explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3089: Modern

2025-05-15T07:10:41Z

172.69.43.242: /* Explanation */ Confusing comma

{{comic
| number = 3089
| date = May 14, 2025
| title = Modern
| image = modern_2x.png
| imagesize = 547x209px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Scholars are still debating whether the current period is post-postmodern or neo-contemporary.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created in the pre-post-postmodern section of the post-postmodern era. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This strip references a perennial naming problem where academic {{w|jargon}} and everyday language meet. Shortly after the industrial revolution (or perhaps the Renaissance) contemporaneous things were significantly different and labeled "modern" (whether it's labor relations, art, economic organization, literature, architecture, etc) by historians. The "modern" political movements emphasize optimizing society in different ways and evolved into Communism, and its counter Fascism. The further development of culture to reject the idea you can optimize societity, or that trying to do so is a bad idea, became known as post-modernism.

However, in standard English, modern retains its meaning of "contemporaneous" or "current era," so one can end up discussing a "modern" era of stuff that comes after the rise of a "post-modern" (from an academic context) era of stuff, which doesn't really sound sensical.

==Transcript==

:[A timeline is shown with ticks every five years between 1850 and 2020]
:[Before 1850 until 1880]
:Early Modern
:[1880 until 1945]
:Modernist
:[1945 until 1965]
:Mid-century modern
:[1965 until 2000]
:Postmodern
:[2000 until past 2020]
:Modern

:[Caption below the panel]
:The use of the word "modern" to refer to a bunch of specific historical periods is a fun prank by historians.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3039: Human Altitude

2025-01-21T16:26:40Z

172.69.43.242: Jumping over the gap was the edge case, not the falling from great height

{{comic
| number = 3039
| date = January 17, 2025
| title = Human Altitude
| image = human_altitude_2x.png
| imagesize = 508x495px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder what surviving human held the record before balloons (excluding edge cases like jumping gaps on a mountain bridge). Probably it was someone falling from a cliff into snow or water, but maybe it involved something weird like a gunpowder explosion or volcano.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT HILARIOUSLY STUCK IN A TREBUCHET- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic purports to show the altitudes of the highest humans over time, starting from a little after 1700. The conceit is that it indicates the ''single'' most altitudinous individual at any given time, so does not follow any particular person but would switch focus to whichever representative of humanity becomes "the highest up" (whether by rising above the previous leader, or by remaining high as the other loses their own elevation). There will necessarily be a degree of artistic interpretation and presumed trajectory of this particular marker, although the general trend of the line appears to be inspired by (some) actual factual realities. It uses a [[Log Scale | logarithmic vertical scale]] in order to indicate the finer details of 'low level' altitudes, yet fit the highest achievements onto the page. The measurements appear to be height above the Earth's surface, rather than, say, height above sea level, so a resident of {{w|Tibet}} or the {{w|Andes|high Peruvian Andes}} (for example) does not normally gain any particular advantage.

Prior to 1783, the {{w|Montgolfier brothers#Piloted flight, autumn_1783|first confirmed ascent}} of a human in a balloon, the line's high-points are indicated to be due to "various falls", i.e. a person who ''was'' on the top of a particularly high building/cliff/tree suddenly finding themselves (for an instant or two, at least) the person 'lucky' enough to be considered the furthest above the Earth (it is at times like this that living at a higher absolute altitude ''might'' grant an 'advantage' to the individual who suddenly discovers their previously high standing-spot to no longer be as reliable as they thought, or intentionally jumps off it). It also suggests that "catapult accidents", such as accidentally, or maybe [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/nov/01/highereducation.students not so accidentally] being caught in a sling on a {{w|trebuchet}} when it is fired (indicated as "hilarious") may also contribute to the (momentary) gain in altitude. The limit to this period's ability to exist at altitude appears to be around 100 metres, which is perhaps mostly what a particular precipitous (and precarious) cliff-top might contribute to the situation. Only the eventual punchline of the title-text even hints at whether any of these feats might have been survivable, perhaps the minimum requirement is merely that the individual be alive (to still be considered a person) at the point they are at their claimed height — if the resulting return to ground level is fatal, usually this will happen upon meeting the surface, by which point they are already no higher than all other humans.

Once {{w|balloon}} flights start, heights of up to 10km are attained. And though there were some {{w|List of ballooning accidents|dangers}} from this, as early aeronauts discovered, it might at least now be presumed that some of these peaks were attained by individuals who had previously marked a prior instantaneous altitude on the graph.

Shortly after the 1900s, {{w|airplanes}} dominate the graph. And the rise in utility of passenger aircraft (before World War 2; but especially afterwards, following a period where regular and extended high-altitude flight has been experienced by bomber pilots of various nations) ensures not only that there are people attaining greater and greater altitudes, but also that there are also always ''other'' people in the air, ensuring that the lesser 'maximum altitude' periods still have people a significant number of kilometres in the air.

Interestingly, the lower-limit, all the way up to the invention of the airplane, seems to stay at about two metres (around 1881, the lowest marked position seems to be only slightly above 1 metre), which might represent the possibility of there always being at least ''someone'' climbing up a ladder and/or jumping off of a hay-cart. This does not, of course, discount the very real possibility that there are persons about to attain greater altitude, as the parts ''between'' the lowermost fluctuations obviously represent periods of someone having yet greater vertical displacement.

Once {{w|spaceflight}} becomes a thing (interestingly, marked around the late 1960s, though it actually started in April 1961), that greatly increases the upper spikes for the (implied) duration of the {{w|Orbital spaceflight|orbital flights}}.

The {{w|Apollo Program}} is then indicated by both label and a notable spike as (between {{w|Apollo 8}} in December 1968 and {{w|Apollo 17}} in December 1972), men from Earth were sent around the Moon and attained altitudes 'above the Earth' of approximately 400,000km in the process. Note that the disclaimer "(very approximate)" in the chart's title also applies here, as the graph shows fewer spikes than actual Moon orbitings or landings performed.

Since the end of the original Moon landings, the upper spikes settled down quite significantly back to 'only' generally low orbital distances, but the very latest era, marked "Space Station", seems to coincide with the current continuous inhabitation of space, which officially started in November 2000. Since that date, there has ''always'' been someone at approximately 400km altitude (give or take [https://www.heavens-above.com/OrbitHeightPlot.aspx?Width=1600&Height=1000&satid=25544&startMJD=51111&endMJD=61000 changes in the orbit], and of the terrain below), with occasionally some yet higher person(s) on certain missions (e.g. servicing the {{w|Hubble Space Telescope}}, May 2009 at 515km). The graph does not ''seem'' to show the blip created by {{w|Polaris Dawn}}'s 1,400 km 'new record' of September 2024, but this may be ''just'' off the right-hand edge of the graph.

Though the historical validity is sometimes argued, it is interesting to note that (as early as the 6th century CE), experiments with man-flying kites may have produced (semi-)brief spikes in the altitude record for the time.
Also, workers and bell-ringers in medieval cathedrals, or attendants at the Lighthouse of Alexandria, would have been substantially above the "tens of meters" level. Moreover, the Eiffel tower has been open to visitors since its opening in 1899, which would have ensured some people to be at at least 276m, during the opening hours. This indicates that people standing on buildings and tall structures do not count for the purpose of the graph, and combined with the fact that tornadoes can lift people high in the air and touch them down alive (though the latter stipulation ''may'' not even be required). It may be that Randall excluded cases in which the person was standing on a permanent structure, considering that as an equivalent to varying terrain. Perhaps he also refuses to count cases that are difficult to substantiate/quantify, such as those caused by violent winds, although the graph ''does'' convey the impression of an omniscient and absolute certainty beyond the more broad historical basis it outlines.

