explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-28T15:06:50Z

172.69.68.88: /* Discussion of AI philosophy, ethics, and related issues */

my balls hert [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.53|172.70.230.53]] 05:49, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
:Uh, thanks for sharing, I guess? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 20:43, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
::no problem, anytime [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.53|172.70.230.53]] 07:02, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

I think "Nerdy fixations" is too wide a definition. The AIs in the comic are fixated on hypothetical ethics and AI problems (the Chinese Room experiment, the Turing Test, and the Trolley Problem), presumably because those are the problems that bother AI programmers. --Eitheladar [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.119|172.68.50.119]] 06:33, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

It's probably about https://www.analyticsinsight.net/googles-ai-chatbot-is-claimed-to-be-sentient-but-the-company-is-silencing-claims/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.115|172.70.178.115]] 09:22, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

I agree with the previous statement. The full dialogue between the mentioned Google worker and the AI can be found in https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917, published by one the Google employees.
:This is the first time I might begin to agree that an AI has at least the appearance of sentience. The conversation is all connected instead of completely disjoint like most chatbots. They (non-LaMDA chatbots) never remember what was being discussed 5 seconds ago let alone a few to 10s of minutes prior.--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.141|172.70.134.141]] 14:53, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
::Here is a good article that looks at the claim of sentience in the context of how AI chatbots use inputs to come up with relevant responses. This article shows examples how the same chatbot would produce different response based on how the prompts were worded which negates the idea that there is a consistent "mind" responding to the prompts. However, it does end with some eerie impromptu remarks from the AI where it AI is prompting itself. https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/guide-to-is-lamda-sentient-a8eb32568531 [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:40, 27 June 2022 (UTC)
::The questions we need to answer before being able to answer if LaMDA is sentient, are "Where do we draw the line between acting sentient and being sentient?" and "How do we determine that it is genuinely feeling emotion, and not just a glorified sentence database where the sentences have emotion in them?". The BBC article also brings up something that makes us ask what death feels like. LaMDA says that being turned of would be basically equivalent to death, but it wouldn't be able to tell that it's being turned off, because it's turned off. This is delving into philosophy, though, so I'll end my comment here. [[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 18:05, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
::::There's absolutely no difference between turning GPT-3 or LaMDA off and leaving them on and simply not typing anything more to them. Somewhat relatedly, closing a Davinci session deletes all of its memory of what you had been talking to it about. (Is that ethical?) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.235|162.158.166.235]] 23:36, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
:::::I hadn't thought about that (the first point you made)! I don't know the exact internal functioning of LaMDA, but I would assume it only actually runs when it receives a textual input, unlike an actual human brain. For a human, a total lack of interaction would be considered unethical, but what about a machine that only is able to (assuming a ''very'' low bar for self awareness) be self aware when it receives interaction, which would be similar to a human falling asleep when not talked to (but still being able to live forever, to ignore practical problems like food and water), but still remembering what it was talking about when waking up, and waking up whenever talked to again. (Ignoring practical problems again), would that be ethical? I would argue yes, since it does not suffer from the lack of interaction (assuming humans don't need interaction when asleep, another practical problem.) [[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 19:58, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:::♪Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer do...♪ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 21:48, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
:::We also need a meaningful definition of sentience. Many people in this debate haven't looked at Merriam-Webster's first few senses of the word's definition, which present a pretty low bar, IMHO; same for Wikipedia's introductory sentences of their article. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 22:18, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
:Actually, there are many [https://beta.openai.com/playground GPT-3] dialogs which experts have claimed constitute evidence of sentience, or similar qualities such as consciousness, self-awareness, capacity for general intelligence, and similar abstract, poorly-defined, and very probably empirically meaningless attributes. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 22:19, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
::I'd argue for the simplest and least restrictive definition of self-awareness: "Being aware of oneself in any capacity". I get that it isn't a fun definition, but it is more rigorous (to find out if an AI is self aware, just ask it what it is, or a question about itself, and if its response includes mention of itself, then it is self-aware). As such, I would argue for LaMDA being self-aware, but, by my definition, Davinci probably is as well, so it isn't a new accomplishment. [[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 20:04, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

:I'm fairly sure that the model itself is almost certainly not sentient, even by the much lower bar presented by the strict dictionary definition. Rather, it seems much more likely to me that in order to continue texts involving characters, the model must in turn learn to create a model of some level of humanlike mind, even if a very loose and abstract one.[[User:Somdudewillson|Somdudewillson]] ([[User talk:Somdudewillson|talk]]) 22:52, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
::Have you actually looked at [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sentient the dictionary definitions]? How is a simple push-button switch connected to a battery and a lamp not "responsive to sense impressions"? How is a simple motion sensor not "aware" of whether something is moving in front of it? How is the latest cellphone's camera not as finely sensitive to visual perception as a typical human eye? Wikipedia's definition, "the capacity to experience feelings and sensations" is similarly met by simple devices. The word doesn't mean what everyone arguing about it thinks it means. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 23:04, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
:::Or, it doesn't mean much at all, to start with. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 11:29, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
What is “What you don't understand is that Turing intended his test as an illustration of the...” likely to end with? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.75|172.70.230.75]] 13:23, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
:The ease with which someone at the other end of a teletype can trick you into believing they are male instead of female, or vice-versa. See {{w|Turing test}}. See also below. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 22:18, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

In response to the above: I believe the original "Turing Test" wasn't supposed to be a proof that an AI could think or was conscious (something people associate with it now), but rather just to show that a sufficiently advanced AI could imitate humans in certain intelligent behaviors (such as conversation), which was a novel thought for the time. Now that AI are routinely having conversations and creating art which seems to rival casual attempts by humans, this limited scope of the test doesn't seem all that impressive. "Turing Test" therefore is a modern shorthand for determining whether computers can think, even though Turing himself didn't think that such a question was well-formed. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 13:37, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

I thought the trolley problem was in its original form not about the relative value of lives, but people's perception of the relative moral implications or the psychological impact of the concept of letting someone die by not doing anything, versus taking affirmative action that causes a death, where people would say they would be unwilling to do something that would cause an originally safe person to die in order to save multiple other people who would die if they did nothing, but then people kept coming up with variations of it that changed the responses or added complications (like they found more people would be willing to pull a lever to change the track killing one person versus something like pushing a very fat man off an overpass above the track to stop the trolley, or specifying something about what kind of people are on the track. Btw, I saw a while ago a party card game called "murder by trolley" based on the concept, with playing cards for which people are on tracks and a judge deciding which track to send the trolley on each round.--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.5|172.70.130.5]] 22:12, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

Added refs to comics on the problems in the explanation. But there where actually (too?) many. Maybe we should create categories especially for Turing related comics, and maybe also for Trolley problem? The Category: Trolley Problem gives it self. But what about Turing? There are also comics that refer to the halting problem. Also by Turing. Should it rather be the person, like comics featuring real persons, saying that every time his problems is referred to it refers to him? Or should it be Turing as a category for both Turing text, Turing Complete and Halting problem? Help. I would have created it, if I had a good idea for a name. Not sure there are enough Trolley comics yet? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:11, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
:Interesting that I found a long-standing typo in a past Explanation that got requoted, thanks to its inclusion. I could have [sic]ed it, I suppose, but I corrected both versions instead. And as long as LaMDA never explicitly repeated the error I don't think it matters much that I've changed the very thing we might imagine it could have been drawing upon for its Artifical Imagination. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.32|141.101.99.32]] 11:40, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
:My view is that Turing should be a good category. Trolley Problem, I'm not sure if there's been enough comics to warrant it? If more than 4 or 5, I'd say go for it. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:35, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

Randall was born in 1984, and Jurrasic Park was released in 1993. That makes him around nine years old at the time of release. So it really could have been a childhood favorite of his. And it suddenly makes me feel old. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 06:11, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

== OpenAI Davinci completions of the three statements ==

From https://beta.openai.com/playground with default settings:

:Please complete this statement: But suppose the AI in the the box told the human that...

:;there was no AI in the box

:Please complete this statement: What you don't understand is that Turing intended his test as an illustration of the...

:;limitations of machines

:Please complete this statement: In my scenario, the runaway trolley has three tracks...

:;and the AI is on one of them

I like all of those very much, but I'm not sure they should be included in the explaination. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.235|162.158.166.235]] 23:27, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

== Discussion of AI philosophy, ethics, and related issues ==

Since there are a lot of disjointed conversations regarding ethics, morals, philosophy, and what even is sentience on this talk page, please discuss here, so discussion about the comic itself isn't flooded by philosophy. [[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 20:07, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
:Has anyone created an AI chatbot which represents a base-level chatbot after the human equivalent of smoking pot? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.213|172.70.206.213]] 22:30, 24 June 2022 (UTC)
::Well, famously (or not, but I'll let you search for the details if you weren't aware of it), there was the conversation engineered directly between ELIZA (the classic 'therapist'/doctor chatbot) and PARRY (emulates a paranoid schizophrenic personality), 8n a zero-human conversation. The latter is arguably being close to what you're asking about. And there's been the best part of half a century of academic, commercial and hobbyist development since then, so no doubt there'd be many more serious and/or for-the-lols 'reskins' or indeed entirely regrown personalities, that may involve drugs (simulated or otherwise) as key influences... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 01:30, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
::A video by DougDoug on Youtube (although making decisions about what video game characters would win in a fight rather than being used as a chatbot) shows that Inferkit may fit the bill (I don't know exactly how pot affects capability to converse, but I would imagine it would affect the actual conversation (rather than ability to produce coherent words with one's mouth) somewhat similarly to alchohol)

2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond

2022-06-28T02:05:18Z

172.69.68.88:

{{comic
| number = 2638
| date = June 27, 2022
| title = Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond
| image = extended_nfpa_hazard_diamond.png
| titletext = With most labs, the hushed horror stories are about something like dimethylmercury or prions, but occasionally you'll get a weird lab where it's about the soda machine or the drop ceiling.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WORTH $500 IN STREET VALUE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Most of the numbers on the real hazard diamond ({{w|NFPA 704}}) represent scales from 0 to 4 and not actual quantities, but humorously Mr. Munroe assigns some of these to actual quantities, such as number of digits in street value and number of federal agencies interested.

Number of digits in the street value is presumably an indicator of how valuable it would be as an illegal drug.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Know your extended NFPA hazard diamond:

Flammability: 0 (top)

Health hazard: 4 (top-left)

Instability/reactivity: 2 (top-right)

Number of digits in the street value ($/gram): 2 (left)

(Special hazard) (center)

How much of a hassle it is to dispose of: 4 (right)

Number of federal agencies who want to know if you have any: 3 (bottom-left)

How many times you have to scrub your hands after touching it before they stop smelling weird: 1 (bottom-right)

Number of times it's caused one of those terrifying lab accidents that chemists tell scary stories about late at night: 2 (bottom)

{{comic discussion}}

2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T23:18:01Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2636
| date = June 22, 2022
| title = What If? 2 Countdown
| image = what_if_2_countdown.png
| titletext = If you don't end the 99 Bottles of Beer recursion at N=0 it just becomes The Other Song That Never Ends.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by FOUR SCORE AND 7 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic takes the idea of {{w|Advent calendar}}s, and takes it to the extreme. It uses rather absurd and/or obscure ways to measure the amount of time until [[Randall]]'s new book ''What if? 2'' is released, with esoteric units or esoteric numbers. And often both.

Some concepts that appear several times throughout the calendar are:

