsolved problems]] considered "important" or "significant" that motivate continued research. The scientists at what is apparently the "grand opening" of their new chemistry lab list several real chemistry problems, followed by one also-unsolved-but-less-scientific problem (the p in pH)

'''Arbitrary Enzyme Design:'''

{{w|Enzymes}} are catalytic proteins. Enzyme catalysis is often unique in comparison with other catalysis methods as it is highly specific, or tailored to a specific reaction. As such, enzyme catalysis, besides being the basis of all biochemical processes, is becoming increasingly relevant to industrial synthesis processes. As enzymes can easily be produced synthetically through recombinant gene technology, being able to design an arbitrary enzyme for any reaction would mean that effectively any reaction could be relatively easily catalyzed, revolutionizing the chemical synthesis industry.

'''Protein Folding:'''

{{w|Protein|Proteins}} are large molecules that consist of chains of amino acids. These amino acid chains become {{w|Protein Folding|folded}} in extremely complex ways to form intricate 3D structures, and the way a protein is folded is of critical importance to its function. Because of the huge importance of proteins to biological life, biologists have devoted significant attention over many decades to the problem of {{w|Protein structure prediction|protein structure prediction}}. This refers to the ability to predict the 3D structure of a protein based on the amino acid sequence, and remains one of the most important problems in computational biology. The ability to predict protein structure purely from amino acid sequence — the so-called "de novo" prediction — is known in computational biology as an unusually difficult problem due to the complexity of amino acid chains. Known as "Levinthal's paradox," the number of possible conformations from the backbone conformations alone is estimated to be in the ballpark of 10^300. Despite this, protein folding occurs extremely quickly in reality. Because of this difficulty in sampling conformations, even with optimization, such as secondary structure prediction and Monte Carlo simulation, a "true" accurate simulation is extremely computationally expensive. Because of this, the most accurate solutions, such as AlphaFold, utilize a combination of homology modeling (sampling experimentally determined proteins with similar sequences to infer structural motifs and similarities) and deep learning to accurately guess protein structure. See also [[1430: Proteins]].

'''Depolymerization:'''

Polymers are very large molecules formed out of repeating subunits called monomers. Monomers are molecules, typically organic in nature, that can bond with at least one other molecule, with two or more making long chains or networks called polymers. That process is known as polymerization. Depolymerization is breaking polymers down into the small molecules they were originally made from. This is done through a variety of processes, such as radiation, electrolysis, adding chemicals, and other means. Plastics are the best-known polymers, but cellulose, proteins, and DNA are also technically polymers. The huge number of varieties and mixtures in plastics makes recycling them a huge challenge, and there is increasing concern about plastic waste damaging the environment.

Polymerization is usually exothermic, releasing energy as heat. To reverse this would require adding energy in a targeted way. Simply ''destroying'' a polymer — by means of highly-reactive chemicals, heat, or radiation — doesn't generally release the monomer molecules to a significant degree; most of the reaction products are highly degraded. Most polymers are made by a process of catalysis, with the small monomer molecules interacting via a catalyst structure, often in liquid form, and the eventual product is usually solid. To reverse this would require getting the catalyst to interact in a very precise way with the solid polymer, and it's relatively difficult for the catalyst structure to get into the proper configuration with the solid tangled polymer molecules.

Another highly-desired depolymerization process would be to convert cellulose into its component glucose molecules. That glucose could then be used for a variety of different purposes, including fermentation to alcohol to use as a fuel. Currently, when plants are grown, much of the solar energy and carbon dioxide they absorb ends up in the form of cellulose rather than as starch, sugar, protein, or other substances that we find useful. Our being able to make use of the cellulose would make farming much more energy-efficient. Some organisms are able to depolymerize cellulose by means of enzymes, but our ability to use similar processes on an industrial scale is still limited. (Those organisms use a complex multi-step biochemical process which essentially "invests" energy into splitting off a glucose molecule, then recoups the investment by metabolizing the glucose.) It's also possible to depolymerize cellulose at high temperature and pressure using nothing more than water and acid, but that process is energy-intensive. It ''might'' be possible to do it with a solar-heated reactor.