The title text talks of record-holders who survived, and the possible circumstances. These circumstances might include anyone who had to leap a narrow gap above a deep drop, momentarily having an extreme height above the ground directly below them, although these are considered 'edge cases' by Randall. (As of the date of the comic, the record for jumping off a cliff into water --- and surviving, albeit with minor injuries --- appears to be 58.8 meters. This was officially set in 2015, but there seems to be no particular reason some couldn't have done it earlier if they wanted to. The Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, c. 520 BCE, has a fresco showing someone diving off a cliff with other people watching. Unfortunately, they neglected to include a height scale.)Randall ponders what more violent events may have literally propelled someone to a notable height. It is unlikely that he is entirely serious about his two suggestions. A gunpowder explosion would be dangerous enough at the {{w|Hoist with his own petard|start of the process}}, leaving the unfortunate individual probably not in any condition to appreciate and/or survive the remaining trajectory. The possibility of ''any'' survivable event being triggered by close proximity to a {{tvtropes|LavaSurfing|volcanic eruption}} is unlikely, and even less possible to prepare for.

Unlike the rapidly fluctuating line of the graph, a graph of the human altitude ''record'' would stay level except when incremented by a new attainment being reached, effectively drawing directly across from a given high-point in the trace until a new peak crosses it, then starting again from the top of ''that'' peak. The further stipulation of survivability would be represented by a lower line (only given the level of the tip of a new fluctuation once it is ratified that the individual concerned has survived their return to ground level, unsurvivable events not changing things). A lowest-upper-limit line could also be drawn using the low-tips of all fluctuations, representing the greatest height above the ground for which, from any given time onwards, there is always now at least one person higher. Currently, this would be at the lowest level of the orbit by the ISS but, if the ISS is abandoned prior to any further habitat in space (or beyond), this may need to be retroactively lowered to jet-plane altitudes (assuming they stay the dominant factor that they are, in the absence of space-inhabitation).

A ''different'' line to plot, which may also be the interpretable intent of the title text, could be the highest height visited by a ''still living human''. Though no currently surviving human can have ever held a record "before balloons", in the time prior to balloons there will have been individuals alive who had survived heights (and perhaps also their resulting falls) who would have been still living for at least some of the time that they technically held the record. This trace would follow (most of?) the graphed upward fluctuations to their tips, then stay at least this high for only as long as the individual remain alive. This could end almost immediately (their death occurring at height, due to exposure, or upon their terminal return to ground-level), or else for the rest of their long and fulfilling future life (or until someone else superseded them). But upon their demise, whenever that might be, any record that they might still have held would revert back down to whatever attainment ''another'' still-living human had established (which need not have previously featured on any graph, while those with greater marked achievements were still alive). Some of this graph would have a very similar look to [[893: 65 Years]], but in different ways and for different reasons; it would attain 'Moon height' from the very first orbit of Apollo 8 until the last death of an Apollo astronaut (from missions 8 and 10 to 17), assuming no {{w|Human mission to Mars|greater records}} are set before that point, then be reliant upon any living Artemis crews (or those from any {{w|Chinese space program#Near future development|equivalent}}) to sustain the "living record".

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

:Height above Earth's surface of the highest-altitude human over time
:(very approximate)

:[A line graph is shown, with frequent spikes on the line. The y-axis is a logarithmic scale from 1 meter to 1,000,000 km. The x-axis shows years from about 1710 to 2025.]

:[Label between 1720s and 1780s, maximum height is roughly 100 meters:]
:Various falls and hilarious catapult accidents

:[Label with multiple arrows, from 1780s to 1910s, maximum height is roughly 10 km:]
:Balloon flights

:[Label with multiple arrows, from 1910s to 1960s, maximum height increases to roughly 100 km:]
:Airplane flights

:[Label with arrow, in the late 1960s, maximum height is roughly 500 km:]
:Spaceflight

:[Label with arrow, in the 1970s, maximum height is roughly 500,000 km:]
:Apollo Program

:[Label between 1990s and 2025, the average height after 2000 is roughly 500 km:]
:Space station

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Aviation]]

3019: Advent Calendar Advent Calendar

2024-12-03T14:34:37Z

172.69.43.242: /* Explanation */ More minor tweaks, and shuffled the paragraph to where it makes more narrative sense.

{{comic
| number = 3019
| date = December 2, 2024
| title = Advent Calendar Advent Calendar
| image = advent_calendar_advent_calendar_2x.png
| imagesize = 482x324px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The growth rate of items per day may may seem absurd, but it's actually much less than the acceleration in the 12 Days of Christmas song.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 4 ENVELOPE BACKS 3 NERDS A-EDITING, 2 TURTLE BOTS, AND A FUNNY NEW XKCD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Advent calendars are a form of countdown to Christmas consisting of a card or structure with one closed "window"/opening for each day. Every day, another "window" is opened (e.g. a cardboard flap is opened along perforations), revealing a small present (traditionally, just a thematic picture or chocolate). While the religious season of {{w|Advent}} traditionally begins four Sundays before Christmas, most Advent calendars begin on December 1st for simplicity. Note that in 2024, when this comic was published, the Advent season coincidentally starts on December 1st. Advent calendars usually have either 24 or 25 doors (ending on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day), depending on manufacturer's choice and/or local tradition.

In this comic, Randall has devised an Advent calendar that contains multiple smaller Advent calendars, each of which contains the same number of items as there are days left until (and ''including'') Christmas Day. By the time he reaches Christmas, he will have 325 different items, or 350 if counting the sub-calendars. The calendar is shown as it might be on December 2<sup>nd</sup>, the date of publication of this strip. The "window" for December 1<sup>st</sup>, in the upper left, has 25 sub-windows, of which 2 are open. (One was opened on December 1<sup>st</sup> and the other on the 2<sup>nd</sup>.) The "window" for December 2<sup>nd</sup>, 5<sup>th</sup> from the left in the bottom row, has 24 sub-windows, of which 1 is open.

The title text refers to {{w|The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}, a traditional Christmas carol in which the singer receives many gifts from their paramour for each day of the Twelve Days of Christmas. On day one, they receive one gift, and on day ''n'', they receive again all the gifts they received on day ''n-1'', plus ''n'' copies of a new gift. The exact gifts given each day vary by version of the song, receiving 78 gifts on day 12, for a total of 364 gifts. For the Advent calendar Advent calendar, each day a number of items equal to the number of days left until Christmas are added. There are 364 items total in the 12 Days of Christmas, the final day itself having exceeded the gifts of the nested calendars (the sub-gift count being 325, and regardless of the 25 calendars also being included). However the advent calendar uses 25 days rather than just 12, hence the song's acceleration in number of gifts each day is much higher.

The advent calendar's advent calendar gift total follows the {{w|triangular number}} sequence of all new gifts on a given day being one more than those the day before: on the first day, this is 1 (the first sub-gift of the first sub-calendar); on the second, we now have 3 (add two sub-gifts from two sub-calendars); on the third, we have 6 (three sub-gifts added), etc. The formula for for the total on day ''n'' is <table style="display: inline-table; line-height: 0.6em; vertical-align: middle; font-size:9pt; text-size-adjust: none;"><tr><td style="text-decoration: underline">''n''(''n''+1)</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center">2</td></tr></table>. For the Twelve Days song (which goes from the 25th of December to 5th of January), ''each day'' adds to the total the next ''triangular number'' in the sequence: +1=1, +3=4, +6=10, etc... The formula for this {{w|tetrahedral number}} (a 'pyramid of triangular numbers') is <table style="display: inline-table; line-height: 0.6em; vertical-align: middle; font-size:9pt; text-size-adjust: none;"><tr><td style="text-decoration: underline">''n''(''n''+1)(''n''+2)</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center">6</td></tr></table>, and matches a triple-nested meta-Advent Calendar's non-calendar gift count. This already starts in a more rapid escalation of gift-giving, immediately after the first day where both counts are at one item. However, due to the later start of the Twelve Days, one would have to extend the gift-giving patterns to the 17th Day Of Christmas (and thus the 41st day of Advent) for the number of ''true love'' gifts (969) to properly overtake the continuing meta-calendar's ones, with (902) or without (861) counting the sub-calendars as gifts. (The number of ultimate gifts in any quadruple-nested Advent Calendar would be <table style="display: inline-table; line-height: 0.6em; vertical-align: middle; font-size:9pt; text-size-adjust: none;"><tr><td style="text-decoration: underline">''n''(''n''+1)(''n''+2)(''n''+3)</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center">24</td></tr></table>, excluding all the calendars themselves.)