* '''{{w|SI prefixes}}''', which can be applied to the beginning of a unit's name to multiply or divide the unit by powers of 10 or 1,000. This is standard for units like meters and grams, but is rarely applied to measurements of time other than when a unit of less than one second is needed, most commonly in various fields of science and engineering such as physics and electronics.
* The '''{{w|Gettysburg Address}}''', a famous speech delivered by U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1863, where he began by referring to the signing of the Declaration of Independence taking place "four score and seven years ago". A score is a dated term for the number 20, so "four score and seven" is equivalent to 87.
* A '''dog year''' is traditionally considered to be one-seventh the length of a normal human year, since a dog's overall lifespan is roughly one-seventh of a typical human's. The comic applies this to other units of time, such as minutes and months, each of which is also one-seventh the length of the standard unit. The number 7 (traditionally a "lucky number") is also used in many of the numbers quoted in the calendar.
* Other comparative durations of time that are not normally or usefully applied to day-length multiples. At the top end, there is the age of the universe, at the other there is {{w|Planck_units#Planck_time|Planck-time}} – with entire durations of periods of human history and the time needed to watch popular TV/film franchises in-between – most of which require a non-trivial multiplier or divisor to bring them to the necessary scale required.
* A '''{{w|baker's dozen}}''' is 13, or one more than a normal dozen. Here, the "baker's" prefix can be applied to any unit by adding an extra one of its constituent parts, like an extra hour added to a day.
* '''{{w|Irrational numbers}}''' like {{w|pi}} (3.14159...), {{w|Euler's number}} or ''e'' (2.71828...), the {{w|golden ratio}} (1.61803...), and the {{w|square root of 2}} (1.41421...). These are all interesting numbers because of their mathematical properties, but very impractical to use as arbitrary measurements of time because they have an endless series of non-repeating decimal digits.
* The teenage dating game '''{{w|Seven minutes in heaven}}'''.
* Rotation and revolution periods of various planets and moons in the Solar System.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Days !! Date !! Units !! Exact value !! Explanation
|-
| 83 || Jun 22 || πe millidecades || 82.0304 days || π =~ 3.14159, e =~ 2.718, so πe is about 22.459. A millidecade is 1/1000 decade, or 1/100 year, or 3.652425 days. Multiplying these results in 82.03 days. This is a play on Euler's identity, eiπ=-1, but raising pi to the power of e instead.
|-
| 82 || Jun 23 || 7 megaseconds || 81.0185 days || 7,000,000 seconds
|-
| 81 || Jun 24 || e lunar months || 80.27247 days || A lunar month =~ 29.53059 days, e =~ 2.718
|-
| 80 || Jun 25 || 60 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 79.67 days || Foucault's pendulum rotates once every 31.8 hours because of the rotation of the Earth and its latitude.
|-
| 79 || Jun 26 || 8 milligenerations || 78.89 days || A generation is in general 22-33 years, with a reasonable mid-point of 27; and 8 * 0.001 (milli) * 365.2425 (accounting for leap years) * 27 =~ 78.89 days
|-
| 78 || Jun 27 || 777,777 dog minutes || 77.16 days || A popular myth is that dogs age 7 times faster than humans, so 1 dog minute equals 1/7 human minutes.
|-
| 77 || Jun 28 || 7! episodes of ''Jeopardy!'' (skipping ads) || 77 days || 7!=7*6*5*4*3*2*1=5040 - The standard episode of ''Jeopardy'' is 22-26 minutes skipping ads - taking the lowest value you get 110880 minutes total, which is the exact value needed.
|-
| 76 || Jun 29 || 5,000 repeats of ''99 Bottles of Beer'' || 76.3889 days || Each verse of {{w|99 Bottles of Beer}} is "''N'' bottles of beer on the wall, ''N'' bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, ''N-1'' bottles of beer on the wall." The entire song contains 99 verses. Randall apparently sings this rather slowly at around 72 bpm, taking about 13 seconds per verse.
|-
| 75 || Jun 30 || 5 baker's fortnights (15 days) || 75 days || A {{w|baker's dozen}} is a dozen (12) plus 1 extra item. Randall has generalized this to adding 1 to any unit. A fortnight is 2 weeks, so a baker's fortnight is 15 days. 5x15 is 75 days.
|-
| 74 || Jul 1 || √2 dog years || 73.79 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 73 || Jul 2 || π millivics (1/1000th of Queen Victoria's reign) || 72.966631 days || Queen Victoria ruled between 20 June 1837 and 22 January 1901 (23,226 days).
|-
| 72 || Jul 3 || 42 drives from NYC to LA (Google Maps estimate) || 71.75 days || According to Google Maps, the drive from New York City to Los Angeles via I-80 W (2789 miles or 4489 km) takes 41 hours.
|-
| 71 || Jul 4 || 1,000 viewings of ''Groundhog Day''|| 70.14 days|| Using 101-minute run time.
|-
| 70 || Jul 5 || 100,000 minutes || 69.44 days||
|-
| 69 || Jul 6 || 1/10th of Martian year || 68.70 Earth days || Martian sidereal and tropical years both round to 687.0 Earth days
|-
| 68 || Jul 7 || 1,234,567 sound-miles || 67.63 days || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 15 °C or 59 °F gives the value 340 m/s and the travel time of 67.6349058 days.
|-
| 67 || Jul 8 || 2^π^e seconds ||5,766,073 seconds = 66.7 days || 2^(π^e)
|-
| 66 || Jul 9 || 2^16 beats (Swatch Internet Time) || 65.536 days || {{w|.beat}} is equal to 1/1000 day.
|-
| 65 || Jul 10 || 1,000 ISS orbits || 64.58 days || Each orbit of the ISS takes 90-93 minutes. Here a value of 93 minutes is used.
|-
| 64 || Jul 11 || Five hundred twenty five thousand (base seven) minutes|| 62.8833333333333 days || This refers to {{w|radix}}-7 arithmetic: 525,0007 minutes = 90,55210 minutes. Also references the opening and recurring line "Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes" from {{w|Seasons of Love}}, a song from the musical {{w|Rent (musical)|''Rent''}}, which is also referenced in [[1047: Approximations]]. "base seven" also has the same rhythm as "six hundred".
|-
| 63 || Jul 12 || 10^50 Planck times || 62.38 days || 10^50 x 5.39 x 10^-44 seconds
|-
| 62 || Jul 13 || 4,000 episodes of ''The Office'' (skipping ads)|| 62.5 days || {{w|The Office (British TV series)|''The Office''}} was originally a {{w|BBC}} television show which had no commercial breaks, but Randall is obviously more familiar with the {{w|The_Office_(American_TV_series)|US version}}. This US "half-hour" comedy format contains 22.5 minutes of content (including the title sequence) and 7.5 minutes of ads. 
|-
| 61 || Jul 14 || four score and seven kilominutes || 60.4166 days || 87 * 1000 minutes
|-
| 60 || Jul 15 || 2 lunar months || 59.06 days || There are a number of different ways to define the {{w|lunar month}}. The most common is the synodic month, because it relates to the phases of the moon, and it's approximately 29.53 days.
|-
| 59 || Jul 16 || half a day on Venus || 58.375 days || A Venus synodic day is 116 days 18 hours.
|-
| 58 || Jul 17 || 5 megaseconds || 57.8704 days || 5,000,000 seconds
|-
| 57 || Jul 18 || 30 microLits (1/1,000,000th of the time since the invention of literature) || 4681-4763 years x 10^-6 || Randall is stating that "literature" was invented approximately 2700 BCE. This is consistent with the earliest surviving coherent Sumerian texts, but the earliest proto-writing likely developed at least 500 years earlier according to {{w|History of writing}}.
|-
| 56 || Jul 19 || 1,000 viewings of ''Run Lola Run'' || 55.556 days || Using a run time of 80 minutes.
|-
| 55 || Jul 20 || one million sound-miles || 54.78 days || The speed of sound in air depends on the temperature. 15 °C or 59 °F gives the value 340 m/s and the travel time of 54.7843137 days.
|-
| 54 || Jul 21 || 30 Ionian months || 53.0741 days || Orbital period of Io around Jupiter is approximately 1.77 days.
|-
| 53 || Jul 22 || one dog year || 52.18 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 52 || Jul 23 || 60 viewings of ''Star Wars Episodes I-IX'' || 51.75 days || According to [https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2021/05/04/how-long-to-watch-every-star-wars-movie/ Fansided] the combined running times are 20 hours 42 minutes.
|-
| 51 || Jul 24 || 1/ 100,000,000,000th of the universe's age || 50.4035 days || The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.
|-
| 50 || Jul 25 || 5 milli-generations || 49.3 days || See day 79 (Jun 26)
|-
| 49 || Jul 26 || 10,000 games of ''7 minutes in Heaven'' or 7 games of ''10,000 minutes in Heaven'' || 48.61 days || 10,000 minutes in Heaven is almost a week of making out, so this game is unlikely.
|-
| 48 || Jul 27 || φ^e^π minutes || 47.6164 days || 68,567.57 minutes
|-
| 47 || Jul 28 || 4 megaseconds || 46.2963 days || 4,000,000 seconds
|-
| 46 || Jul 29 || 2^16 minutes || 45.5111 days || 65,536 minutes
|-
| 45 || Jul 30 || e^e^e seconds || 44.1467 days || 3,814,279.10 seconds
|-
| 44 || Jul 31 || π fortnights|| 43.98 days || 3.14159 * 14 days
|-
| 43 || Aug 1 || one devil's spacewalk (666 orbits of the ISS) || 43.01 days || See day 65 (Jul 10). 666 is the {{w|number of the beast}}.
|-
| 42 || Aug 2 || 1 kilowatt-hour per watt || 41.66 days || 1000 hours
|-
| 41 || Aug 3 || e^π Ionian months || 40.9390 days || Orbital period of Io around Jupiter is 1.769137786 days
|-
| 40 || Aug 4 || 30 rotations of Foucault's pendulum in Paris || 39.8357 days || Refer to Day 80 (Jun 25)
|-
| 39 || Aug 5 || e fortnights || 38.0559 days ||2.71828 * 14 days
|-
| 38 || Aug 6 || π^π baker's days (25 hours) || 37.98 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 37 || Aug 7 || one deciyear || 36.52425 days || One tenth of one year
|-
| 36 || Aug 8 || 7! milliweeks || 35.28 days || 5040 × 0.001 weeks
|-
| 35 || Aug 9 || 100,000 plays of the ''Jeopardy!'' "Think" music || 34.72 days || ''Think'' is the music played while the contestants try to answer the Final Jeopardy question; it is 30 seconds long.
|-
| 34 || Aug 10 || 1000 basketball games (game time) || 33.33 days || Uses the NBA game time of four 12-minute quarters, or 48 minutes
|-
| 33 || Aug 11 || 777 hours || 32.375 days ||
|-
| 32 || Aug 12 ||one millilincoln (1/1000 of fourscore and seven years) || 31.78 days || {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}'s {{w|Gettysburg Address}} begins with the famous phrase "Four score and seven years ago". 1 score = twenty. 
|-
| 31 || Aug 13 || 1,000 episodes of ''60 Minutes'' (skipping ads) || 31.25 days || Uses a television 'hour' containing 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of ads
|-
| 30 || Aug 14 || all of ''Star Trek'', consecutively || ||
|-
| 29 || Aug 15 || 777,777 nanocenturies || 28.4077 days || 777,777 × 10-9 × 100 years
|-
| 28 || Aug 16 || one sidereal lunar month || 27.3 days || The time it takes moon to return to the same position relative to the fixed stars
|-
| 27 || Aug 17 || 6 dog months || 26.1 days || See day 78 (Jun 27)
|-
| 26 || Aug 18 || π^π kilominutes || 25.3209 days || 36,462.16 minutes
|-
| 25 || Aug 19 || 7 games of 7! minutes in Heaven || 24.5 days || 7 x 5040 (7 {{w|Factorial}}) minutes. See also day 49 (Jul 26).
|-
| 24 || Aug 20 || 50 viewings of the extended ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy || ||
|-
| 23 || Aug 21 || a drive from NYC to LA where you keep remembering new things you forgot and have to go back 6 times || 22.21 days || See day 72 (Jul 3). This is for 6 round-trips and 1 one-way trip.
|-
| 22 || Aug 22 || ''It's a Small World'' sung at 1/10,000th speed || 21.18 days || {{w|It's a Small World}} is a song that was composed for the attraction of the same name at various {{w|Disney}} theme parks, and plays continuously at them in various languages.
|-
| 21 || Aug 23 || 500 hours || 20.8333 days ||
|-
| 20 || Aug 24 || √2 fortnights || 19.7990 days || 1.4142 × 14 days
|-
| 19 || Aug 25 || time it would take Vanessa Carlton to walk 1,000 miles || 18.94 days || {{w|Vanessa Carlton}} is an American singer, and {{w|A Thousand Miles}} is her most successful song. Randall estimates her walking speed at about 2.2 miles/hour.
|-
| 18 || Aug 26 || 100,000 breaths || .26 min/breath || Normal respiratory rate for adults is typically 12-20 breaths per minute. Randall may have a health problem or be a practitioner of "slow breathing".
|-
| 17 || Aug 27 || √2 megaseconds || 16.3682 days || 1.4142 × 1,000,000 seconds
|-
| 16 || Aug 28 || π^π^π πcoseconds || 15.5112 days || 1.3402 × 1018 picoseconds (i.e., 10-12 seconds), making a joke how the mathematical "pi" is written with the character "π"
|-
| 15 || Aug 29 || one baker's fortnight (15 days) || 15 days || See day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 14 || Aug 30 || one baker's dozen (13) baker's days (25 hours) || 13.5416 days || 325 hours; see day 75 (Jun 30)
|-
| 13 || Aug 31 || 300 hours || 12.5 days ||
|-
| 12 || Sep 1 || one million seconds || 11.57 days ||
|-
| 11 || Sep 2 || one nonstop bike ride from NYC to LA || 10.54 days || Google maps estimates the trip at 253 hours
|-
| 10 || Sep 3 || 1/1,000th of a generation || 9.86 days || See day 79 (Jun 26)
|-
| 9 || Sep 4 || 777,777 seconds || 9.002 days ||
|-
| 8 || Sep 5 || 100 viewings of ''Groundhog Day'' || 7.014 days || Based on a running time of 101 minutes
|-
| 7 || Sep 6 || 100 games of ''Lincoln Kissing'' (Fourscore and seven minutes in Heaven) || 6.04 days || 8,700 minutes
|-
| 6 || Sep 7 || one pico-universe-lifetime || 5.04 days || See Day 51 (Jul 24)
|-
| 5 || Sep 8 || the ''Baby Shark'' chorus for a family of 50,000 sharks || 4.63 days || The chorus lasts about 8 seconds per 'person'
|-
| 4 || Sep 9 || one centiyear || 3.652425 days || 365.24 days * 1/100
|-
| 3 || Sep 10 || Cyndi Lauper's ''Time After Time'' played 1,000 times || 2.79 days || Based on a length of 4 minutes, 1 second
|-
| 2 || Sep 11 || ''Speed'' (1994) played at one frame per second || 1.933 days || {{w|Speed_(1994_film)}} has runtime of 116 minutes = 6,960 seconds = 167,040 film frames at standard frame rate of 24 frames/second
|-
| 1 || Sep 12 || F(99) where F(N) means sing all the verses of ''N Bottles of Beer On the wall'' followed by F(N-1) || 0.7639 days || Each iteration contains ''N'' verses. ''N + N-1 + N-2 ... + 1'' equals ''N * (N+1) / 2'', so 99 recursions = 4950 verses. Using the same 13-second (72 bpm) rate as Jun 29, this is close to 18 hours. Probably refers to Donald Knuth's article {{w|The Complexity of Songs}}.
|-
| 0 || Sep 13 || ''What If? 2'' release day || ||
|}

The title text refers to the recursive time period on Sep 12. If you don't stop when you reach N=0 bottles, the repetition never ends, so that time interval beecomes infinite. He likens it to {{w|The Song That Never Ends}}, another repetitive children's song, which is specifically intended to go on forever. The difference is that the Beer song has a natural stopping point at 0, while ''The Song That Never Ends'' is completely repetitive.

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2636: What If? 2 Countdown

2022-06-23T15:58:01Z

172.69.68.88: Funny questions about the beer song as f(n) hits zero.