'''What the “p” in pH stands for:'''

“p” shows up in pH, pKa, pKb, and other things related to the concentration of H+ ions and OH- ions. The meaning of the "p" in "pH" has been the subject of much dispute. It is sometimes referred to as "power of Hydrogen", perhaps related to the fact that pH is a logarithmic scale, and the logarithm is the inverse of the exponented function and, in all three languages that pH was first published in, the word for "potency" is used for exponents. The term pH was introduced by {{w|Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen|Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen}}, who did not publish his results in English, and more accurately translates as "hydric exponent". The letter p could stand for, in the languages in which Sørensen published: the French 'puissance', German Potenz, or Danish potens, all referring to the concept of the "exponent" in exponential functions.

'''Title Text: Hydrogen Denier'''

In the title text, Randall claims to be an H+ denier by refusing to consider loose protons to be hydrogen atoms, and as such, the “p” stands for pretend. Part of the joke is Randall's implication that this is a well-known conspiracy theory that he personally buys into (it isn't). The word "denier" is often used as shorthand for other conspiracy theories, such as a "climate change denier" or a "moon landing denier."

Here's a breakdown of this joke:

* H+ is the chemical symbol for a positively-charged atom of hydrogen, the smallest atom on the Periodic Table. Since hydrogen is normally just one proton and one electron, when you take the electron away, you make it positively charged (the + sign in the superscript) and you effectively end up with just a single loose proton. So the shorthand for "loose proton" is to refer to it as an H+ ion.

* pH is taught in high school science class to essentially measure the concentration of extra loose protons in, say, an aquarium. (Different fish prefer slightly different pH levels/alkalinity.) As mentioned earlier, you can interpret the term "pH" to be referring to the "p" of "H" -- the power/potency of H+ ions.

(Note that in reality, lone H+ ions do not exist in water, and instead they glom onto H2O molecules to form H3O+ and H5O2+/(H2O--H--OH2)+ due to intermolecular hydrogen bonding. If you don't know what these chemical symbols mean, don't worry about it.)

But as an H+ denier, Randall doesn't consider loose protons to be hydrogen atoms. He has a purist's view of hydrogen, that it is just "pretending" to be hydrogen as soon as it loses an electron. As a denier, he interprets the term "pH" as referring to the concentration of "pretend Hydrogen".

==Transcript==
:[Hairbun stands behind a lectern on a podium speaking into a microphone on the lectern. A Cueball like guy stands to the left and another Cueball like guy and Megan stand to the right. There is a large sign hanging in the background along with some ornaments.]
:Sign: Grand Opening
:Hairbun: Our lab will be working on chemistry's top unsolved problems: arbitrary enzyme design, protein folding, depolymerization, and, of course, the biggest one of all:
:Hairbun: ''Figuring out what the "p" in "pH" stands for.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

2942: Fluid Speech

2024-06-06T10:25:20Z

172.69.43.226: /* Explanation */ YMMV, but my tongue barely moves, between the hardest plosives, even when enunciating (the whole mouth-shape does more work, mostly jaw-movement, plus the tension of the larynx).

{{comic
| number = 2942
| date = June 5, 2024
| title = Fluid Speech
| image = fluid_speech_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x406px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you're okay.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by sum'un who wud rite like'is all'u time if e'cud gi'away with'd- Title text not adressed. How would the utterance of the fourth panels actually sound? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about {{w|sandhi}}.

[[Randall]] states that people often unconsciously shorten words in various ways when speaking to optimize the fluidity of speech.
He then presents four diagrams of the human mouth and paths depicting how it moves when saying increasingly fluid versions of "going to."

The first diagram gives the pronunciation /ɡoʊɪŋ tu/ ''GO-ing TO''. This is the version found in dictionaries and used when one is speaking slowly and deliberately. Here, the tongue may have to move a lot; the first syllable starts with a velar /g/ followed by the back vowels /oʊ/, but the second syllable /ɪŋ/ features a jump from the hard palate right back to the back of the mouth. This is followed by an even bigger jump to the middle of the mouth with alveolar /t/, and back towards the velum again with /u/.