It is not clear what is inside each sub-calendar. The typical filling would be chocolate, however it could also be possible that the advent calendar advent calendars had even more advent calendars within. That this is not the case is revealed in the title text as, if they were (and were run concurrently), the number of (sub-sub-)gifts would always equal those in the song.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[On a grey board, there are 23 Advent calendars behind large "windows", numbered from 3 to 25, plus two open calendars with their covers torn off.]
:[Each calendar numbered ''n'' has 26−''n'' squares in it.]
:[One open calendar has 25 squares, 2 of which are black. The other open calendar has 24 squares, one of which is black.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I like Advent calendars, so I got an Advent calendar that gives me a new one every day until Christmas.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Songs]]

Talk:1018: Good Cop, Dadaist Cop

2024-11-17T11:56:18Z

172.69.43.242:

A comment from the blog that is quite on and off (you'll get the joke) the topic:

:I took a class in college, in French, and we studied (insofar as one can) dadaism, surrealism, and existentialism.
:One day, the girl next to me raised her hand and started out, “This is off the subject, but..”… Professor La Charité interrupted immediately, with, “It’s ''*never*'' off the subject. Continue.”
:We all felt we learned something that day. Giraffe. - E

Hope that explains some things. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 17:40, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

;Explanation
I think the above explanation is lacking. What's bones got to do with it? How about the language stuff? AND A Mexican bandit robbed a bank. The sheriff and his bilingual deputy captured him, and the sheriff, who couldn't speak Spanish, asked him where he'd hidden the money. "No se nada," said the bandit.
The sheriff put a gun to the bandit's head and said to his deputy: "Tell him, if he doesn't tell us where the money is, I'll blow his brains out."
Upon receiving the translation, the bandit became very animated. "Ya me acuerdo! Tienen que caminar tres cuadradas hasta ese gran arbol. Debajo del arbol, alli esta el dinero."
The sheriff leaned forward. "Yeah? Well..?"
The deputy replied: "He says he wants to die like a man." {{unsigned ip| 122.61.61.161}}
:It's Dadaism. It means unrelated random stuff. AND nice story =) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.206|108.162.212.206]] 19:26, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

What's incomplete about this? <small>[[User:MrGameZone|0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101]] ([[User talk:MrGameZone|talk page]])</small> 05:37, 2 August 2014 (UTC)
:If you twisted my arm, I'd have to guess that my phone is ringing off the salmon. That's all I can remember at this indication, though. -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:48, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
::This is why we can't have giraffes. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.10.83|172.68.10.83]] 09:40, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

Has Mark Zuckerberg ever HAD a mortgage?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.164|108.162.219.164]], 27 Dec 1014

Well interesting fact about ponytail then, her bones are small!
--[[User:Dalonacueball|Dalonacueball]] ([[User talk:Dalonacueball|talk]]) 12:48, 24 March 2015 (UTC) 13:35 3/24/2015

The implication, in the explanation text, that wealthy individuals, such as Zukerberg, wouldn't take a mortgage is flawed. Wealthy individuals usually do take out mortgages because they have the ability to generate a higher rate of return from the freed capital than the cost of the interest on the mortgage. [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 22:17, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

Would the gibberish produced in response to the title text actually count as a valid confession? Even assuming the suspect was trying to do what was asked, which I don’t think is a legally valid assumption, they could be saying “I don’t know; I didn’t take it!”. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 18:59, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

:to quote UK law: 'a confession includes any statement wholly or partly adverse to the person who made it, whether made to a person in authority or not and whether made in words or otherwise.' The action of writing gibberish would probably count as otherwise and be partially adverse to him, as it suggests that he knows where the money is hidden

2929: Good and Bad Ideas

2024-05-07T10:37:54Z

172.69.43.242: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2929
| date = May 6, 2024
| title = Good and Bad Ideas
| image = good_and_bad_ideas_2x.png
| imagesize = 595x522px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = While it seemed like a fun prank at the time, I realize my prank fire extinguishers full of leaded gasoline were a mistake.
}}

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

This is a scatter plot comparing how good an idea sounds to how good the idea actually is. For example, leaded gasoline sounds like a good idea due to the anti-knocking effects, but is actually a bad idea due to lead toxicity. Fake prank fire extinguishers however sound bad and are bad as they can result in a dangerous situation in an emergency. Putting mold on infections sounds like a bad idea, but this could be referring to Penicillin, an antibiotic.