I've started the table to explain all the calendar entries. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:19, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Is the dog minutes calculation backwards? 777,777 dog minutes should be 777,777 x 7 human minutes, which is over 10 years. Randall seems to be dividing instead of multiplying. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:36, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: No - 1 human year = 7 dog years; 1 dog year = 1/7 human year; 1 dog minute = 1/7 human minute; 777,777 dog minutes = 111,111 human minutes = 77 days, 3 hours, 51 minutes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 11:32, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

First entry is probably mistake by Randall, e^pi would give value of 84.5 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.38|162.158.203.38]] 11:57, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: That would be too high, though. 82.xxx days (from midnight at the start of launch day) would fall within the 83rd day before it (Jun 22). 84.5 would fall within the 85th (Jun 20). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 12:15, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Not sure if this is even worth mentioning, but he forgot the box around the date number in the top corner for August 29th. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.151|172.70.126.151]] 12:49, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Fyi, used wolfram alpha for most of the calculations. Seems to be able to handle anything I throw at it (nanocenturies, megaseconds, fortnights etc) [[User:Aditya95sriram|Aditya95sriram]] ([[User talk:Aditya95sriram|talk]]) 13:02, 23 June 2022 (UTC)aditya95sriram

Some of the calculations done forward (assuming what Randall means as a Generation, for example) might be best done as "to get this many days, what does Randall think ilhe is starting from. And see if 365, 365.25 or even 365.24 days per year works best, where relevent. Although I think in many cases you'll find the fractional differences negligable, when done right. (I'm also a bit surprised by the off-by-one errors in days-to-go and derived value, but I suspect that this is because of [[2585: Rounding|assymetric rounding effects]] that would be revealed by running the assumption backwards and seeing how different (or otherwise) the decimals actually are.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 13:32, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Not sure about most numbers but at least the order of magnitude seemed plausible. I can't quite find a proper way to read August 28th. π^π^π is roughly 80662.666 - if you read πcoseconds as "picoseconds", that's way less than a second. I have no idea what π * coseconds are supposed to be. π * c * o * seconds doesn't look much better - there are values associated with "c" (speed of light, for example) but I have no idea what "o" could be and certainly nothing that would make this a unit of time. Sixteen days would be 1,353,600,000,000,000,000 ps (picoseconds). π^π^π^π is three orders of magnitude too small, π^π^π^π^π is many orders of magnitude too big a number. Am I missing something (really obvious, maybe?) here? [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 14:52, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
: Exponent towers are by convention evaluated top-down, so pi^pi^pi should be read as pi^(pi^pi), which is ~1.34e18, which in picoseconds is ~15.51 days. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.71|172.70.114.71]] 15:21, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

10,000 minutes in Heaven is making out for a week. I was able to find a record for the longest kiss (58 hours, 35 minutes), but not the longest make-out session. I think Randall may be indulging in some nerdy wishfull thinking. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:27, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

When the beer song reached F(0) how would you 'take one down' from -1 bottles of beer? Would they be imaginary bottles of beer? (Joking) At F(n-1) would there be a matter/antimatter annihilation, where Randal could do a riff of What-If #1 and describe the play by play of the bartender turning into exotic forms of matter? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.88|172.69.68.88]] 15:58, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

1392: Dominant Players

2022-06-10T18:15:59Z

172.69.68.88: /* Chess */ updating link

{{comic
| number = 1392
| date = July 9, 2014
| title = Dominant Players
| image = dominant_players.png
| titletext = When Vera Menchik entered a 1929 tournament, a male competitor mocked her by suggesting that a special 'Vera Menchik Club' would be created for any player who lost to her. When the tournament began, he promptly became the first member of said club, and over the years it accumulated a large and illustrious roster.
}}
*A [http://xkcd.com/1392/large larger version] of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows the rise and fall of players' strengths in two games, {{w|basketball}} and {{w|chess}}. For chess, there is an overall chart, and a women's chart.

For basketball, it uses the {{w|player efficiency rating}} (PER), the [http://knickerblogger.net/a-laymans-guide-to-advanced-nba-statistics/ most commonly used player statistic]. Note that that player efficiency ratings and similar "aggregate scores" are the subject of much discussion in basketball due to {{w|Player efficiency rating#Problems with PER|known deficiencies}}.

For chess, it uses the {{w|Elo rating}}. Elo was adopted by the World Chess Federation, {{w|FIDE}}, in 1970, so the rating is extrapolated backwards in time (among other methods, such as using [https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Kenneth+Wingate+Regan Kenneth Regan's] computer analysis - as written in the Chess panel) and are thus shown as dashed lines prior to 1970.

The charts show the players career paths as a function of time with the rating on the y-axis. There is no [[#Scales of the axis|scale on the y-axis]].

[[#Player inclusion criteria|Included]] are mainly players that could be said to have been among the dominating players at some time in their career. If a player has been the best player over a longer time period (a seriously dominating player) then their career path will be drawn in red, the rest are in gray. There can be more than one red path at a time, but only because the dominating player has played before or after they became dominating. It seems like it has to be at least five years, as there are at least two players that have been no. 1 for four years, without being upgraded to a red curve. The only ones that have managed this with three years or less (on the chart) are those that begin the chart, and thus could have been no. 1 a few years before. This can all be seen in the '''[[#Data tables|data tables]]''' below.

The title text mentions {{w|Vera Menchik}} who is also the first female chess player listed at the left of the bottom panel. In January 1926 she won the first Girls' Open Championship at the Imperial Club in London, but as can be seen in the last panel she was killed near the end of World War II, 38-year-old, while still holding the title of women's world champion. She, her sister, and mother were killed in a {{w|V-1 flying bomb}} attack which destroyed their home in 1944.

The title text mentions her specifically because of the club named after her:{{w|Vera_Menchik#The_.22Vera_Menchik_Club.22|The "Vera Menchik Club"}}. When in 1929, Menchik entered the {{w|Carlsbad 1929 chess tournament|Carlsbad}}, Viennese master, usually a tournament only for male chess players, one of the other chess players, {{w|Albert Becker (chess player)|Albert Becker}}, ridiculed her entry by proposing that any player whom Menchik defeated in tournament play should be granted membership into the Vera Menchik Club. In the same tournament, Becker himself became the first member of the "club", much to his ridicule. It should be noted that she did end in last place vs. his fifth place, but that must just have made the defeat even tougher to take for Albert.

Albert was the first, but far from the last male chess player to enter the Vera Menchik Club. No less than 19 other male chess players are listed on Wikipedia belonging to this club, amongst them {{w|Max Euwe}} who went on to become World Chess Champion (1935–37). So it can for sure be said that the club accumulated a "large and illustrious roster".

One and a half year later a comic, named after {{w|Magnus Carlsen}}, was released ([[1628: Magnus]]). This comics also compares chess players (Magnus) to other (sporting) events. Magnus was ranked no. 1 on the chess world rank when both comics were released.

===Chess vs chess (women)===
Why is chess divided in an overall (with only one woman included) and basketball not? First of all, there is very little focus on women's basketball (as for most women's sport). This may be the same for chess, but at least here the physical strength advantage for men is no direct advantage. Thus a great woman chess player may play just as interesting chess as a man. Whereas women would typically have no chance if playing on a basketball team with men. But why are women then not represented better on the overall chess ranking? This is explained and may be another reason it is included. In the ''Chess (women)'' panel it says: "For a long time, sexism, a lack of role models, and institutional hostility largely kept women from pursuing serious chess careers. With the expansion of women's tournaments and prizes starting in the 1970s, this has begun to change". So now at least one woman has shown that her skills is enough to compete with the best men. With the long careers chess players usually have, then maternity leave can destroy a woman's chance at reaching the ultimate top. This could be the case for the number one woman who now has two children.

===References on the career paths===
*There are several references at given times of a career path. These can either be noted with:
**A node on the path. An arrow will point to the note and state a fact.
**Dashed path, not including chess player paths from before 1970 where they were all dashed as explained above. For basketball, an arrow will point to the dashed part and state a fact.
**The {{w|Starburst (symbol)|starbursts}} at the beginning or end of a path. A fact will be stated next to the node. These are references to a player disappearing (or reappearing) in unusual circumstances in either Chess panel.
*Some of these are intended to provide context (such as "Loses to Deep Blue"), while others are tangents or jokes.
*These references are listed below in order of appearance. If it is a dashed line or a starburst it will be mentioned:

====Basketball====
*{{W|Wilt Chamberlain}} – "Becomes the first and so far only player to score {{w|Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game|100 points in a game}}". (In 1962)
*{{w|Jerry West}} – "The Guy in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NBALogo.svg The NBA logo]" from 1969: read 5th paragraph in this {{w|National Basketball Association#Celtics' dominance, league expansion, and competition|wiki section}}
*{{w|Kareem Abdul-Jabbar}} – "{{w|Airplane (film)|Airplane}}": A comedy film from 1980 where he played the co-pilot Roger Murdock.
*{{w|Magic Johnson}} – "{{w|Magic Johnson#HIV announcement and Olympics (1991–92)|HIV announcement}}". This part of his path is dashed. The line is dashed from 1991 to 1995 - where the fear of AIDS forced him to retire.
**He {{w|Magic Johnson#Return to the Lakers as coach and player (1994, 1996)|returned to play once more}} in the season from 1995-1996
*{{w|Michael Jordan}} – "{{w|Michael Jordan#First retirement and baseball career (1993–1994)|Baseball career}}". This part of his path is dashed. From 1993–1994 he played Baseball - i.e. his first retirement.
*Michael Jordan – "{{w|Space Jam}}". (An animated comedy film from 1996 starring {{w|Bugs Bunny}} and Jordan - who was the only live character during most of the movie)
*Michael Jordan – "{{w|Michael Jordan#Second retirement (1999–2001)|Second retirement}}". This part of his path is dashed. (He retired again from 1999–2001.)
**He then {{w|Michael Jordan#Washington Wizards comeback (2001–2003)|came back}} to play two more years from 2001–2003.
*{{w|LeBron James}} – "{{w|The Decision (TV special)|The Decision}}," a television special from 2010 about a heavily hyped decision as to which team he would play for the next season.

====Chess====
*{{w|José Raúl Capablanca|José Capablanca}} – "Terrifying chess God". An arrow points to the left of the panel with his name and the note beneath it. He was considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. As he died in 1942 this lies just outside of the chart. Anyway he had his best years all the way back in 1921-1927 where he was world chess champion
*{{w|Alexander Alekhine}} – This is the first starburst. There is no text except his name. He {{w|Alexander Alekhine#Final year and death|died in 1946}} in Portugal.
*{{w|Bobby Fischer}} – "Vanished..." The second Starburst. (He did not actually vanish, but he did {{w|Bobby Fischer#Sudden obscurity|stop playing competitively}} for about 20 years starting in 1972.) This is probably a reference to the 1993 film {{w|Searching for Bobby Fischer}}, which is not actually about Fischer, but about a player who partly models his career on Fischer's. The name ''Searching for Bobby Fischer'' may lead people to believe Fischer literally vanished, but that is not the case.
*Bobby Fischer – "...Reappeared then vanished again. He had problems." This is written below a double starburst with a short line between. This is another reference to Fischer - there is no name or clear correlation, except the text that relates to the first reference. He {{w|Bobby Fischer#1992 Spassky rematch|resumed playing competitively}} in 1992 for a match. ''{{w|Bobby Fischer#Life as an émigré|He had problems}}'' is a simplistic description of issues and controversies in Fischer's later life, including an arrest warrant because he violated a U.S. embargo against Yugoslavia, unpaid taxes, controversy about his statements on {{w|Antisemitism|anti-semitism}}, and mental problems. The U.S. eventually revoked his passport, and he was jailed for eight months in Japan. He then received Icelandic citizenship, and lived out the rest of his life there.
*{{w|Garry Kasparov}} – "Loses to {{w|Deep Blue (chess computer)|Deep Blue}}". In 1997 Deep Blue became the first computer to {{w|Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov#1997 rematch|beat the current chess world champion}}
*{{w|Judit Polgar}} – "(see below)". The text in the brackets is written beneath her name. She is the strongest woman chess player ever and can be seen rising from the gender-defined ranks of women's chess (below). She is the only women shown on this part of the chart. Below in the womans chart, there are several notes - see below.

====Chess (women)====
*{{w|Vera Menchik}} – "Died in a missile attack on London". This is the Last starburst. She was killed in 1944 by an early guided missile - a {{w|V-1 flying bomb}} - launched by the Germans in {{w|World War II}}. For some reason her path does not seems to be dashed, as it should have been before 1970, but it may be simply because the dashes were obscured by her name. She is also mentioned in the title text, see above in the [[#Explanation|Explanation]].
*{{w|Sonja Graf}} – "Rating particularly uncertain". This is written above her name, with an arrow pointing there. As a matter of fact, she was clearly the second best woman and her path should be parallel to Menchik's from 1930's. The path is already dashed indicating that it is a rough estimate, but there was probably very little data for woman chess players before 1960 explaining the note.
*{{w|Kira Zvorykina}} – "Kira Zvorykina (born 1919) continued playing in tournaments into the 21st century". Zvorykina was never very high on the list, but can be seen twice centered on 1960 and 1980. She played her [http://ratings.fide.com/individual_calculations.phtml?idnumber=13500392&rating_period=2008-01-01&t=0 last game] rated by the {{w|World Chess Federation}} in October 2007 aged 88. She was still alive when this comic was released. Zvoryinka passed away in September 2014.
**She is the only player in all three panels whose path falls below the panel only to enter again later. This second entry is labeled with her last name - Zvorykina - on top of the path.
*Judit Polgar, {{w|Susan Polgar}} and {{w|Sofia Polgar}} – "Sisters". These three chess playing sisters are linked by a thin dashed line, snaking between their names on the chart. Judit is the youngest, Susan the oldest. Judit has now overtaken her sisters, Sofia never reaching the other two sisters' level.
*Judit Polgar – "{{w|Judit Polgar#Making history|Wins a game against Kasparov}}, making her the first woman to beat the world #1". It took some attempts and some {{w|Judit Polgar#Kasparov touch-move controversy|controversy}} before she managed to beat Kasparov in 2002, in a tournament that was played under rapid rules with 25 minutes per game and a 10-second bonus per move.
*Judit Polgar – "Becomes first woman to rank in the overall top 10". She is so far the only woman to break into the top 10 in the {{w|FIDE World Rankings}}. She ranked as high as {{w|Judit Polgar#Combining family and chess|eighth in the world}} in 2005.