The second diagram shows a slightly more efficient pronunciation, in which the /ŋ/ is replaced by an /n/ instead since both /n/ and /t/ are alveolar sounds. The final /u/ weakens to the more neutrally positioned /ə/, which is the "default" vowel (aka you should be making this sound if you relax your mouth completely and give a small grunt). All doubling back of the tongue is now removed, leaving only a small, nearly closed loop.

The third diagram shows an even more efficient and very common pronunciation of the phrase, /ɡʌnə/ ''GUN-na''. Here rather than optimizing tongue movement hard-to-pronounce sounds are removed or further replaced instead. The /t/ is dropped leaving only /n/, while the vowel(s) of the first syllable go from /o/ to /ʌ/ between which the only difference is the rounding, or pursing of the lips - though more likely given Randall Munroe's prior comics demonstrating a {{w|Phonological history of English close back vowels#STRUT–COMMA merger|ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ-coᴍᴍᴀ merger}}, a supposed /ə/.

The fourth diagram shows the most reduced pronunciation. The /n/ is lost as a consonant in its own right, with only remnants of its existence found by the nasalisation of the preceding vowel where part of the airflow is redirected through the nose. (This is, incidentally, the same manner how French got its famous nasal sounds - sequences of what used to be vowel + /n/ from Latin were reduced.) This way, the only motions one must make is to draw the tongue to the back of the mouth to articulate the /ɡ/.

In the bottom text, Randall comments on the perception of reduced pronunciations, remarking that while many perceive them as being sloppy, in reality deliberately pronouncing each word with the "supposed" pronunciation in its dictionary form sounds stilted, forced, and unnatural.

For more about Schwa, see [[2907: Schwa]].

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

:[Above the panel:]
:Fun fact: Experienced speakers constantly merge, drop, and alter sounds when talking at normal conversational speed to optimize for efficient mouth movement.

:[The panel shows four labeled side profiles of a mouth with paths of sounds made in different parts of the mouth. There is a label "More fluid" with an arrow pointing to the right. From left to right:]

:[Label:]
:Going to
:/ɡoʊɪŋ tu/
:[Path:] G O >> I >> NG >> >> >> T >> >> O

:[Label:]
:Goin' to
:/ɡoʊɪn tə/
:[Path:] G O >> I >> N T >> >> O

:[Label:]
:Gonna
:/ɡʌn.ə/
:[Path:] G O >> NN >> A

:[Label:]
:How fluent speakers ''actually'' say it when speaking rapidly
:/ɡə̃/
:[Path:] G >> >> ə̃

:[Below the panel:]
:If you think ''you'' don't do this, try to use "hot potato" in a sentence and fully pronounce the first "t" without sounding like an alien impersonating a human.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Fun fact]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Gretchen McCulloch]]

Talk:151: Mario

2024-05-31T09:18:37Z

172.69.43.226: Reply to 172.71.178.103

Mario is not the star, Mario's the plumber. Muahaha. --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 12:24, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Am I the only person intrigued by the fact that he used European quotes («»)?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.185|162.158.79.185]] 22:21, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

Those aren't European; they're French. And I don't think he meant them to be quotation marks, they remind me of how the work "1-up" flashes on the screen in early mario games. That's a hard thing to represent with text, so maybe that's what he was going for. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.185|162.158.79.185]] 19:07, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
:: iirc chevrons are also used in Russian. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.161|172.70.134.161]] 17:47, 13 February 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Bowser is definitely better! And the trash talk is ON POINT! Nice work, Ponytail! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.61|172.68.34.61]] 19:30, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Aren't we all missing the "For our anniversary" part? I feel this drastically changes the joke. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.222.164|172.69.222.164]] 10:51, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
:Not really... Both have boyfriends (who observe a "dating anniversary" milestone), and both arrange 'something special' to enhance their relationship (presuming that both arrangements are to the liking of the respective girls, as they seem to be). But one of the girls gets a markedly more major 'something special' than the other (again, depends upon relative feelings). What more is there to that? Apart from the subsequent attitude and phraseology of the 'winner' between the two. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.103|172.71.178.103]] 13:38, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
:: Ah, dating anniversary... It was funnier when I understood it as a marriage anniversary. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.226|172.69.43.226]] 09:18, 31 May 2024 (UTC)