The title text combines leaded gasoline and a fake prank fire extinguisher into something that is worse than either. Not only is the fire extinguisher fake, it also releases flammable material onto the fire, and there is the additional lead toxicity.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Idea !! What it means !! How good it sounds !! How good it actually is !! Explanation
|-
|Leaded Gasoline||Adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline to increase performance||++||---||Leaded gasoline was introduced in the early 1920s to greatly increase fuel efficientcy and engine performance. Lead, however, is toxic. Burning the leaded gasoline in an engine releases the lead in the air. This is bad, and was known to be bad at the time, which is why there was an extensive PR campaign by oil companies to prove the alleged safety of the new product, which broadly speaking succeeded up until the 1970s.
|-
|Bloodletting||Releasing "bad blood" from the veins||---||---||You need your blood.{{Citation needed}} Bloodletting has been performed as a medical procedure for at least 2000 years until it was considered pseudoscience from the 19th century, when the harmful effects became known. The idea was to withdraw blood to balance the body's "humors". Nowadays phlebotomy is only used therapeutically in a small number of cases, such as hemochromatosis (too much iron in the body).
|-
|Asbestos||Mineral which does not burn and is good isolation||+++||---||Asbestos was used extensively. Sadly the microscopic fibers which make up asbestos greatly increase the risk of cancer when inhaled.
|-
|Extension cords with prongs on both ends||allows easy connection between 2 female connectors||0 (neutral)||---||Prongs on both ends would make it easier to plug the extension cord in on either side. But once plugged into an outlet, the other end becomes a serious shock hazard.
|-
|Stair Kayaking||Riding down a flight of stairs in a kayak||--||---|| Stair kayaking is a stunt where a person positions a kayak at the top of a flight of stairs and then, using their paddle to push off, rides the kayak down the stairs. This poses significant risks of injury or death, as well as being very bad for the kayak, which is designed to ride on water, not concrete.
|-
|Fake prank fire extinguishers||||---||---|| The idea of placing fake fire extinguishers as a prank, presumably so that a person who thinks they are grabbing a real fire extinguisher will instead find a decoy, sounds very dangerous and potentially life-threatening for many people, and it would, in fact, be highly dangerous. In the United States, (and presumably most countries), this would also be a felony in most, if not all, jurisdictions. An example of a similar situation, although not intended as a prank, can be found here[https://twitter.com/ThatSamWinkler/status/1657154071051239424]
The title text expands this idea by having the prank fire extinguishers filled with (leaded) gasoline. This is literally adding fuel to the fire.
|-
|Always saying what you think||...regardless of the feelings of others or other considerations||++||--||They may reply without concern for ''your'' feelings or other considerations. Openness and honesty are seen as positive character traits in people, however taken to the extreme of ''always'' telling people what you think about them, can lead to awkward or unpleasant situations. Keeping negative thoughts to yourself or telling "white lies" can be considered a better alternative in some situations.
|-
|Replying to spammers||Clicking on the "Reply" button from spam mails and writing (and sending) a reply (or worse, clicking on the links in these mails)||--||--||
|-
|Solar cars||Having {{w|Solar panel|solar panels}} on the car's surface (mostly hood and roof) for power generation||+++||-||Cars require large amounts of energy in short periods of time and portable solar panels do not produce this, nor are they as efficient as fixed installations on the power grid.
There are competitions for solar powered cars, though, like the {{w|World Solar Challenge}}.
|-
|Heelies||{{w|Heelys}} are shoes with a inline skate wheel embedded in the sole, at the heel. ||+||-||Heelys allow the wearer (usually children) to shift between normal walking and rolling like a roller skate. This sounds like fun but has lead to numerous injuries.
|-
|Prequels||A work of fiction (mostly movie) telling the "story before the story" of another work of fiction.||+++||-||More of a good story sounds great on the surface, but the constraints of a prequel's ending needing to create the starting conditions of the original work often precludes organic development and causes contrived plots.
|-
|Transition Lenses||Photochromic lenses in glasses get darker (like sunglasses) in bright light.||+||-||Photochromic lenses are clear lenses that darken when exposed to UV light, then turn clear again when the exposure is removed. The advantage is that wearers of glasses don't need to buy separate (prescription) sunglasses. However, the process is relatively slow (about a minute) so not so useful when there is a quick succession of shade and bright light, perhaps in a forest or when driving. Also, car windscreen filter out UV light to some degree, which prevents the glasses from darkening as required. Finally, the process is temperature dependent, so in hot weather the glasses don't become as dark and in cold weather they might stay dark for too long.
|-
|Cutting pizza in squares||Cutting (a presumably round) pizza in squares||-||-||Most people cut pizza into wedges and hold it by the crust. Cutting it into squares allows for more pieces to be shared, but pieces near the center will have no crust to hold it by, getting cheese and sauce all over your fingers. There will also be lots of leftover tiny pieces. While hardly a disaster like the other items in its quadrant, square pizza pieces are just not very useful and rather inefficient. Cutting a rectangular pizza into squares might not suffer from the problems above, but, unless the pizza itself is square and cut only inot four squares, some people will end up with a higher crust-to-topping ratio than others.
|-
|{{w|Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion}}||Study by the U.S. government looking into nuclear pulse propulsion for spacecraft.||---||-||Using repeated nuclear explosions to generate motion sounds bad for both the spacecraft and everything else, especially with a ground launch, but there are ways to address a lot of the concerns, so it isn't as bad as it sounds. Project Orion's theorized specific impulse and thrust would also be far higher than anything chemical rockets can accomplish. The efficiency of Project Orion is extremely low, however.
|-
|Soup||Soup||0 (neutral)||0 (neutral)||Soup is probably one of the oldest foods created by prehistoric cooks. Most people enjoy it, though many soups are considered somewhat lacking as a meal on their own, or bland.
|-
|Combo washer dryers||A device which combines washing machine and laundry dryer into one device||+++||+||Better at space efficiency, but worse at each task than separate devices.
|-
|Cutting sandwiches diagonally||Cutting sandwiches diagonally||+||+||Generally regarded{{Actual citation needed}} as the structurally superior way to slice a sandwich, providing better support in the hand and fewer all-crust bites. Required in the assembly of a club sandwich, where the diagonal components are stacked again.
|-
|{{w|Diverging diamond interchange|Diverging diamond interchanges}}||Road junction where the two road direction cross over to switch sides (so if you normally drive on the right, now you drive on the left) then switch back to normal after the junction||-||+||Highway engineers believe the shape improves safety and traffic flow through the interchange because switching to the other side facilitates merging to and from the other road in the junction. However the shape appears to be insanity to an unfamiliar driver.
|-
|Toasting sandwiches||Making a sandwich first and then cooking it, as in a dedicated {{w|Pie_iron|sandwich toaster, a {{w|toaster oven|toaster oven}} or frying pan, or under a grill.||++||++||The grilled cheese sandwich is a familiar form to most people, and many other sandwiches are improved by toasting as a final step. Others, such as the {{w|western sandwich|Western}} or {{w|club sandwich|club}} are prepared using toast. The {{w|peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich|Elvis}} is a specific case of a sandwich that normally wouldn't be toasted, but is improved by it - peanut butter, bacon, banana, and jelly, with the assembly lightly fried.
|-
|Crumple zones||Designated areas of a car that crumple in case of a crash... ||--||++||...to absorb the energy of the crash to prevent damage to the passengers
|-
|Sliced bread||Bread, sliced by the baker before packaging for sale||+++||++||It's far more convenient for making sandwiches or toast, but unfortunately presliced bread will go stale faster and some applications may be better off thicker or thinner than the slices provided.
|-
|Pizza||Flat, though usually leavened, bread with tomato sauce, cheese, and often vegetables or preserved meats||++||++ꟶ||Pizza is a widely popular dish throughout much of the world, uncontroversial except {{w|Pineapple|certain toppings.}}
|-
|Eating citrus fruit while at sea||||0 (neutral)||+++||The vitamin C present in citrus fruits prevents one from contracting {{w|Scurvy|scurvy}}.
|-
|Putting mold on infections||Seemingly a reference to ancient practice of pressing moldy bread against infected wounds||---||++||While this sounds like a good way to get a fungal infection, with the correct mold this is a primitive antibiotic, and led to the discovery of penicillin.
|-
|Wheels on luggage||Some luggage bags have small wheels inset on their frame and a carrying handle.||+++||+++||A relatively simple fitting for rigid or semi-rigid luggage that substantially eases its transport through air and seaport terminals.
|-
|Heat pumps||Refrigeration (or air conditioning) technology operated in reverse to heat an area instead.||++||+++||Because refrigeration is a very efficient way to move heat (as long as the cold side's temperature is high enough) this is often far more energetically efficient than directly heating a space. Reversible heat pumps also exist which can take care of both temperature needs in some climates.
|-
|Laser eye surgery||Surgical techniques using lasers for precision cutting in the eyeball.||-||+++||This technology has substantially improved the eyesight of millions of people worldwide by allowing treatment of eye problems otherwise only corrected by lenses, or entirely untreatable. Randall has previously commented on laser eye surgery, amongst other ideas both good and bad, in [[1681: Laser Products]].
|-
|Fecal transplants||Transfer of gut microbiome of healthy person to sterilised gut of ill person.||---||+++||The gut microbiome is a collection of bacteria that lives in our guts. It can influence our health. It is responsible for last stages of digesting our food. It can also produce neurotransmitters that are carried by blood to our brain influencing our behaviour. A healthy microbiome can be destroyed by bad eating habits, unhealthy lifestyle, infections or antibiotics. The important part is a composition of different species of bacteria that compromise the biome. Sometimes it may be necessary to completely sterilise the gut and then take a sample of a healthy biome from another person. A sample is enough as the bacteria will multiply. As long as the patient eats correctly, the microbiome after transplant should develop correctly.

It sounds bad because we tend to think of our feces as something gross, to be discarded. It is called fecal transplant as our feces contain about 50% of gut bacteria, but nowadays the sample usually takes the form of a coated pill that is applied rectally.
|-
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

1506: xkcloud

2024-04-26T16:26:40Z

172.69.43.242: /* Don't contact us */

{{comic
| number = 1506
| date = April 1, 2015
| title = xkcloud
| image = xkcloud.png
| titletext =
}}
<div class="toclimit-3">{{TOC}}</div>
*To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1506|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
This was the sixth [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was
[[1350: Lorenz]] from Tuesday April 1st 2014. The next was [[1663: Garden]] scheduled for release Friday April 1st 2016, but in the end released on [[1663:_Garden#Monday_4th_of_April_release|Monday April 4th]] 2016.

In this interactive {{w|April Fools' Day}} comic [[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], admits to the readers he built a flimsy {{w|Cloud computing|cloud}} services company using spare computers and parts. Included in the cloud hardware are (from left to right) a {{w|Macintosh}}, several old laptops, an {{w|Alienware}} tower, a {{w|Nintendo}} {{w|VirtualBoy}}, an old desktop with the cover off, and an {{w|Atari, Inc.|Atari}} {{w|Pong#Home_version|Pong Console}}.

He named the company after xkcd, xkcloud being a [[:category:Portmanteau|portmanteau]] of "[[xkcd]]" and "{{w|Cloud computing|cloud}}", here pronounced XK-cloud. The portmanteau incidentally still contains all four xkcd letters in the correct order: xkcLOUd. This was later reused for the xkcd keyboard in [[2150: XKeyboarCD]], where the word Keyboard, has an X before the word and a C before the D with the xkcd letters capitalized.