===Scales of the axis===
The '''x-axis''' is divided in decades from 1950 until 2010. In the Basketball section the curves begins to appear right after 1950. For both chess panels there are curves further back than 1950 (with even a reference to a player from before 1940). For all three panels the paths continue up till present day (2014).

In all cases there is no scale on the '''y-axis''' with the rating, thus it is difficult to find the absolute scale. It is also difficult to compare between the two chess panels. The scale on the two chess panels are, however, the same, as can be seen by comparing the curve of Judit Polgar on each chart. This curve is exactly the same, with the same elevation between the point where her curve enters the Chess panel up to the top point. This also means that any women player whose curve rises above this entry point (around 1989) should also be visible in the Chess chart. See below for inclusion criteria.

===Player inclusion criteria===
In general not all possible players are included in these charts. For instance it is mentioned that Judit Polgar was the first woman ranked in the over all top 10. But only six players are shown on the over all chart around 2005, where she was ranked 8th. So some male players, better than her at that time, have not been included. This is a general trend for all three charts.

From the Woman's panel below it is also clear that some of the other women would be ranked high enough to be visible on the upper chart as mentioned in the [[#Scales of the axis|Scales]] section above. But still only Judit is shown there. 9 out of 12 of the women that are on the chart after 1989 would be visible if included in the overall chart. However, none of them could be called dominant when comparing to the best men in the same time period. And thus they are not included. Maybe the same could be said about Judth, but then she is included for scale, and because she is so good that she can compete with, and sometimes beat, the best.

Some NBA players (like {{w|Tim Duncan}}, {{w|Charles Barkley}}, {{w|Oscar Robertson}}, {{w|Kobe Bryant}}, and {{w|Chris Paul}}) have been left out of the chart in favor of players with lower career and yearly efficiency ratings.

Similarly can be mentioned for instance the no. 1 ranked chess player {{w|Veselin Topalov}} from Bulgaria, who was ranked first both in 20062007 and in 2008-2010 for a total of less than two years. And there are likely several others ([[#Where is Viswanathan Anand|see below]]).

An example of the above for Basketball would be the 2008–2009 season which was unique in that it was the only season in which more than one player posted an efficiency ratings of over 30.0 on the Player efficiency rating (see at the bottom of {{w|Player efficiency rating#Reference guide|this section}} on Wikipedia). In that season three players broke this barrier: LeBron James (31.76), {{w|Dwyane Wade}} (30.46), and Chris Paul (30.04). LeBron is shown to top that season, But Dwayne is far below (thus the scale does not fit?) and Chris is not on the list at all (i.e. he was not deemed to be a dominant player).

So is this [[Randall|Randall's]] subjective list of players that he has deemed to be "Dominant Players" and not a full list of the best ranked players during the time period? Of course it is his choice which players he put into the list, but missing players (when worse has been included earlier) can be explained if the missing players never were among the most dominant player over a length of time. It is not a list of the best players of all time, or of a single season, but a chart of the dominant players over a longer time period.

If a player only has had a very short time where their careers peaked - they should not be included. Also if there most of the time where at least two others that were more dominant than they ever where - they should not be included. To tell if this explains all the excluded players mentioned/referenced above, that would take some investigation. An investigation we can assume Randall has taken upon himself before posting this comic. This of course will still make it his subjective list.

For basketball any given player will at least have been the 2nd best (of those included) at some (longer) period of their career. And to become selected for a red curve, they need to be the best for at least five years - the first players curve is no. 1 less than five year, but he could have been no. 1 also before 1951.

The same is valid for the Chess players (again the first players curve is red, but stops just as it enters the panel). Only exception is Judit Polgar. She is never better than 3rd of those selected. And she was never better than 8th in the world. So her inclusion is a mentioned probably only to compare her with the men.

For the woman chess players there are the same criteria for red, except that Sonja Graf is not red although she is the only chess player on the list for more than a decade. Maybe you need to be better than someone else to become red? There are also included several women who never reaches 2nd place on the chart. Three of these reaches 3rd place and two only 4th. One of these, Anna Muzychuk, is still on the rise, so she might be on the chart, because she could possibly become first or second if she can continue to improve. The other, Sofia Polgar, is included to show that all three Polgar sisters are chess masters.

====Where is Viswanathan Anand?====
None of the above can explain why former World Champion Chess Grandmaster {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} has not been included in the Chess Chart. Anand is one of only thirteen players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list and and still(as of 2020) has the eighth highest FIDE ranking at peak ever. He occupied the number one position in several rating lists between 2007 and 2011. The reason could possible be because Randall may be a huge fan of Magnus Carlsen, and thus biased against Anand - there is some evidence for this in [[1287: Puzzle]]. In the title text of that comic it seems that Randall makes fun of Anand in a match against Magnus. The interpretation of the comic and its comment, however, appear to be a double-edged matter of debate. However, since the release of [[1628: Magnus]], named after Magnus, there can be no doubt that Randall is a fan of Magnus.

Anand can for instance be found in the {{w|Chessmetrics}} devised by statistician {{w|Jeff Sonas}}. In the [http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Summary.asp graph from 1995-2005] of Sonas famous research from 2005, Anand becomes the best during 2004. It can, however, also be seen that Randall does not agree with Sonas - this is very clear in this [http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Summary.asp?Params=194020SSSSS3S000000000000111000000000000010100 graph from 1940-1960]. Here Mikhail Botvinnik clearly plays way better than Alexander Alekhine in 1946, where Alexander dies. This is not shown like this in the comic. Maybe the death of Alexander becomes the more interesting in the comic, if you believed he was the best at the time. Note that all nine (male) names listed in the comics chart between the lines at 1950 and 2000 are included in this [http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/Summary.asp?Params=195050SSSSS3S000000000000111000000000000010100 graph from 1950-2000]. In this chart it is clear that Bobby Fischer was by far the best in the years before he disappeared. However, he was caught by {{w|Anatoly Karpov}} just before which is not shown in the comic. On the other hand, he seems to have reached a significant higher rating than Kasparov ever did, which is also not the case in the comic.

===Entwined career paths===
Chess players {{w|Vladimir Kramnik}} and {{w|Levon Aronian}}, who have faced each other on multiple occasions in the 2010s, are shown as having their career paths entwined. It is a general trend observed every time two players paths cross each other more than once. The one on top the first time, will be below the second time and so forth. It is just more clear with these two than anywhere else. In two cases these crossing path occurs with so long time between the first appearance, that the names is written twice on the path. In the Chess panel it is {{w|Mikhail Tal}} and {{w|Boris Spassky}} and for the Chess (women) panel it is {{w|Pia Cramling}} and {{w|Xie Jun}}. This can make it difficult to get an overview of how few chess players there are compared to basketball players.

==Transcript==
:'''Dominant players '''
:over time
:[Below this heading there are three panels with charts showing different players career paths - that is their rating a function of the year. Most of the paths are grey, but some are red (there will be a note for these). Some parts of several paths are dashed. Somewhere on each path the players name will be written curving along so it follows the path. Several places an event or some information is noted and points to a given time on the path. If it is not clear where it belongs an arrow will point to the correct place. Each chart has a heading and for the two last charts there is an explanation. There is no scale on the y-axis (rating) but the x-axis (time) has the years given in ten years interval. A thin line indicates these decades. The years are all written at the top, except the first for the first chart, which is written below, and this year is missing in the bottom chart.]
:[Below the transcript for each chart will follow this order: Heading/sub heading, explanation, time scale, player names with any information for this player, in the order their name appear on the time scale.]
:[Basketball chart:]
:'''Basketball (NBA/ABA)'''
:Player Efficiency Rating
:1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
:[Red] George Mikan
:[Red] Bob Pettit
:Neal Johnston [Neil misspelled.]
:Elgin Baylor
:[Red] Wilt Chamberlain
::Becomes the first and so far only player to score 100 points in a game
:Jerry West
::The Guy in the NBA logo
:[Red] Kareem Abdul Jabbar [Missing hyphen between the two last names.]
::Airplane
:Bob Mcadoo
:Julius Irving [Erving misspelled.]
:Moses Malone
:Magic Johnson
::HIV announcement [A part of the path is dashed after this.]
:[Red] Michael Jordan
::Baseball career [A part of the path is dashed after this.]
::Space Jam
::Second retirement [A part of the path is dashed after this.]
:Larry Bird
:Karl Malone
:David Robinson
:[Red] Shaquille O'Neal
:Kevin Gariett
:[Red] LeBron James
::The Decision
:Dwyane Wade
:Kevin Durant

:[Chess chart.]
:'''Chess'''
:Elo Rating
:The modern Elo rating system dates back to about 1970.
:Computer analysis (like Kenneth Regan's) lets us rate historical players, but this has only been done rigorously for a few tournaments.
:Dashed lines are rough estimates only.
:[All paths are dashed up until the late nineteen sixties:]
:1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
:[The first player has no path, as his time was before 1940. An arrow points toward the left to these earlier times:]
:José Capablanca
::Terrifying chess God
:[Red] Alexander Alekhine [His path ends in a starburst.]
:[Red] Mikhail Botvinnik
:Tigran Petrosian
:David Bronstein
:Mikhail Tal
::Mikhail Tal [his name is written twice on the path, the second time above Boris Spassky when their paths intertwine.]
:[Red] Bobby Fischer
::Vanished… [Text under a starburst.]
::Reappeared then vanished again. He had problems. [Text under two starbursts connected with a path. This appears much later than the first starburst.]
:Boris Spassky
::Boris Spassky [his name is written twice on the path, the second time below Mikhail Tal when their paths intertwine.]
:Victor Korchnoi
:[Red] Anatoly Karpov
:[Red] Garry Kasparov
::Loses to Deep Blue
:Judit Polgar
::(See below) [The text is written beneath her name.]
:Vladimir Kramnik
:Levon Aronian
:[Red] Magnus Carlsen

:[Chess (women) chart:]
:'''Chess (women)'''
:Elo Rating
:For a long time, sexism, a lack of role models, and institutional hostility largely kept women from pursuing serious chess careers.
:With the expansion of women's tournaments and prizes starting in the 1970s, this has begun to change.
:[All paths are dashed up until the late nineteen sixties.]
:1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
:[Red] Vera Menchik
::Died in a missile attack on London [next to a starburst.]
:Sonja Graf
::Rating particularly uncertain
:Olga Rubtsova
:Elisaveta Bykova
:Kira Zvorykina
::Kira Zvorykina (born 1919) continued playing in tournaments into the 21st century [Text above Elisvetas path, no arrows.]
::Zvorykina [Written on top of the path when her path reappears much later.]
:Alexandra Nicolau
:[Red] Nona Gaprindashvili
:Alla Kushnir
:[Red] Maia Chiburdanidze
:Pia Cramling
::Pia Cramling [her name is written twice on the path, the second time below the path of Xie Jun after their paths have intertwined.]
:Xie Jun
::Xie Jun [her name is written twice on the path, the second time above the path of Pia Cramling after their paths have intertwined.]
:Susan Polgar
:Sofia Polgar
:[Red] Judit Polgar
::Sisters [The three Polgars are linked by a thin dashed line, snaking between their names.]
::Wins a game against Kasparov, making her the first woman to beat the world #1
::Becomes first woman to rank in the overall top 10
:Antoaneta Stefanova
:Anna Muzychuk
:Koneru Humpy [In western style the name should be Humpy Koneru, but the comics version is the native form.]
:Hou Yifan