After providing his services to various (very big) companies ({{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}} and {{w|Tumblr}}), that are very concerned with securing the users data, his setup failed (some portions may even have caught fire? He is not sure). This has caused him to lose the data he was required to preserve as part of his service. He thus requests the readers help to make up and re-imagine the lost data by pressing the large red button at the bottom of the comic. Preferably ''before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''

If you take him up on his request and push the button, you will be taken to a "survey" where you will get the chance to help by either trying to combine a posted picture with its lost text or, vice versa, by trying to combine a posted text with its lost picture. In either case you get a selection of texts/pictures to choose from but can also choose to write your own text or even draw the picture. After doing this you get to see this combination in the news feed together with several other posts (which other people have helped combine from other lost data). And then you can continue helping as long as you like.

The content of the "surveys" appear to come from reader submissions, and are different upon every click. This is thus both an interactive and a dynamic comic with only the first picture shown on top of this page. By inviting the xkcd readers to add content that will be displayed in the comic later, the result of all the interactions leads to the generation of {{w|Crowdsourcing|crowd-sourced content}}.

It was not immediately clear if the reader-created drawings or captions are, in fact, being cycled into the surveys and feeds, or if the displayed items were all created by Randall and the reader-created content is simply discarded. With the huge amount of different comments and drawings that already appeared on the first day, and since especially the drawings look like they are created in the simple Paint app (i.e. not by Randall), there can be no doubt that most of the content is created by the users. However he must have made some pictures to get it all started, and at least one of these can be seen [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users#Randall's pictures|here]].

This comic resembles last years April Fools' comic [[1350: Lorenz]] where user input also generated a very complex crowd-sourced comic. In both comics it was possible to create a [[#Permalink|permalink]] to save a given version of the comic to share with others.

An earlier comic was also related to problems with cloud computing: [[908: The Cloud]].

Due to the very complex nature of this comic, there are lots of details that may need an explanation. This can be found in the sections below.

*Note that there have been some [[#Changes and bugs|changes and bugs]] regarding this comic after it was first released.
*Some of the pictures that are referenced below was saved before these changes took place. So consult [[#Changes in the comic|these changes]] if the pictures do not match the expectations.

===Functionality===
*Pressing the red button at the '''front page''' (shown here above) links to one of two interactive survey pages (see [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages|the pictures]] of all types of pages.).
**All these pages have a news feed below the top post. This will be described [[#News feed|here below]].
*The '''Lost picture page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help.21 We lost the picture page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight '''line-drawings''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|examples here]]) best matches a given caption, or the reader can create their own drawing.
**This can be done on the '''Draw one your self sub-page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Draw one your self page|pictures here]]) in a simple web-based "{{w|Paint (software)|paint}}"-style {{w|Web application|app}}.
***Note that someone found a way to copy a picture into the comic. See at least one example of this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users#Copy pasted pictures|here]].
*The '''Lost text page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight captions best matches the given drawing, or the reader can create their own caption and submit this instead.
**These captions are user generated. See transcribed examples of these '''post from users''' [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Post from users|here]].
*In either case, at the top of the pages, we are given the '''Reason for the data loss'''. And there are many different reasons (all by account of Randall).
**A list of transcribed reasons (with explanations included) [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Reason for data loss|can be found here]].
*After completing the "survey" you go to a new page appears:
*The '''Help us recover more data''' page (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help us recover more data page|pictures here]]) has yet another red button like the front page, but on this page it is at the top of the page, saying exactly ''Help us recover more data''.
**By pushing this button you go to one of the two "Lost" pages mentioned above.
*It is possible to go back to the front page at any time by clicking the picture of Cueball sitting behind his desk in the same way as he does in the first picture on the front page.
**Cueball is always present to the left on all pages after the front page.
**But if you go back to the front page like this, then if you again click on the "original" red button to return to help with the recovery, you will always go back to the same page you came from (with the same posts in the news feed and if it is one of the lost data pages also with the same post to fix.)
**You can thus only get to a new survey page by finishing the current task (or pressing a permalink as [[#Permalink|discussed below]]).

===News feed===
*Below the "survey" or the post you just recovered (to begin with), you will be presented with a listing similar to a {{w|Facebook features#News Feed|Facebook news feed}}, listing six posts of the line-drawings apparently tagged with the captions as paired up by other users survey results.
**The posts are made by apparently '''fictional randomly-named readers''' (see transcribed examples [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#User names|of names here]]).
**But there are only 20 '''user pictures'''. See these (and why it is known that there are only 20) as well as a description of these pictures [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#User pictures|here]].
**The posts are accompanied by a button similar to Facebook's "'''{{w|Like button}}'''" but here the button is labeled with different words which are all {{w|synonyms}} for ''[http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/want want]'' (see transcribed [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Like buttons|list of words here]]). So not "to like" but "to want" is the new thing in this version of Facebook.
*After the first time you recovered a post, there will thus be seven posts on the ''Help us recover more data'' page, six new posts below the one you just helped complete.
**The only difference when you click this pages red button (rather than when you start for the first time at the front page) is that there will now be seven posts below the one you need to fix.
**These seven posts are the same as those you had on the previous page, including your own at the top.

===Permalink===
*Next to each post there is a text ''Link'' above the "Want" button above the picture. (This goes for all three types of pages mentioned above.)
*The "Link" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given post for future reference (for instance one with your own drawing) you can do so by copying down this link.
**Last year's April Fools comic, [[1350: Lorenz]], was the first time the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]] was used on xkcd.
**The permalink option did not appear in the comic until very late in the afternoon on April 1. The "Link" was thus not present on the pictures refereed above. (See [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|these pictures]] instead).
*Pressing the "Link" next to any given post takes you to the page of the permalink:
**This page will show a version of the ''Help us recover more data'' page with the chosen post as the top post.
**When you click the permalink it takes you to this "new" page and this page will '''not''' show all the posts from the page where you chose it.
**Only the post you saved via the "Link" next to it.
***All the other post will again just be chosen at random, and these will change again every time you reload this page via the saved permalink.
***Even the text on the "want" buttons also continues to change.
***The user name and user picture stay the same though.
*As an '''example''' of a [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 permalink] this is a post saying: ''We told Iran that atomic energy is unsafe'' for a picture of a black devil and two Cueballs next to a road.
**Originally the user name was {{w|Mark Zuckerberg}} but this has since changed to ''Destiny1983'' next to a user picture of a stick figure with black hair on a skateboard.
**See [[#Changes in the comic|Changes in the comic]] below for a possible reason.
**Also please make a note here, if the user name and picture is no longer the same.
*A huge '''collection of permalinks''' with link to the pictures have been amassed here:
**[[1506: xkcloud/Table of Permalinks|Table with permalinks]] contains all known images and captions at least once. (2179 feed entries, featuring 1481 different pictures and 1935 different captions, as of 2015-04-24)
**[[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks|List of Permalinks]] contains all known permalinks (25585 links, as of 2015-04-24)

====Details on the permalink====
*Since the post from the page where you choose the first permalink is reloaded... Can you then only save one post at a time?
*The answer is "no" - you can save all posts on any given page.
**For each "Link" text on a given page, there has already been generated a unique permalink {{w|URL}}.
**Thus you can copy any permalink via the "Link", without actually pressing the "Link" to obtain the permalink for a given post.
**Furthermore, since this may be the only comic where you can copy the text, you can simple mark the entire page and copy paste it into a document that contains formating. If you do this then you will have all the text, pictures and most importantly the permalinks for all the posts.
*If you click the Link and go to the permalink page there will be seven posts, six new and the one you just saved.
**The behavior of the posts is very strange from here if you press more permalinks on this first permalink page
**Also it will not be the same again after this first time as compared to if you continue to help recover more data and use the permalink later.
**On this first permalink page, where your chosen post is at the top, if you click on another post's permalink the following will happen:
***The post you originally choose disappears from the page, as the new chosen post is moved to the top.
***The other five post remains in the same order, so there are not only 6 posts.
***If you continue to choose the other posts one at a time, they will simply exchange place with the one at the top, with all six posts remaining.
***Once you have been through all of them, then the order of the post has been determined.
****So if you click on a "Link" that you have already once activated, then this page will just reload, and the post will have the same order as last time.
****This is only until you choose to reload, or when you load such a permalink later. Then again it will just be the chosen post, and then always six other new posts.
**If you then at some point move on via the red button you kind of stay in the permalink page, now just with new options to choose from.
***If you then create a new post, six new posts will be loaded below.
***When you click on a permalink at this point, there will not be any reloading of the post (because it is not the first time).
***Any post you click will move to the top, but all the other (six this time) will stay, the top post just moving down to another position.
****It is not always a direct exchange. Sometimes the top post moves to another position and then pushes the others down until they reach the now calculated position of the post now at the top.

===Our policy regarding your personal data===
:On every of the pages after the front page Cueball sits at his desk labeled XKCD.COM
:Below him are xkcloud's policy:
:''Our policy regarding your personal data'':
*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:As can be seen he is getting desperate because people keep sending them more data.
::He has no place to store it.
::And he do not even know who the data belongs to.
::So now he hopes someone else recognize the data (what you are doing if you choose to help).
::In the end he simply pleads for people to stop and then shouts ''Help''.
:If you click on the desk you are sent back to the front page of the comic.
:But below Help is their real contact detail [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]]:

===Don't contact us===
*At the same time the permalink appeared, there was also suddenly a new link on all other pages than the front page, written in a very light grey font. It can be hard to see on some screens and has possibly changed colour to become harder to see since it first appeared.
**It is located right beneath ''help'' at the bottom of the list of problems written under ''our policy regarding your data'' right beneath Cueball at his desk to the left (see [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|picture here]]).
**In some cases, tilting the screen will help to make it visible- if you still can't see it, you can still find it with the cursor, or you can also highlight the text below Cueball down to make it easier to see.
*The link text reads '''Don't contact us''' and links to [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd a now-defunct chatroom formerly hosted at euphoria.io].
*Click the [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd/ link] to open an xkcd chatroom on Euphoria. (See a [[1505: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#xkcd chat forum|picture here]]). <ref>As of February 2024, euphoria has been shut down, but the xkcd room lives on in the form of a new instance on [https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/|euphleet].</ref>
**Several xkcd users began posting on the original chatroom at around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern time}} (Randall's timezone).
**After picking a username, you can chat in real time with the other users. You can change your username by clicking on it near the bottom of the screen and entering a new one.
''We are open for anyone to chat here. Hey you! Come right over and say hello to us! ~<s>[https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd euphoria.io/room/xkcd]</s> https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ''
(PS. Please say thank you to @Xyzzy on it; He did make the new chat, after all. (From @KurzgesagtDuck11.))
====Undocumented Feature====
*This chat room is reminiscent of the one in a comic [[1305: Undocumented Feature]].
*As mentioned above, this chat room is hard to access! You need to know that there is a hidden link on the pages you get to by pressing a red button in {{xkcd|1506}}.
**You do get to choose your username (this is not the case in Undocumented Feature), but you could change it. Or others could use the same.
*When it came out, many users began using the chatroom.
*Maybe Randall timed these extra features for when people came back from work all over the US.

===Extra xkcloud pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page (which is already of considerable size). These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:
*[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages]] - Pictures representing the other three main types of pages.
*[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users]] - Some of the pictures of the comic created by users.
*[[1506: xkcloud/Transcript]] - A transcript of these pages with explanations for the reason for data loss and other features, such as usernames, like buttons, etc.

==Changes and bugs==
*During the first day there occurred several changes to the comic, and also some bugs very present.

===Changes in the comic===
*All the changes mentioned here occurred during April 1 on the release day:
*Since being [[Media:Originalxkcloud.png|originally posted]] the words "Click here" were relatively quickly added in large text to the top of the red button followed by the word "to" being added to the beginning of the existing text.
**The text changed from
***''Help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.'' to
***''Click here to help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''
**The reason for this is most likely that too few users understood that they could enter a second part of the comic by clicking on the red button.
*Late in the afternoon on April 1 (around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|ET}}) several changes occurred to the pages that can be reached from the front page:
**The [[#Permalink|permalink]] option appeared
**The link that says [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]] appeared under the text beneath Cueball's desk with a link to an xkcd chat room.
***Though only for the text font to fade out to being almost invisible again later on April 1.
**The alignment of the text right beneath Cueball's desk changed. (Compare this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help us recover more data page|before picture]] with this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|picture after]] 18:00 ET).
**The number of posts increased from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7. (See the pictures above — scroll down to see the relevant after picture).
**Also the number of pictures and text to choose from increased from five to eight (as can also be seen by comparing the pictures found here for before — for [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text page|text]] and for [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the picture page|picture]] — with the [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|pictures after]] (scroll down as mentioned before)).
***The reason he increased the number of posts (both to see and to choose from) could simply be because there where now is so many possible posts that the risk of seeing the same is smaller even with 6 posts.
*Sometime on April 2, Randall made an update to the names list.
**That this happened could be seen since the names shown in permalinks did change. And since then they have stayed constant.
**For instance, [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/3c34fb48-1a07-51d2-a81d-5257a3681024 this permalink], to an atomic bomb explosion with the caption ''that's one nasty burn!'', had the name "Lauren Ibsen Dolores Amit" (a play on "{{w|Lorem ipsum|Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet}}"), but then displayed the name "Virginia2006" next to a picture of a man with black hair. Currently, it displays the name "Michelleii" next to the same image.
***(If this changes please make a note - then the names list have either been changed again, or the assumption that the names stay constant is wrong.)

===Bugs===
*From time to time, instead of the interactive page there is a page with [[Media:three dots only.png|three dots only]].
**This also occurred after April 1.
*Around 18:00 when all the changes occurred the xkcd page did not work properly. (Overload plus new features).
**The chat room was also overloaded at this time.

==Transcript==
:[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the first picture shown at the top of the explanation here. '''For more''' see link below.]

:[One large frame with a five part comic and a large red button at the bottom.]
:[Cueball sitting behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We've made a huge mistake.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Cueball stands and indicates a motley collection of computers and related equipment strewn around the desk.]
:Cueball: I figured starting a cloud services company would be easy.
:Cueball: After all, I've got ''tons'' of computers!

:[A zoomed view on Cueballs head.]
:Cueball: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr— they all struggle to protect privacy and user data...
:Cueball: And '''''we''''' offered a solution.
:Cueball: <small>I forget what it was, though.</small>

:[Cueball is standing with his arms up.]
:Cueball: Anyway, long story short, we screwed up ''immediately'' and lost ''tons'' of their data.
:Cueball: <small>Also a bunch of stuff is literally on fire?</small>

:[Cueball standing behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We can fix this.
:Cueball: But we need your help.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below the above is a large red rectangular clickable button, that will take the reader on to the interactive part of the comic. On the button it says in large white letters:]
:'''CLICK HERE'''
:To help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.

:[The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the link to the '''[[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|continued transcript]]'''. Also here will be a list (which may not be possible to make complete) with possible text for the lost data.]