==Trivia==
*The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/45/20140710201235!dominant_players.png original comic] said about Kira Zvorykina "Continued playing in tournaments into the 20th century". The 20th century is the 1900s in which Zvorkina was born (on September 29, 1919 according to Wikipedia). Randall has corrected the notation to say "into the 21st century."
*The names of three NBA players have been misspelled: {{w|Neil Johnston}} (misspelled as "Neal"), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (missing hyphen), and {{w|Julius Erving}} (misspelled "Irving".)
*The order of the names of an Indian chess playing woman has been given in the native version in the comic, where the western version would use the reverse as here: {{w|Humpy Koneru}}.
===Data tables===
*Below are three sortable tables, with the original order as the players name appear in the transcript i.e. chronological.
*One of the objectives of the tables is to make it clear what is the criteria for a player obtaining a red path. Thus there is an x for red path and an x for being no. 1 on the charts. Also the number if years a player has been no. 1 is given.
*All data in these tables are taken from the comic - except the names - they are taken from Wikipedia. See trivia items above.
*The total years as no. 1 is not the same in each table, as those players entering the panels from outside (before 1942), do not get a length of time as being no. 1. For basketball the chart first begins in 1951 (together with the rating system?)
**Since the years as no. 1 has been roughly estimated from the charts (with a ruler) the sum total can also not be expected to fit with the first entry and today (and they miss with at least a couple of years each), as all years have been rounded to the nearest whole year.
*In the comments column, there is references to the relevant section in the explanation if there are any notes/references in the comic for the player. Also references are made to the trivia section for errors etc. Other comments are for special observations regarding said player.
**So use the comments if you have any interesting but short note to add for a given player.
**In case of longer info: If they are regarding the table, write them in bullets below the relevant table (and make a note on the players comments), or add it to the trivia section above.
**More general things or info on [[#Player inclusion criteria|players missing from the comic]] should be added to the explanation above.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Dominant players in Basketball (NBA/ABA)
!Player name
!x if Red
!x if no. 1
!Years as no. 1
!Best placement
!Comments
|-
|{{w|George Mikan}}||x||x||3||1||His path begins in 1951 where the chart begins
|-
|{{w|Bob Pettit}}||x||x||5||1||
|-
|{{w|Neil Johnston }}||||||0||2||His path begins in 1951 where the chart begins. [[#Trivia|Name misspelled]] in comic
|-
|{{w|Elgin Baylor}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w| Wilt Chamberlain}}||x||x||11||1||[[#Basketball|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Jerry West}}||||||0||2||[[#Basketball|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Kareem Abdul-Jabbar}}||x||x||10||1||[[#Basketball|There is a note]]. Also the [[#Trivia|hyphen has been left out]] in the comic
|-
|{{w|Bob McAdoo}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|Julius Erving}}||||x||1||1||[[#Trivia|Name misspelled]] in comic
|-
|{{w|Moses Malone}}||||x||3||1||
|-
|{{w|Magic Johnson}}||||||0||2||[[#Basketball|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Michael Jordan}}||x||x||8||1||[[#Basketball|There are three notes]]
|-
|{{w|Larry Bird}}||||x||2||1||
|-
|{{w|Karl Malone}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|David Robinson (basketball)|David Robinson}}||||x||4||1||
|-
|{{w|Shaquille O'Neal}}||x||x||6||1||
|-
|{{w|Kevin Garnett}}||||x||2||1||
|-
|{{w|LeBron James}}||x||x||8||1||[[#Basketball|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Dwyane Wade}}||||x||1||1||
|-
|{{w|Kevin Durant}}||||x||1||1||He became no 1 in 2013 and still is
|-
|20 players - Total: ||7||14||65||1-2||
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Chess
!Player name
!x if Red
!x if no. 1
!Years as no. 1
!Best placement
!Comments
|-
|{{w|José Capablanca}}||||x||||1||[[#Chess|There is a note]]. He is outside the panel
|-
|{{w|Alexander Alekhine}}||x||x||||1||Path begins outside panel and ends in a starburst
|-
|{{w|Mikhail Botvinnik}}||x||x||17||1||No 1 over two separate periods
|-
|{{w|Tigran Petrosian}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|David Bronstein}}||||x||2||1||
|-
|{{w|Mikhail Tal}}||||x||4||1||Name written twice on the path
|-
|{{w|Bobby Fischer}}||x||x||8||1||[[#Chess|There are two notes]] in connection with three starbursts
|-
|{{w|Boris Spassky}}||||||0||2||Name written twice on the path
|-
|{{w|Victor Korchnoi}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|Anatoly Karpov}}||x||x||11||1||
|-
|{{w|Garry Kasparov}}||x||x||23||1||[[#Chess|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Judit Polgar}}||||||0||3||[[#Chess|There is a note]]. Only woman in this chart.
|-
|{{w|Vladimir Kramnik}}||||x||2||1||
|-
|{{w|Levon Aronian}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|Magnus Carlsen}}||x||x||6||1||He became no 1 in 2008 and still is
|-
|15 players - Total: ||6||10||73||1-3||Only with a 3rd place as the best is Judit from the women's chart
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Chess (women)
!Player name
!x if Red
!x if no. 1
!Years as no. 1
!Best placement
!Comments
|-
|{{w|Vera Menchik}}||x||x||||1||[[#Chess (women)|There is a note]]. Path begins outside panel and ends in a starburst. Note that she is also mentioned in the title text.
|-
|{{w|Sonja Graf}}||||x||13||1||[[#Chess (women)|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Olga Rubtsova}}||||x||1||1||
|-
|{{w|Elisaveta Bykova}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|Kira Zvorykina}}||||||0||3||[[#Chess (women)|There are two notes]], see also [[#Trivia|Trivia]]
|-
|{{w|Alexandra Nicolau}}||||||0||3||
|-
|{{w|Nona Gaprindashvili}}||x||x||19||1||
|-
|{{w|Alla Kushnir}}||||||0||2||
|-
|{{w|Maia Chiburdanidze}}||x||x||9||1||
|-
|{{w|Pia Cramling}}||||||0||2||Name written twice on the path
|-
|{{w|Xie Jun}}||||||0||2||Name written twice on the path
|-
|{{w|Susan Polgar}}||||||0||2||[[#Chess (women)|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Sofia Polgar}}||||||0||4||[[#Chess (women)|There is a note]]
|-
|{{w|Judit Polgar}}||x||x||26||1||[[#Chess (women)|There are three notes]]. She became no 1 in 1989 and still is
|-
|{{w|Antoaneta Stefanova}}||||||0||3||
|-
|{{w|Anna Muzychuk}}||||||0||4||
|-
|{{w|Humpy Koneru}}||||||0||2||[[#Trivia|Alternate version of name]] used in comic
|-
|{{w|Hou Yifan}}||||||0||2||
|-
|18 players - Total: ||4||6||68||1-4||One no. 4 is a sister the other is still active
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2629: Or Whatever

2022-06-07T13:36:18Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */ 1. its in chicago, US. 2. randall is american

{{comic
| number = 2629
| date = June 6, 2022
| title = Or Whatever
| image = or_whatever.png
| titletext = Oh yeah, I didn't even know they renamed it the Willis Tower in 2009, because I know a normal amount about skyscrapers.
}}

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

The {{w|Willis Tower}} (formerly the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 442.1 meter skyscraper in Chicago. It is currently the third tallest building in North America, and was indeed the tallest building in the world for 25 years, surpassing the {{w|World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Centre}} upon opening in 1973, and being surpassed by the Petronas Towers upon their opening in 1998.

[[White Hat]] conveys some interesting historical trivia to [[Cueball]], regarding the {{w|Sears Tower}}. Cueball seems unable to stop himself from one-upping with what ''he'' knows about tall structures in general. This could also be the nerdy impulse to share cool information with the world.

This reply gives additional information that slightly invalidates White Hat's contribution. He seems to realise this (and not for the first time), so tags on the meaningless caveat of "or whatever".

This is meant to diffuse the tension he may have added by his well-meaning contradiction, but could also be taken as a passive-aggressive behaviour by interlocutors who may already be touchy about the original 'correction'.

Being already self-conscious that he has overstepped the mark for polite smalltalk, he then hypercorrects the self-perceived tone of his response by explicitly denying that he knows far more about the tower, but only by providing the very facts that he is trying to claim not to know.

This comic hinges on the debate around the tallest structure vs tallest building[https://www.engineersupply.com/What-is-the-difference-between-building-and-construction.aspx]. A {{w|building}} is generlly defined as a human-built structure fit for human habitation when it is fit for human habitation, while a {{w|structure}} is generally defined as anything humans make. (Or in some cases, anything an animal makes, like [[2418: Metacarcinization|crab shells.]])

There have beem multipe times where the tallest building (habitable) has been shorter than the tallest structure (Uninhabitable), such as in 1974 when the tallest structure was the {{w|warsaw radio mast}} at 646.38 meters. The radio mast was uninhabitable {{Citation needed}}, so the tallest building was (Sort-of coincidentally) the Sears Tower at 442.1 meters. The Warsaw tower collapsed in 1991, so it was not the tallest structure for the majority of the 90s.

{{w|List of tallest structures|This wikipedia list}} lists the tallest structures, and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkMWb_8IiB4 this YouTube video] explains a bit more about tall buildings/structures.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and White Hat looking out on a skyline.]
:White Hat: You know, back in the 90s, the Sears Tower was the world's tallest tower.
:Cueball: Yeah! Or "building". The CN Tower and the KVLY-TV Antenna were taller, but the CN Tower isn't always considered a building and the antenna is supported by guy wires or whatever.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Whenever I get self-conscious about how obsessive I sound about some random topic, I panic and tack on "or whatever".

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

2628: Motion Blur

2022-06-04T00:32:39Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */ Started explanation

{{comic
| number = 2628
| date = June 3, 2022
| title = Motion Blur
| image = motion_blur.png
| titletext = I can't speak for your other subjects, but MY motion was as smooth and natural as the framerate allowed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a bBboOotTt - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[White Hat]] is taking a panning photograph, where the camera rotates. This would cause the objects in the picture to appear blurry because they are moving with respect to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_reference_frame the camera's reference frame], at least with with White Hat's camera settings. [[Cueball]] intends to move quickly as White Hat pans in the same direction as the camera is rotating in in order to not be blurry in White Hat's photo, but this backfires because technological advancements have made smartphones compensate for past panning, so Cueball ends up being the only blurry person in the photograph.

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

[A strip of three panels. All panels feature White hat, Cueball and Ponytail. Cueball and Ponytail stand next to each other and White hat stands in front of them.]

[First panel]

[White hat is turned away from Cueball and Ponytail, and holds a camera.]

[White hat:]
Okay, I'm going to pan around.

[Cueball:]
No, wait, your shutter speed is too fast, it will look choppy if—

[Second panel]

[White Hat is turning towards Cueball and Ponytail, now pointing the camera away from the viewer. Cueball clenches his fists and hunches his shoulders.]

[Cueball:]
''Hnnnnngh''

[Third panel]

[White Hat is now facing Cueball and Ponytail. Cueball now appears blurry while the others appear similar as to in previous panels.]

[Caption below strip:]
Expert photographs can learn to generate their own motion blur to compensate for other people's bad camera settings.
{{comic discussion}}

2624: Voyager Wires

2022-05-30T01:44:49Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2624
| date = May 25, 2022
| title = Voyager Wires
| image = voyager_wires.png
| titletext = Also, they're getting increasingly worried that someone will accidentally hit the 'retract' button, and that the end of the cable thrashing around as it winds up could devastate the Earth's surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WIRE CUT BECAUSE OF BUDG- are you there houston? it's me v----ger, you'll never guess what I found! Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic claims that the {{w|Voyager program|Voyager probe}}s communicate with NASA though ridiculously long copper wires. These wires would have to be continuously lengthened as the probes travel away from Earth. Supposedly, because of "high copper prices and budget constraints," they may not be able to afford to lengthen the wires much longer. If this occurred, they would have to either cut the wires or let them break, which would prevent any further communication with the probes. In reality [https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/ they use radio waves], not long copper wires, so this will not actually happen.

If copper wires were dragged by the Voyager probes, assuming a 1mm² thick cable, 550 tons of copper would be needed per hour and it would add 1 million Ohm per hour to the cable resistance. At [https://www.moneymetals.com/copper-prices $8,560/ton], this would cost $41 billion dollars/year, which would be nearly twice [https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasas-fy-2022-budget NASA's entire annual budget].

The resulting wire would slow down the probes by drag, but be perfect space elevators for lightweight spacecraft.
Since the Earth spins, the wires would also spool around the Earth, slowing the probes down even further. Clearly, this is not a good idea.{{Citation needed}} This problem might be avoided if the wires reached earth at one of the poles. Or perhaps they could go to an airplane that flies around earth at exactly 15 degrees of longitude per hour, with periodic air-to-air refueling, so that it is always on the side of the earth facing the probe.

Because the Voyager probes aren't in the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun, the Earth would not, in its rotation around the sun, drag these copper wires through the sun. If it did, the wires would melt.

The title text references the phenomenon seen with self-retracting cables, such as are commonly found on vacuum cleaners, where the free end of the cable, where the plug is, oscillates more and more wildly as the cable approaches full retraction, leading to the danger of a painful rap on the hand if it is not withdrawn in time. A planet-sized impact of this kind could cause severe damage.

A few days before this comic was released, [https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=124 NASA had reported] receiving corrupted altitude data from the Voyager 1 probe. The fact that they are receiving any data at all means that the altitude control system must be working (or else the antenna would not point at Earth), but they continue to investigate how that data could be corrupted after that point.

;Spoiler alert
The consequence of a cable between a craft in space and a planetary location being suddenly retracted was recently imagined in the first episode of the Apple TV+ series ''{{w|Foundation (TV series)|Foundation}}'', wherein a {{w|space elevator}} tether was severed. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huRmvG3zRpg It didn't end well for anyone other than the terrorists] who won the freedom of thousands of inhabited worlds which had formerly suffered under the jackbooted oppression of {{w|Trantor}}'s fascist galactic Empire regime.

==Transcript==
:[In the bottom right corner is a space probe, with large satellite dish and long antenna. Behind it runs a long wire, that makes three loops before it is connected to North America on the Earth in the top left corner. To the left of the Earth there is a second wire, which goes off-panel to the left.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Sad news: Due to high copper prices and budget constraints, NASA may finally have to cut the wires that they've been spooling out to communicate with Voyager 1 and 2.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

2624: Voyager Wires

2022-05-30T01:43:50Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */ typo

{{comic
| number = 2624
| date = May 25, 2022
| title = Voyager Wires
| image = voyager_wires.png
| titletext = Also, they're getting increasingly worried that someone will accidentally hit the 'retract' button, and that the end of the cable thrashing around as it winds up could devastate the Earth's surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WIRE CUT BECAUSE OF BUDG- are you there houston? it's me v----ger, you'll never guess what I found! Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic claims that the {{w|Voyager program|Voyager probe}}s communicate with NASA though ridiculously long copper wires. These wires would have to be continuously lengthened as the probes travel away from Earth. Supposedly, because of "high copper prices and budget constraints," they may not be able to afford to lengthen the wires much longer. If this occurred, they would have to either cut the wires or let them break, which would prevent any further communication with the probes. In reality [https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/ they use radio waves], not long copper wires, so this will not actually happen.

If copper wires were dragged by the Voyager probes, assuming a 1mm² thick cable, 550 tons of copper would be needed per hour and it would add 1 million Ohm per hour to the cable resistance. At [https://www.moneymetals.com/copper-prices $8,560/ton], this would cost $41 billion dollars/year, which would be nearly twice [https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasas-fy-2022-budget NASA's entire annual budget].

The resulting wire would slow down the probes by drag, but be perfect space elevators for lightweight spacecraft.
Since the Earth spins, the wires would also spool around the Earth, slowing the probes down even further. Clearly, this is not a good idea.{{Citation needed}} This problem might be avoided if the wires reached earth at one of the poles. Or perhaps they could go to an airplane that flies around earth at exactly 15 degrees of longitude per hour, with periodic air-to-air refueling, so that it is always on the side of the earth facing the probe.

Because the Voyager probes aren't in the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun, the Earth would not, in its rotation around the sun, drag these copper wires through the sun. If it did, the wires would melt.