==Trivia==
*It's the first comic:
**Without a title text. (If you don't count the unnumbered [[A Smarter Planet]] comics and [[404: Not Found]].)
**Where you can copy and paste most of the text from the comic. I.e it is not drawn but printed.
***This goes only for the follow up pages after the front page.
***It does not only go for the user input.
**These two facts could go together since the way this comic had to be created (i.e. it is not a single picture), there may not have been any possibilities for making a title text
*Source code of elements in the drawing interactive contain the attribute "data-reactid", indicating it is written using the [http://facebook.github.io/react/ React JavaScript library,] developed to use with Facebook & Instagram.
*One of the peices of text you can get explains the very reason you need to put in the image for it.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]] 
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:No title text]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elon Musk]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Joe Biden]]

Talk:2922: Pub Trivia

2024-04-19T15:46:07Z

172.69.43.242:

I expect that the BTS question is a reference to the traditional Korean system of counting a person's age in units of Sal which started at 1 and incremented on the first day of the year. Since this system was abandoned on official documents in 2023, but is still in use in some contexts, the question of whether every member of BTS had a "birthday" on the first day of the year is ambiguous. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:13, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

question 5, planets exist outside the solar system, adding to the ambiguity. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:15, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

As for question 9, please see the note about the history of Austrailia's capitals at: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_national_capitals#Oceania]]. and the page regarding countries with multiple capitals [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_multiple_capitals]] [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:24, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

About the alt text, London is certainly in Europe. The question itself is malformed because "Europe (or 'the EU')" is not self-consistent: there is a lot of European countries that are not part of the EU. [[User:RedGolpe|RedGolpe]] ([[User talk:RedGolpe|talk]]) 14:32, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
:The "Greater London" answer is also tricksy, as the "ceremonial county" of GL {{w|London boroughs|may not include}} the additional area of the City Of London (though it does include the City Of Westminster, which is sometimes the trick answer to certain trick questions that a quizmaster might attempt to pull). The ''administrative'' Greater London is the ceremonial one ''plus'' CoL, however... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 15:04, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benxi Benxi Lake] is actually considered to be the smallest lake in the world. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.205|172.70.135.205]]
:{{cn}}[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.176|172.70.86.176]] 14:40, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I never realized how challenging it is to edit pages when they've just been posted. Makes me long for something like Google docs.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.43|172.68.3.43]] 14:39, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

People, who are born on 29th February don't have a birthday in years which are not leap years. However, 2024, when this comic was published is a leap year. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.9|162.158.95.9]] 14:40, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

"5. How many planets were there originally?" This could also refer even back to the start of the universe, when there were (likely) just 0 planets. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.101|162.158.86.101]] 14:43, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I anticiated a lot of Edit Conflicts, but not actually quite so many as to not to be able to resolve my edits with everyone else's. This is the bare-bones that I was putting in (until finding multiple attempts tried to be added consecutively...
{{cot}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question !! Problem !! Possible answer(s)
|-
| Which member of BTS has a birthday this year?
| Every living person has a birthday this year (being a leap-year, this includes those born on 29/Feb).
|
|-
| How many sides does a platonic solid have?
| There are five (or [[2781: The Six Platonic Solids|six]]) platonic solids, each with a different number of sides.
| 4, 6, 8, 12 or 20
|-
| What is the smallest lake in the world?
| The distinction between a small lake and a pond, pool or puddle (for example) is difficult to define.
|
|-
| Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks? Jaws (1875) or Lincoln (2012)
| Not a problem, as Lincoln has very few shark attacks.{{Citation needed}} The problem is that barely anyone will ''not'' be able to correctly answer this.
|
|-
| How many planets were there originally?
| Contextually vague. At what time and within what volume of space, and what is the scope of 'planet' defined here?
|
|-
| What NFL player has scored the most points outside of a game?
| Outside of (NFL) games, individuals may accumulate points in any number of ways (e.g. Scrabble)
|
|-
| The Wright brothers built the first airplane. Who built the last one?
| Until no further planes are built, individuals/teams/companies continue to build (to completion) ever more examples, changing the answer possibly moment to moment.
|
|-
| Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?
| This is a {{w|Goldbach's conjecture|currently unanswered question}}.
|
|-
| Not counting Canberra, what city is the capital of Australia?
| Canberra is ''the'' capital of Australia, a fairly well known 'obscure' fact. Each Australian territory also has their own state capital, so there is not one other ''single'' example.
|
|-
| Who played the drums?
| Lack of context. With which group? For which song? For which (re-)recording? At which event?
|
|-
| Where is London located? (a) The British Isles (b) Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c) The UK (d) Europe (or 'the EU') (e) Greater London
| Almost all of these are correct (though London is geographically in Europe but no longer in the EU).
|}

This is apparently deliberate (at least on behalf of the organisers), perhaps to upset or otherwise impede groups of overconfident quizzers who would otherwise dominate any genuinely good quiz.
{{cob}}
...make use of it however you wish, anybody who has the time not to keep chasing all the simultaneous edits. (The above is a bit behind 'perfection', and lacks many of the integrations, wikilinks and adjustments I had made. I backspaced out of the edit I had finally reached, before remembering to take a full copy into my paste-buffer!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.115|172.70.90.115]] 14:53, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I thought the answer to #2 could be 1, because as 3D solids they only have one surface. I would guess the player with the most points outside of a game is the one who's played idlers (like Cookie Clicker) the longest — though I suppose those could be considered "inside of a game" as well. Also, I played the drums. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.143|172.70.254.143]] 15:33, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
:The answer to #2 is '2 - the in-side and the out-side'.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.242|172.69.43.242]] 15:46, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

2917: Types of Eclipse Photo

2024-04-10T20:33:14Z

172.69.43.242: /* Explanation */ Not an annular eclipse, that's different from a total (the 'ring of light' in this Total photo isn't the Sun, but its upper 'atmosphere').

{{comic
| number = 2917
| date = April 8, 2024
| title = Types of Eclipse Photo
| image = types_of_eclipse_photo_2x.png
| imagesize = 594x460px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The most rare, top-tier eclipse photo would be the Solar Earth Eclipse, but the Apollo 12 crew's attempt to capture it was marred by camera shake. They said it looked spectacular, though.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an AUSTRALIAN CLOUD FROM THE FUTURE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

On the day of this comic's release, {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|a total solar eclipse}} traversed North America, allowing a substantial portion of the United States to view this phenomenon. Total eclipses in any given area are rare enough and impressive enough that witnessing it was a huge event for many people, both those living in the zone of totality and the many people who traveled specifically to view it. This strip addresses the event through different types of photos that people might take.

'''The Standard:''' A photo of the solar eclipse during totality, a typical photo most people might hope to take. This photograph captures the Sun totally blocked by the Moon, with a barely visible ring of light around the outside, which comes from its 'atmosphere' and other external features, rather than the solar surface that would normally be visible.

'''The Partial:''' A photo of the eclipse in progress, likely approaching totality. Another typical photo most viewers take as the eclipse progresses, and the only type of image available to people [[2914: Eclipse Coolness|outside the zone of totality]].

'''The Reaction Shot:''' During an eclipse, people tend to gather outside in crowds to witness the event in person. Images of people gathering and looking up at the sky capture the human side of this event, and is likely to be more personal to the person taking the photo (particularly since the people may be their friends and family).

'''The Fancy Lens:''' A photo of this type, that features conspicuous {{w|solar prominence}}s, will almost certainly require a lot more preparation and equipment (the 'fancy lens', a tripod or other mounting, etc). The prominences are dim, compared to the Sun, and usually are visible only when the Sun is completely covered because of contrast issues. Due to the lack of significant atmosphere on the Moon, the hard edge of the similarly-sized Moon can reveal these details whilst obscuring the usually dominant sunlight.
:The eclipsing body can't extend much beyond the Sun without also hiding the prominences, but that is the fortunate situation with Earth-Moon-Sun eclipses having the Moon, often ''just'' large enough to cut out the solar disc. It varies, but the {{w|Solar eclipse#Types|usual exception}} is the Moon being slightly too far away in its orbit (combined with the Earth being marginally closer to the Sun, in its own orbit) to obscure the whole body of the Sun, leaving a bright ring of solar surface visible. Such an annular eclipse gives similar lighting problems as with a high-percentage partial one; or during the phases leading up to/away from actual totality.

'''The Focus Issues:''' People new or unaware of the difficulties of astral photography typically experience challenges focusing their lenses on astral bodies, especially if they are trying to fight against a confused auto-focus. The eclipse is no exception to this, and this type of photo popped up more frequently during this event because more people were taking this fleeting opportunity to take photos of the sky than usual.

'''The Traffic Jam:''' Since the experience of a total eclipse is only available in a specific geographical range, it's extremely common for people to travel to view them, particularly when this range is near to heavily populated areas (as in this case). The number of people trying to get into a particular area for a particular event naturally causes huge issues of traffic and accommodations. One example is traffic jams, which can become huge and last for many hours. The Daily Gazette [https://www.dailygazette.com/news/northway-eclipse-traffic/article_b6caad62-f6b4-11ee-b1b7-a76cdd73b560.html reports] a number ([https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/dailygazette.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/f6/df60ce28-f687-11ee-aff2-5f944ac2e1e0/661562238083b.image.jpg?resize=375%2C500 photo 1], [https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/dailygazette.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/2b/72b670a2-f687-11ee-bd48-074d85985429/661561749830e.image.jpg?resize=400%2C533 photo 2]) of traffic related slowdowns in Schenectady, New York as people return from viewing the eclipse. It states many people spent double the normal time to get to their destination as compared to normal (non post-eclipse) travel. The irony of waiting in traffic for hours in order to see an event lasting several minutes can be frustrating, and an image of the traffic jam may be a bitter way to capture this irony.

'''The Astronaut:''' Astronauts on the ISS had a particularly unusual view of the solar eclipse, seeing the Moon's shadow on the Earth's surface. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2024/04/08/total-solar-eclipse-photos-nasa-astronauts-take-historic-images-from-space/?sh=4139cb0465aa Forbes] has an article that shows the pictures of the [https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/6616ae80477b4ce765cb35fa/IMG-5058/960x0.jpg?format=jpg&width=1440 eclipse] from NASA and the International Space Station in orbit 250 miles above the earth.

'''The "Frustratedly Looking up the Cloud Situation in Australia for 2028":''' There were clouds over a large portion of the United States and Canada during the April 2024 eclipse. For a large portion of the country, this meant that heavy cloud cover [[2915: Eclipse Clouds|blocked their view of the Sun during the eclipse]], badly impacting the viewing experience. This was naturally highly undesirable, particularly those who had planned and travelled to see it. The joke here is that such a person, seeing only clouds during the eclipse, might try to figure out the next time that seeing an eclipse would be possible. There will be a {{w|Solar eclipse of July 22, 2028|total eclipse passing over Australia and New Zealand in 2028}}. For someone in the United States, this would require a much more significant trip than the 2024 trip, but someone who missed one eclipse might be willing to go to extremes to see another. The irony is that weather is impossible to accurately predict 4 years in the future, so such a plan would involve the risk of traveling halfway around the world, only to miss another eclipse due to weather.

The title text refers to a [[:File:Apollo_12_view_of_Solar_Eclipse_(5052129615).jpg|photograph]] taken during the {{w|Apollo 12}} mission when the Earth came between the spacecraft and the Sun on the journey back home from the Moon. Technically there is a "Solar Earth Eclipse" every night, as the Earth is then between you and the Sun and shades your view of it, but Randall is referring to an incident when Apollo 12 was positioned such that the Earth and Sun were both the same apparent size and lined up.

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

:<big>Types of Eclipse Photo</big>

:[Eclipse during totality]
:The Standard

:[Partial eclipse with lighter sky]
:The Partial

:[Two Cueballs and Ponytail looking and pointing at the sky]
:The Reaction Shot

:[Eclipse during totality with red "ribbons" around the Moon]
:The Fancy Lens

:[A blurry ring of light in the center]
:The Focus Issues

:[The rear of an SUV]
:The Traffic Jam

:[A dark circle on Earth's surface]
:The Astronaut

:[A gray cover of clouds]
:The "Frustratedly Looking up the Cloud Situation in Australia for 2028"

==Trivia==
* The [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/types_of_eclipse_photo.png standard size] image was uploaded with a resolution/size of 8920 by 6909, larger than the supposed 2x version at 1189 by 921. This was likely an error, and has since been fixed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Solar eclipses]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Photography]]

Talk:2915: Eclipse Clouds

2024-04-04T08:28:33Z

172.69.43.242:

I suspect Friday's and next Monday's comics will also be about the eclipse. We should be proactive and create a category for them. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:12, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Might explain why there was no time to fit in a decent AF comic. (And this one definitely reminds me of '99!) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.225|172.69.43.225]] 17:31, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

Nephele (νεφέλη) is Greek for cloud. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.123.81|172.71.123.81]] 17:14, 3 April 2024 (UTC)Ben
:I'm still trying to find a good way to word it, for those not already aware. (There are a number of related words, c.f. germanic "nebel", "nebulous" or of course "nephelococcygia"). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.225|172.69.43.225]] 17:31, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

I thought the joke in the title text is that a combined solar-lunar-nephelogical eclipse is impossible, not just "rare". You can't have a solar and lunar eclipse at the same time. Either of them can be nephelogical, though. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:16, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Triple-conjunctions (plus the 'viewpoint', to make it a four-body syzygy) are a thing, though. A rare thing. And not to be confused with the standard meaning of {{w|triple conjunction}}, but I'm not sure what else to call it (when not just a sequence across time). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.225|172.69.43.225]] 17:31, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:no the clouds are occluding the moon and the moon is occluding the sun so it is a lunar eclipse. Not a nephelogical eclipse though because the clouds aren’t occluded
::They are if you close your eyes.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.242|172.69.43.242]] 08:28, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

We dont already have a catagory for eclipses?? I'd have thought someone would have made one last eclipse, since there was so many comics about them [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 17:24, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Someone has just been adding the (currently redlinked) [[:Category:Solar eclipses]]. Which is admirable, but perhaps better to have established the actual Category first. (I would have suggested "Eclipses" be created. Or at least that as a super-category for the separate Solar and Lunar cats, plus any further eclipses that individually might be mentioned.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.190|172.70.90.190]] 17:41, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:I created the category page. I wasn't sure what should go on it, so other people could review it [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you want to]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 23:50, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

Oddly enough, clouds tend to disappear during eclipses. Strange, but true. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.39.72|172.70.39.72]] 20:03, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe they're there, but you can't see them because it's dark :) [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:55, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
::Clouds typically form because warm air rises, cools off in the higher layers and water vapor then condenses. During an eclipse, the Sun no longer heats the ground, temperature drops a bit, and thus the cloud forming mechanism is interrupted. This means that there will indeed be somewhat fewer/less dense clouds during an eclipse. It is definitely not enough to get rid of all possible clouds, but I have seen a lightly overcast sky clear up when the totality approached. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.142|172.71.182.142]] 06:41, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

425: Fortune Cookies

2024-02-16T06:38:47Z

172.69.43.242: Undo revision 335154 by 172.70.130.106 (talk) Wrong position.

{{comic
| number = 425
| date = May 19, 2008
| title = Fortune Cookies
| image = fortune_cookies.png
| titletext = "You will have hot, steamy, sweaty sex... IN BED!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Fortune cookie}}s are crisp cookies containing a small piece of paper with words of wisdom or a vague prophecy. Even though they were not actually invented in China, they are commonly served as dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States.

There is a {{w|Fortune cookie#In popular culture|common joke}} involving fortune cookies that involves appending "in bed" — the phrase "in bed" being one of many sexual innuendo jokes along with "{{w|Maternal insult|your mom}}," "that's what she said," and "{{w|said the actress to the bishop}}" — to the end of the fortune, usually creating a sexual innuendo or other bizarre messages.

*The ones you love will never let you down in bed
*Your self-confidence is well placed in bed
*Seek nonviolence in everything you do in bed

This comic turns that joke around, showing how appending "except in bed" can also create even more amusing messages.

*The ones you love will never let you down, except in bed
*Your self-confidence is well placed, except in bed
*Seek nonviolence in everything you do, except in bed

The title text instead shows the example of an imaginary fortune that would not change in meaning if "in bed" was appended. The meaning would, however, change considerably if ''except in bed'' was added instead. A part of the joke is that you will never find such a fortune in a cookie!

==Transcript==
:[Megan to the left, Cueball to the right, and Blondie in the middle are sitting on chairs around a table with lots of small stuff on it. A few small white items are standing up. All three are reading from the piece of paper they each hold up in their hands (Megan only using one hand). Below them, there is a caption inside the panel.]
:Megan: "The ones you love will never let you down."
:Cueball: "Seek nonviolence in everything you do."
:Blondie: "Your self-confidence is well-placed."

:Instead of "In bed", I've found that fortune cookies are often more improved by appending "''Except'' in bed".

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Food]]