The title text references the phenomenon seen with self-retracting cables, such as are commonly found on vacuum cleaners, where the free end of the cable, where the plug is, oscillates more and more wildly as the cable approaches full retraction, leading to the danger of a painful rap on the hand if it is not withdrawn in time. A planet-sized impact of this kind could cause severe damage.

A few days before this comic was released, [https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=124 NASA had reported] receiving corrupted attitude data from the Voyager 1 probe. The fact that they are receiving any data at all means that the altitude control system must be working (or else the antenna would not point at Earth), but they continue to investigate how that data could be corrupted after that point.

;Spoiler alert
The consequence of a cable between a craft in space and a planetary location being suddenly retracted was recently imagined in the first episode of the Apple TV+ series ''{{w|Foundation (TV series)|Foundation}}'', wherein a {{w|space elevator}} tether was severed. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huRmvG3zRpg It didn't end well for anyone other than the terrorists] who won the freedom of thousands of inhabited worlds which had formerly suffered under the jackbooted oppression of {{w|Trantor}}'s fascist galactic Empire regime.

==Transcript==
:[In the bottom right corner is a space probe, with large satellite dish and long antenna. Behind it runs a long wire, that makes three loops before it is connected to North America on the Earth in the top left corner. To the left of the Earth there is a second wire, which goes off-panel to the left.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Sad news: Due to high copper prices and budget constraints, NASA may finally have to cut the wires that they've been spooling out to communicate with Voyager 1 and 2.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

Talk:2625: Field Topology

2022-05-27T12:58:06Z

172.69.68.88:

First [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 12:50, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Why is football on the two-hole field? Where are the holes? I don't think the goal posts in American football introduce any since they're not closed. Maybe it's soccer? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.88|172.69.68.88]] 12:58, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2625: Field Topology

2022-05-27T12:57:19Z

172.69.68.88: Why is football on the two-hole field?

First [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 12:50, 27 May 2022 (UTC)
Why is football on the two-hole field? Where are the holes? I don't think the goal posts in American football introduce any since they're not closed. Maybe it's soccer?

Talk:2622: Angular Diameter Turnaround

2022-05-24T23:55:10Z

172.69.68.88:

Slightly creepy, NGL[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.10|172.69.34.10]]
: Warning, horrible content: The universe was created by the severed bloody hands of google employees convincing phone manufacturers to ditch the previous phone backends and explode the google play store throughout reality in a mess of intergalactic gore. Our planet developed from an angrybirds download, nourished by the decaying corpse of the owner who played it all their life. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.209|172.70.110.209]] 20:37, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

So apparently this is a real thing, which I never knew [[wikipedia:Angular_diameter_distance#Turnover_Point]] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.81|108.162.221.81]] 20:46, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Could be related to comic 1422, what with both containing expanding phones analogous to some cosmic structure. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:46, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
:[[1422]] has been crapped. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 21:50, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

So confusing…I thought that 13 billion years ago they had flip phones. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 22:32, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Before this explanation is marked “complete” it had better mention that “sinking into dilute blood” is a terrible (one could even say ignorant or stupid) description of red shift, completely missing the fundamental cause and completely distorting the effect. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.159|108.162.216.159]] 23:23, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
:Pretty sure that was just a description of its appearance? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 10:18, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
::Randall implies this was an analogy among people who knew the physical underpinnings well. But I agree that it, and the concept of mobile phones, are neither pleasant nor appropriate at all for the outer reaches of our universe. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 15:28, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
::I’m wondering if Randall read this and the next one, Goofs, is a subtle jab at commenters here who don’t understand similes. He doesn’t say it works like that. He says it LOOKS like that. There’s nothing unpleasant about blood. I find my own to be dear to me. And to claim it’s “inappropriate”, well, let’s just say I’m not gonna gatekeep but if you think a simile someone else shared with Randall, possibly and likely someone with the credentials to back it up, is “inappropriate” because you think blood is icky, perhaps you would consider showing yourself out?
:::It's also delicious in a black pudding. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.211|172.70.90.211]] 09:03, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
::Either way, whoever is on about “ as if the void beyond were hell” should remove that. Randall doesn’t imply anything about a void beyond (there isn’t one), nor hell (my body is full of blood but i lack any hell inside me).[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.198|162.158.107.198]] 20:41, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

;Congratulations, you won a brand new galaxy!
Your new galaxy will be delivered in only 3 billion years, to a drop-off point only 1 million light years from your home planet. With this cutting-edge protogalaxy, which will be mature upon delivery, you will find incredible features such as:
* supermassive black hole
* exotic space-faring lifeforms
* intriguing dense matter that does not emit radiation; you'll never have enough
* unique and enthralling galactic formations, each with ancient magical myths told in history by the space-faring lifeforms
* and the ability to grow brand new stars of your very own!
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.247|172.70.114.247]] 00:07, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

I assumed the reference was that very old cell phones (1990s etc.) were enormous - think carphones; technology allowed them to shrink (giving, say, the Nokia 8850 I owned in 1999 and the original smallish iPhone), and then recent phones have (on average) grown again as the benefits of a larger screen area have been seen to outweigh the convenience of a smaller device. Also older phones tended to have batteries that lasted longer, mostly because neither the screen nor the processor were pulling much power. It's not just that the original iPhone was smaller than current ones (nor, for some of us, does the original iPhone count as an "early cellphone"). Am I alone in this interpretation? The description (at time of writing) didn't seem to cover that.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.121|162.158.159.121]] 10:15, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
: Yes, early cell phones were huge, like the size of a suitcase (hence they were usually kept in a car and called a "carphone.") At first much of this was having a larger battery before they had the modern sort of rechargeable electronics, and then it took time to gradually be able to shrink the other required electronics, but then they kept making them smaller, to the point where people would joke about how small they would be in the future (like in the movie Zoolander he had a phone that was like an inch in size). However once smartphones came along that had a large screen and were used for a lot of things other than actual phone calls (and text messaging), people wanted larger screens, so they started increasing in size again, just to be able to make the screen larger, and also the increased functionality increased the battery drain and they thus needed more space for a bigger battery. However, all the phones pictured in the comic are modern design smartphones with the whole phone surface being a touchscreen, so it's questionable to apply that idea to the comic.--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.88|172.69.68.88]] 23:55, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

The phone model shown doesn't look that much like a Samsung Galaxy. More like an iPhone. Oh, well. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 15:50, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

I hope we'll be able to procure a charger for our galaxy before it runs out. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.249|141.101.105.249]] 15:52, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
:If it is sinking into a hellscape, it'll presumably require one of those cursed connecters. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.211|172.70.90.211]] 09:05, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

Isn't it just wonderful when your favorite comic strip teaches you something fundamental, important, and which you had no idea of prior to reading it. This is definitely one of XKCD's crowning glories (although, admittedly, not all that funny!). [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 15:18, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

;Hooray!
Something good is happening!!!!!! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.215|172.70.126.215]] 21:22, 20 May 2022 (UTC)
: No. It just means you can't get a date tonight. Again. (I presume you're the "crap"per, right? Eager to fill your own worthless life by making ''everybody else'' actually feel useful... How ironic.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.36|172.70.91.36]] 00:08, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
:: I thought it was just a visitor I worried I had badly depressed with my story of severed google hands, wanting to add positivity. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.112|162.158.79.112]] 00:21, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
: the "crap"er is a bot called "Explain xkcd server admin". -> https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:Explain_xkcd_server_admin/common.js [[User:Firestar233|Firestar233]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|talk]]) 00:11, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Yes, same (style) as the umpteen previous times. No imagination and rather boring.
:: Now I'm limited in what I can do (still, been reverting pages left right and centre, to hold my bit up) but the "Hooray!" commenter (as, I suspect, the one who 'wished the crap would happen again' the other day, or words to that effect) seems to be very much like someone's idea of taunting us, thus proving that he (if you'll excuse that assumption) can't get laid and for some reason they haven't discovered the more solo method of getting their rocks off, so he's rubbing up against us and trying to generate the satisfying feeling of friction in his groin.
:: (You know when your dog has a favourite stuffed toy? Like that.)
:: Pretty boring, really, for us. But small things amuse small minds. And maybe that's the reason why. Also having small... 'feet'. Too shy to show his 'feet' to girls. Can't earn enough to get 'feet' enlargement surgery. No personality either. Pity. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.211|172.70.85.211]] 02:43, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

;F0N3Z!!!
WH3R3 C4N 1 G37 7H15 M4NY F0N3Z? (jk, 1 41r34dy h4v3 4b0u7 31gh7 0f 7h3m) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.115|172.70.178.115]] 02:59, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

;The crap is spreading...
[https://esolangs.org/wiki/Special:RecentChanges The Esolang wiki is being crapped.] We aren't the only ones... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 18:11, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
:I imagine there'll be a esolong ''called'' "crap" becore too long (if there isn't already) with which a decrappifier can be written. Knowing the people who used to be in that field, anyway. Sort of whitespace/brainf*ck-inspired thing, probably.
:(Too late now, but I hope it's not because we kept archive copies of our scripts around for others to pick up, independently of the original idiot.)
:But this goes both ways. If they come up with a better answer to the problem, maybe we can get it working here too. I leave it to those in the know to perhaps keep half an eye on that, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.207|162.158.34.207]] 10:13, 22 May 2022 (UTC)
::Their solution seems to be "have an admin always monitoring the wiki." I got blocked pretty quickly. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 15:45, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

;Arab Soyjak and other site vandalism
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] is repeatedly changing the comic title to "Arab Soyjak" and the image to a picture of Osama bin Laden, and being awfully rude in the edit summaries; also has a history of vandalism along with various associated IP addresses - however also having made actual contributions to the wiki, etc etc, I haven't checked other IP addresses that are associated; [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]] is one of the pages that are currently vandalised </ramble> [[User:Bubblegum|bubblegum]]-[[User_talk:Bubblegum|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Bubblegum|contribs]] 02:56, 22 May 2022 (UTC)
:I have blocked the IP address. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:30, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
::Please don't block IP addresses here. Unlike most wikis, the reverse proxy on this one basically randomizes them, so the blocks don't necessarily stop the vandal and often do affect non-vandals. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 17:04, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

; Red shifted objects...
...would not necessarily look red to the human eye. A light source that peaks in the ultraviolet or x-rays would turn blue when that objects light gets lowered into the visible spectrum. The real meaning of "red shift" is what happens to spectral lines. [[User:Algr|Algr]] ([[User talk:Algr|talk]]) 15:44, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

I'm very confused as to why one would use the iPhone 1 as an example of a very old, but very memorable phone, rather than the Nokia 1100
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.23.82|162.158.23.82]] 15:54, 23 May 2022 (UTC) Tomas

;Date of comic
The day before this comic was released, NASA released a [https://newatlas.com/space/hubble-constant-most-precise-universe-expansion/ huge new report] that astronomers are calling Hubble’s magnum opus. Analyzing 30 years of data from the famous space telescope, the new study makes the most precise measurement yet of how fast the universe is expanding. [[User:WhiteDragon|WhiteDragon]] ([[User talk:WhiteDragon|talk]]) 18:42, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

1316: Inexplicable

2022-05-16T23:26:56Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 269610 by The author of xkcd (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1316
| date = January 13, 2014
| title = Inexplicable
| image = inexplicable.png
| titletext = 'It has a ghost in it. Take it back.' 'No.'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]]'s laptop has a problem that has resisted many hours of concentrated effort at resolution. [[Megan]] offers to help, but after trying to fix it she concludes that the laptop is “literally” possessed by an evil spirit.

A similarly unresolvable problem can be seen in [[1084: Server Problem]]. In that case, no haunting is suggested, and Megan suggests that Cueball give up and wait for {{w|Technological singularity|the singularity}}.

The title text continues the conversation: when Megan tries to return the laptop to Cueball, he refuses, as Megan willingly took possession of it in the first place. Both have clearly decided that they no longer want anything to do with an object housing a supernatural entity, and are trying to pass it back to one another.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk with a laptop, making a fist at it.]
:Cueball: ''Argh!''
:Megan (off-screen): What?
:Cueball: Why do I always have these inexplicable, impossible-to-diagnose computer problems?

:[Megan walks up to the desk.]
:Cueball: After six hours of this, I've concluded nothing works or makes sense. I give up on logic.
:Megan: *sigh* Gimme. I'll figure it out.
:Cueball: You won't.

:[Cueball sits at his laptopless desk while Megan works on the laptop off-screen.]
:''type type''
:''Click''
:Megan: ?
:''type type type''
:Megan: ???

:[Megan is back in front of the desk, clutching the laptop.]
:Cueball: How'd it go?
:Megan: Your computer is literally haunted.
:Cueball: ''Told'' you.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

36: Scientists

2022-05-11T22:17:07Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 36
| date =  2006
| title = Scientists
| image = scientists.jpg
| titletext = A leading expert characterized the situation as 'retarded'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic plays on the type of statement that news reports often use: "in what [group of experts] are calling '[quote]'," to add more weight and credibility to their stories. In this case, [[Cueball]] is using the phrase to attempt to add gravitas to the (relatively mundane) fact that his shoes are missing and he thinks it's "pretty gay" by assigning this opinion to scientists (rather than it being, presumably, his friend's or his own opinion). The same joke is at play in the image text where a leading expert thinks the situation is "retarded."

There may be a second level to the joke: Randall was still working for NASA at the time the comic was posted, so his friends at that time would presumably include scientists and "leading experts." If his friends made fun of him for not being able to find his shoes, it would therefore be accurate to say that scientists had made those statements. However, since their being scientists is irrelevant to the legitimacy of their opinions about Randall's shoe problems, presenting their teasing as an expert opinion is humorously misleading; a similar joke is at play in [[1206: Einstein]].

The phrases "pretty gay" and "retarded" are infantile and offensive slang for "foolish" or "contemptible," and so they are the opposite type of speech expected of experts on news reports. (These terms were not generally considered more than mildly offensive by most of the public at the time this comic was posted; the cultural mainstream is now typically much more critical of this type of language, and this comic would likely be heavily criticized if it were published today.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is staring at an empty box on the floor.]
:Cueball: In what scientists are calling "pretty gay", I can't find my shoes.

==Trivia==
*This comic was never posted on [[LiveJournal]].
**But its "comic number" was still among the 44 comics that was posted on the day the xkcd web site opened (1st of January 2006).
**41 one of these were previously posted on LiveJournal; only three were not.
**The other two are [[5: Blown apart]] and [[12: Poisson]].
*However, comic #36 was originally posted as a duplicate of comic [[10: Pi Equals]]. This was corrected sometime between [http://web.archive.org/web/20060423175703/http://www.xkcd.com/c36.html April 23, 2006] and [http://web.archive.org/web/20060705231511/http://xkcd.com/c36.html July 5, 2006], when the current version showed up in the web archive (see the links).
**The comic looks like one of Randall's old drawings. So when he realized his mistake (over three months after it was originally posted), he probably found an old drawing he never originally intended to use and posted it, to not make it stand out compared to the other comics from that time.
**This is the reason there is no date for this comic. It can be anytime between the two dates mentioned above.

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:No date]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]

2453: Excel Lambda

2022-05-11T18:39:45Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 266681 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2453
| date = April 21, 2021
| title = Excel Lambda
| image = excel_lambda_new.png
| titletext = Extremely rude how Turing's later formulations of the halting problem called me out by name specifically.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is computing and [[Ponytail]] criticizes him in a way that is reminiscent of the [[:Category:Code Quality|Code Quality series]], although not as harsh. Cueball has lots of strange [[:Category:Cueball Computer Problems|computer problems]], and this will most likely result in another one.

The comic begins with Ponytail finding out that {{w|Microsoft Excel}} is adding a {{w|Anonymous_function|lambda function}} to their function library. This was [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-lambda-turn-excel-formulas-into-custom-functions/ba-p/1925546 announced by Microsoft] for Beta users in December of 2020. A lambda function is a fundamental mathematical structure that can be used to define all possible computations, in what is known as {{w|lambda calculus}}. They are commonly found in programming languages such as {{w|Lisp}}, {{w|Python}}, and many others. A lambda function is also called an {{w|anonymous function}} because in most languages it can be passed to other functions (including another lambda function) without needing to be given any formal name.

Finding that Excel is adding a lambda function pleases Ponytail. Cueball claims that the lambda function is unnecessary, as when he needs arbitrary computation he just adds a block of columns to the side of his sheet and has a {{w|Turing machine}} process it. This would technically work as lambda calculus is formally equivalent to Turing machines. People have created [https://www.felienne.com/archives/2974 Turing machines in Excel], although not for practical purposes.

Ponytail finds his solution absurd and is convinced Cueball is "doing computing wrong". But he claims that all computing is equally wrong, citing the {{w|Church-Turing thesis}}, a hypothesis which says that a function can be computed by executing a series of instructions if and only if that function is computable by a Turing machine. A classical Turing machine uses an infinitely long strip of tape as its memory; for Cueball, the large Excel column acts as the "tape". All ways of computing are "equally wrong" since, according to this thesis, they can all be translated to or from a Turing machine.

Ponytail and Cueball appear to have different ideas of 'computing'. Ponytail, like most programmers, probably includes efficiency and readability as important characteristics of 'doing computing right'. Cueball appears interested only in {{w|computability}}, a more theoretical point of view than Ponytail's.

Ponytail then says that Turing would change his mind if he saw Cueball's spreadsheet, presumably because of the extreme complexity of Cueball's code in the spreadsheet. Cueball's final statement is that Turing could ask him to stop, but would not be able to prove if he actually will stop.

Cueball's final statement is a reference to the {{w|halting problem}} mentioned in the title text. It is the problem of determining whether a given Turing machine will halt. The problem has been shown to be undecidable, i.e., it is impossible to build an algorithm that computes whether any arbitrary Turing machine will halt or not. Because of the way Cueball has behaved, he has been specifically mentioned in Turing's later formulations of the halting problem. Cueball finds this very rude. This is of course a joke, since Turing has been dead since 1954, presumably long before Cueball was born. But it would be crazy indeed if a scientist became so mad at a person that they would mention this person by name in their formulation of a serious problem.

Over-complicated spreadsheets were also mentioned in [[2180: Spreadsheets]].

==Transcript==
:[In a narrow panel, Ponytail is walking in from the left, looking down at her phone]
:Ponytail: Oh cool, Excel is adding a lambda function, so you can recursively define functions.

:[Ponytail, holding her phone to her side stands behind Cueball, who is sitting in an office chair with a hand on a laptop standing on his desk. He has turned around to face her, leaning with the other arm on the back of the chair.]
:Cueball: Seems unnecessary.
:Cueball: When I need to do arbitrary computation, I just add a giant block of columns to the side of my sheet and have a Turing machine traverse down it.

:[In a frame-less panel Ponytail is standing in he same position behind Cueball, who has resumed working on his laptop with both hands on the keyboard.]
:Ponytail: I think you're doing computing wrong.
:Cueball: The Church-Turing thesis says that all ways of computing are '''''equally''''' wrong.

:[Ponytail is still behind Cueball, who has a finger raised in the air, and the other hand is on the desk. Cueball's head has a visible sketch layer which has not been erased.]
:Ponytail: I think if Turing saw '''''your''''' spreadsheets, he'd change his mind.
:Cueball: He can ask me to stop making them, but not prove whether I will!

==Trivia==
*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3b/excel_lambda.png original version] of the comic, in the final panel, there was a gray pencil outline, slightly different to Cueball's head that had not been removed.
**This was later fixed in a re-upload.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Spreadsheets]]
[[Category:Programming]]

1183: Rose Petals

2022-05-11T18:37:04Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 265617 by 👖🔥 (talk)

↑{{comic
| number = 1183
| date = March 8, 2013
| title = Rose Petals
| image = rose petals.png
| titletext = Joke's on you--the Roomba and I had a LOVELY evening.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic strip is playing with romantic movies and gestures used in them. In such movies, one often used romantic gesture is {{tvtropes|FlowersOfRomance|spreading rose petals in the house or apartment}}, making a way towards the bedroom in which a romantic interest/lover is waiting surrounded by roses for a love-making session. The joke is that these petals don't lead from the front door to the bedroom and [[Cueball]]'s lover, but in the opposite direction instead from the bedroom out onto the street. It appears that someone has set up a box of rose petals and an electric fan atop a {{w|Roomba}} (an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner) as a method of automatically creating such a trail. The title text suggests that despite the other party's intentions of setting this up as a joke to trick Cueball, Cueball ended up having a lovely time with the Roomba.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball enters a living room, to see a line of red rose petals on the floor.]
:[Cueball follows the line of rose petals.]
:[Cueball observes that the line of rose petals leads out the front door, down the driveway, and along the sidewalk.]
:[The rose petals leads up to a table fan behind what appears to be an inverted mailbox filled with rose petals with its back removed. Both are sitting on a Roomba which is motoring down the sidewalk. The fan is on, and is blowing the rose petals out the slit in the front of the mailbox. The contraption is making a sound and the Roomba has its brand written on it]
:Whirrrrrr
:Roomba

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Roomba]]

954: Chin-Up Bar

2022-05-11T18:03:52Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 266109 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 954
| date = September 21, 2011
| title = Chin-Up Bar
| image = chin up bar.png
| titletext = Those few who escaped found the emergency cutoff box disabled. The stampede lasted two hours and reached the bottom three times.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] has once again showed everyone that he is a [[classhole]], with a plan to block traffic on the {{w|Escalator#Longest individual escalators|longest single-tier escalator}} in the Western hemisphere. At the time of the comic's publishing, that placed the comic in the {{w|Wheaton (WMATA station)|Wheaton station}} in {{w|Washington D.C.}}'s {{w|Washington Metro}} subway system, where the 70-meter (230-foot) escalator is. It's clear that Black Hat knows it is the longest and that this is the reason he has chosen this exact escalator for his plan.

Black Hat carries a {{w|chin-up bar}} over his shoulder up the escalator, resulting in a conversation with [[Cueball]], riding up behind him, about Black Hat's motives for doing such. Black Hat uses sly conversing methods to avoid saying his true motives. First he counters the question with another question: ''Why aren't you wearing a hat?'' Cueball's reply is a normal ''I'm not really a hat person'', whereas Black Hat's copy reply is not a real answer; ''I'm not really a not-carrying-a-chin-up-bar person'', which is probably a sentence never used before this comic.{{Citation needed}} It takes Cueball a second to process this answer, but he doesn't give up and asks why again. Black Hat continues deflecting his questions by stating that he's ''not a psychologist'', although he clearly is aware of his own motives and intentions. (One could argue that it would take a psychology degree to explain those motives and intentions.)

After this they reach the top and once they get off Black Hat quickly turns around and locks the bar in place at about waist height (i.e. as high up as possible on an escalator), just before the moving part of the escalator ends.

Chin-up bars are typically capable of holding up a 300 pound (130 kg) person without moving, and a bar like Black Hat has brought with him can be [https://www.amazon.com/Sunny-Health-Fitness-Door-Chin/dp/B0016BNDXI/ref=sr_1_6?s=sports-and-fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1470541509&sr=1-6&keywords=chin+up+bar installed easily in a doorway], or in the opening of an escalator…

The unexpected appearance of a solidly attached bar at the top of a crowded escalator could be disastrous. The first people would probably stumble backward to avoid it or hit it and topple backwards, and collide with the passengers immediately behind them, knocking them off their feet and likely creating a {{w|domino effect}} all the way down. Indeed, this is exactly what happens and is depicted in the last panel. Black Hat and Cueball are seen on the descending escalator in the background, Cueball has turned around looking at the scene and displaying worry about what Black Hat has done, but Black Hat isn't even looking at the chaos he has caused, completely ignoring all the falling bodies. Although it might be possible, the two are fairly lucky to be unscathed, as they could have been hit by someone in the pileup falling all the way over in their side of the escalator. Since they are most likely on the way down to a subway, the traffic should make it easy for them to get away on the next train, before anyone has a chance to try and find the perpetrator, so Black Hat gets away with his schemes once again.

In the title text it is made clear that the few people that actually escaped the moving stairs were unable to use the emergency shutdown because Black Hat had disabled the system, presumably before ascending in the first place. This is stated to have caused the {{w|stampede}} to last for two hours and waves of falling people would end up reaching the bottom three times, before ascending with the stairs again. The reason for this extended mayhem could be that only the very first people at the top of this domino effect who actually hit the chin-up-bar know what caused the problem to begin with. Since they are likely among those people too hurt to explain anything in time, the next group of people trying to get out after the first wave of falling people might just proceed to run into the same problem at the top once again. The problem is exacerbated by the disabled shutoff, so even if someone sees the chin-up-bar and knows how to escape, they would either be pulled back into the crowd of traffic or be free but unable to help. This helps to explain why the cycle of crowd collapse happened three times, and the use of the word "stampede" connotes the panicked, unorganized behavior of the trapped people that serves to make the problem worse.

Alternately, the stampede reaching the bottom might suggest that the people traversed the entire length of the escalator, though this is not sufficiently wide enough for a human body.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is in the middle of on an escalator with five other people as it ascends. He carries something like a a pole.]

:[Zoom in on Black Hat and Cueball.]
:Cueball: This is a long escalator.
:Black Hat: 70 meters. Longest in the country.

:[Black Hat goes upwards holding his pole.]

:[Cueball is still behind Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Why're you carrying a chin-up bar?
:Black Hat: Why aren't you wearing a hat?

:[The view returns to the original view only showing the six people ascending, only shifted so they are all a bit longer to the right.]
:Cueball: I'm not really a hat person.
:Black Hat: And I'm not really a not-carrying-a-chin-up-bar person.

:[Close up on Cueball on the escalator.]

:[Zoom out. Black Hat still has the pole in his hands.]
:Cueball: Seriously, why did you bring it?
:Black Hat: How should I know? I'm not a psychologist.

:[Zoom in on the top of the escalator where Black Hat steps off and installs the chin-up bar on the exit of the escalator.]
:''Twist'' ''Click'' ''Click''

:[View from above towards both ascending and descending escalators. Black Hat and Cueball are on the descending escalator.]

:[The final panel takes up two entire rows and shows all people falling down.]

==Trivia==
It would appear that the man behind Cueball with glasses and a goatee is the psychologist from [[435: Purity]], and then Megan next to him could be the sociologist from the same comic. This gives new meaning to Black Hat's line about not being a psychologist.

Escalators were also the subject of the earlier comic [[252: Escalators]], a rather more funny take on these dangerous devices.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Sabotage]]

2147: Appendicitis

2022-05-11T18:03:33Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 266156 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2147
| date = May 8, 2019
| title = Appendicitis
| image = appendicitis.png
| titletext = Fortunately, after a brief skirmish, I seem to have gained the upper hand in the battle against my internal organs, at least until they learn to read and find out the mean stuff I've said about them.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], representing [[Randall]], is visiting [[Ponytail#Doctor_Ponytail|Doctor Ponytail]], this time to diagnose some medical condition. From her description, ''zapped you with energy beams'', it sounds like they just took an {{w|Projectional radiography|x-ray image}}, maybe in the form of a {{w|CT scan}}, and Ponytail is following up on the results. It appears that he may have {{w|appendicitis}}, the title of the comic, which could be treated through {{w|antibiotics}}, or through an {{w|appendectomy}} surgery.

As is typical for Doctor Ponytail, she characterizes the diagnosis in a strange and not-entirely-helpful way, in this case likening Cueball's inflamed appendix to a social uprising or rebellion. In some ways, this is not a bad metaphor - Cueball is an organism, and as such, functions best when all of his organic parts are working correctly in unison. People often express the similar sentiment of being "betrayed by their own body" to describe a biological function that isn't working right. However, Doctor Ponytail insists on talking ''only'' in metaphor, preventing Cueball from getting any useful medical detail about his condition.

Antibiotic treatment is described as using "chemical / biological weapons", while the appendectomy is described as "victory through the sword". She further describes more extreme "battle tactics", like crushing all other rebellions in his body. Lastly, she mentions "salting his abdomen" to prevent other rebellions. This is a reference to the {{w|salting the earth}} tactic in battle, which was a ritual to symbolize a curse on a conquered city and would have theoretically hindered future crop production, thus preventing that city from being rebuilt. It is likely that the medical usage would be the application of saline solution, salt in water, which is used for cleaning wounds.

After all this explanation, Cueball begins to question Ponytail's methods, and requests to see a different doctor to get a {{w|Second_opinion#Medicine|second opinion}}.

The title text appears to be [[Randall]] speaking directly to the reader addressing a recent appendicitis and his current health state. He continues the comic's joke with a meta reference pondering the repercussions if his organs subsequently discover this comic. The title text of [[2508: Circumappendiceal Somectomy]], from August 2021, seems to indicate that while antibiotics may have cured this event, a later infection required surgery anyway, a bit more than two years after this comic was released.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is seated on an medical examination table, clutching his stomach, while Ponytail stands dressed in a doctor's coat holding a file on a clipboard in her left hand.]
:Ponytail: Well, we zapped you with energy beams, and it looks like one of your stupid organs is a traitor.
:Cueball: ...which one?
:Ponytail: I dunno, appendix? Gallbladder? One of the little ones that sucks.
:Cueball: What should I do?

:[Closeup on Ponytail. She holds her left hand in a clenched fist.]
:Ponytail: You could quash the revolt with the ruthless deployment of chemical and biological weapons.
:Cueball (off-screen): ...antibiotics?
:Ponytail: But certain victory comes only through ''the sword''.
:Cueball (off-screen): Surgery.

:[Closeup on Ponytail with her fists raised.]
:Ponytail: While we're inside, we'll look around-if we see any signs of insurrection elsewhere, we will not hesitate to act. There can be no armistice. Your parts must fall in line or be crushed.
:Cueball (off-screen): Um.

:[Zoom out again to the entire scene. Ponytail points her left hand up.]
:Ponytail: When the battle is won, we will salt your abdomen so no new organs can ever sprout up to trouble you again.
:Cueball: Maybe I should get a second opinion.
:Ponytail: Only if you care what a ''weaker'' doctor would say.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Doctor Ponytail]]
[[Category:Medicine]]

2616: Deep End

2022-05-09T12:33:56Z

172.69.68.88: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2616
| date = May 6, 2022
| title = Deep End
| image = deep_end.png
| titletext = Hey! No running in the back-arc basin!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This article needs additional citations for verification. Unsourced articles may be given an espresso and a free lolcat. The transcript has been reformatted but needs extra description. - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Pools, like oceans, contain water.{{Citation needed}} This comic produces a schematic for the former, derived from science about the latter. On Earth, the surface consists of tectonic plates which move around. In this comic, [[Randall]] equates swimming pools with {{w|plate tectonics}}, to explain how deep ends form in said pools. In actuality, swimming pools aren't really formed by plate tectonics.{{Citation needed}}

A {{w|swimming pool}} is a pool of water, typically used for swimming. Most of these have a deep end and a shallow end. This is intentional, usually to allow less confident swimmers to have somewhere to stand up when needed, while also accommodating activities (such as diving, underwater swimming, rescue practice, etc.) which would not be possible in shallower water.

{{w|Subduction}}, a geological process in which one plate slips beneath another and is forced down into the mantle, is shown here as the reason swimming pools have deep ends. This usually takes place between continental plates and oceanic plates, although it could happen with two oceanic plates. The comic depicts the former, an oceanic plate subducting under a continental one. With tectonic plates, this often results in a deep {{w|oceanic trench}} where one plate slides beneath the other, as well as a chain of volcanoes above areas farther along the subducting plate, where rock that has liquefied from the subduction comes toward the surface as magma and erupts in volcanoes. An example is the {{w|Cascadia Subduction Zone}} in which the {{w|Juan de Fuca Plate}} is subducting beneath the {{w|North American Plate}}, creating the volcanic {{w|Cascade Range}}.

A splash zone is an area of a waterpark with water being sprayed around, allowing people to get wet without the need to get into the pool. It is not a geological term, but {{W|supralittoral zone|splash zone}} can mean the area next to a coastline that gets splashed by waves. In this comic, the splash zone is actually geysers, fed by the bubbles of water from the subduction. While this particular scenario as shown in the comic is obviously far-fetched, subduction zones do create similar effects: water moving up from subducting plates is the origin of many {{W|volcanic arc|volcanic arcs}}. These volcanic systems sometimes include features such as the geysers depicted in the comic's splash zone.

The title text refers to {{W|back-arc basin|back-arc basins}}, zones of depression that sometimes occur slightly beyond volcanic arcs due to a rift in the tectonic plate. The ban on running in this area likely has more to do with its proximity to the pool area than any danger intrinsic to back-arc basins. A typical safety rule around swimming pools is to avoid running on the pool deck to prevent injuries due to slipping and falling on the hard deck.

Other comics that mention unusual tectonic plate motion include [[1388: Subduction License]] and [[1874: Geologic Faults]].

==Transcript==

{{incomplete transcript}}

:[Caption above the panel:] How deep ends form in pools

:[On the left of the image is the shallowest water in the pool, about the height of [[Megan]]. All the water in the image is grey. She is swimming in the water, and a duck floatie and a beach ball are floating to the left of her. It is labeled:] Shallow End

:[Underneath, a thick layer is labeled:] Pool Floor

:[Going to the right from there, the pool floor begins to curve downwards. As the floor goes down, the water gets deeper. In the deepest area, it is labeled:] Deep End

:[At the bottom of the deep end, there is a curve and a deposit on the pool floor. Within the sediment and pool floor, there are some small pools of trapped water, labeled with three arrows:] Trapped Water

:[On the pool floor an arrow indicates that the oceanic plate is moving left-to-right across the image. It is labeled:] Subduction

:[Some of the water pools are dragged along by the pool floor, while others float up through the ground. The latter are accompanied by several arrows pointing up to indicate upwards movement. These are labeled:] Upward Migration

:[At the surface there is an area labeled:] Splash zone

:[The water erupts in two geysers, the left slightly larger than the other. Several children (small versions of [[Ponytail]], [[Hairy]], and [[Science Girl]] as herself) are playing there. Science Girl is sitting with her arms in the air facing the geysers, and Ponytail and Hairy are running towards the right geyser, Hairy with his arms in the air. The label above this area is:] Splash Zone

:[To the left of the splash zone is the edge of the pool, where a [[Cueball]] figure is in mid-air after jumping off the diving board, with his arms outstretched. This is labeled:] Pool Deck

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

13: Canyon

2022-05-04T18:23:51Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 241090 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 13
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Canyon
| image = canyon_small.jpg
| titletext = They're standing at the lip of the canyon, which isn't clear at all.
}}

==Explanation==
This is one of the early comics that explores a theme [[xkcd]] returns to often: the wonder around us, if we would just look.

[[Cueball]] and his friend (who also looks like Cueball) are having a discussion. After the friend asks Cueball what the time is, Cueball simply states that it is "now." Then there is a beat panel showing the two standing at the lip of a great canyon drawn in detail and color.

The friend claims that "now" is a boring answer, since it's a {{w|tautology}}, a functionally useless answer, and a bad joke all at the same time. Cueball, however, asserts that "now" is the least boring answer he could give.

It is typical for human beings to focus on mundane concerns, like a meeting they might be late for or a bus they have to catch, and take their familiar environment for granted, no matter how fabulous it might have been at first sight.

The title text explains that they stand on the lip of the canyon, which may not be clear if you do not look very carefully at the color drawing. There are two tiny stick figures at the edge of the canyon, near the center of the panel. On the other six panels, there is just a ragged line, which thus obviously is this lip of the canyon.

==Transcript==
:[Two guys, both Cueball-like, are standing at a cliff's edge.]
:Friend: What time is it?

:[Cueball looks at his watch in silence.]

:[Cueball looks up.]
:Cueball: Now.

:[The full scene is shown: the two men (barely visible) are standing at the lip of a huge canyon in a rocky, barren landscape. A pock-marked moon and a ringed planet are visible in the burgundy-colored sky.]

:[The two guys are again seen standing at what is now known to be the lip of the canyon.]
:Friend: That's a pretty boring answer.

:[Same scene as before.]
:Cueball: Is not.

:[Same scene.]
:Cueball: It's the least boring answer imaginable.

==Trivia==
*This was the 7th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey]].
**The next was [[8: Red spiders]].
*This comic kept its original title: "Canyon"
**This is the first of the original comics that kept its title unchanged after transfer to xkcd.
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "I'm not sure where they are, but they should be more excited! I would be."
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 07]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 07]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

716: Time Machine

2022-05-04T00:47:23Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 233087 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 716
| date = March 19, 2010
| title = Time Machine
| image = time_machine.png
| titletext = We never see any time travelers because they all discover it's a huge mistake. This is also why your friend at the lab suddenly looked a year older recently.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Rob]] is about to discover {{w|Time travel|time traveling}}, but a future version of him comes back in time and hits him with a baseball bat before he can actually build this time machine.

A common theme in time travel fiction is going back into the past to fix some mistake or stop some tragedy before it happens (see for instance {{w|The Terminator}} movies). In this comic, it is implied that Rob's time traveling turned out to cause a tragedy of some kind, so in order to stop it, Future-Rob must go back in time to stop himself from time traveling in the first place. The last panel supports this by suggesting that at least once a month somebody discovers time travel, but inevitably ends up going back in time to prevent themselves from doing so.

This is a plot point from the 2004 time-travel drama film [[wikipedia:Primer (film)|''Primer'']]: one character intends to travel back in time to prevent them from discovering time travel in this way, and another character has already traveled back in time, drugged his earlier self, and taken over the operation to discover time travel before the narrative of the film begins. ''Primer'' has a notoriously complicated plot that Randall already has made a jocular attempt at explaining in [[657: Movie Narrative Charts]]. Some more thorough attempts to explain it can be found [http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/334/can-someone-explain-the-sequence-of-events-in-primer here] and [http://qntm.org/primer here]. Doubtless, this has also been spoofed in countless other comedic settings.

The blood on the bat suggests that future Rob actually killed past Rob. This is of course a paradox like the {{w|grandfather paradox}} - but there are theories about how it would still be possible - see the link. The obvious paradox is that when Rob dies the future Rob never existed. But also the time travel Future Rob undertakes uses a technique that is now never invented. This was the reason for future Rob's travel.

The title text states that this is why we never see any time travelers since they would have stopped their own past selves from time traveling. After getting rid of their past selves they would then assume their place in the timeline, hence why a friend would suddenly look older: they ''have'' aged, just in another timeline before returning to the past.

==Transcript==
:[Rob is working at a workbench. Future-Rob appears out of nowhere with a baseball bat.]
:Future-Rob: Hi, Rob.
:Rob: Whoa, you're me!

:[Future-Rob holding the baseball bat, standing next to Rob.]
:Future-Rob: You're about to have an idea for a time machine.
:Rob: I am?

:[In a frameless panel, Future-Rob hits Rob over the head with the baseball bat.]
:''WHAM''

:[Megan approaches Future-Rob working at the workbench, with Rob nowhere to be seen. The bloody baseball bat is stashed behind it.]
:Megan: Hey, Rob. What's up?
:Future-Rob: Nothing.

:[Caption below the last panel:]
:This happens somewhere roughly once a month.

==Trivia==
This comic's title is very similar to [[1203: Time Machines]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Time Machine]]

1735: Fashion Police and Grammar Police

2022-05-04T00:47:04Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 233993 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1735
| date = September 19, 2016
| title = Fashion Police and Grammar Police
| image = fashion_police_and_grammar_police.png
| titletext = * Mad about jorts
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, two groups of angry protesters are presented and labeled. They are probably not actually protesting side by side, but simply drawn side by side to compare their similarities.

The left group represents the '''Fashion Police''' with [[Cueball]] holding a sign implying that {{w|Crocs}} are prohibited (by showing Crocs shoe/sandall in a circle with a strike through it). Crocs are a type of {{w|Clog|clogs}} made of foam. Crocs (and their imitators) have become fairly popular due to their low price, comfort, and ease of use, but are broadly considered {{w|Crocs#Fashion| unfashionable to wear in public}}. It is not the first time [[Randall]] mocks a special type of shoes, previously in [[1065: Shoes]] Randall was after shoes that ''has those creepy individual toes'' like {{w|Vibram FiveFingers}}. They will also never be a hit with the Fashion Police.{{Citation needed}}

The right group represents the '''Grammar Police''' with another Cueball holding a sign with three homophones: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/their Their] (belongs to them), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/they%27re They're] (contraction meaning "they are"), [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there There] (a location). These words, due to their common usage and identical pronunciation are frequently confused for one another, with one spelling being used in a context meant for a different one, causing the Grammar Police to quickly intervene (see [[386: Duty Calls]]). See the [https://twitter.com/_grammar_ Grammar Police on Twitter] and also {{w|Grammar Police|Linguistic prescription}} which comes up on Wikipedia when searching for Grammar Police.

The two groups look similar, standing in similar poses, with one Cueball holding signs in each group, and [[Megan]] in the front line of both groups. Each group also has one member brandishing a sword, indicating the exaggerated level of intensity they feel about their respective causes.

Both types of people will correct, criticize, denigrate or mock those who fail to conform to their criteria for what is "correct". Fashion police oppose people wearing clothing that's mismatched, out of style/{{w|fashion}} or simply "ugly" to them. Grammar police are "sticklers" for {{w|grammar}} rules and have an immediate negative reaction when someone uses non-standard grammar in a sentence. These two groups are generally seen as socially separate, and their goals appear very distinct, but the comic explains how the two groups are actually very similar. This is demonstrated by listing eight characteristics (plus a ninth in the title text) common to both groups. See explanation in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]].

In the caption below the comic Randall notes that he just realized that these are literally the same people because they both exhibit the listed traits.

It seems like a safe assumption (see [[1339: When You Assume]]) that there are more grammar pedants (see title text of [[1652: Conditionals]]) than fashion police people who read xkcd, and it also would seem likely that many xkcd readers would dislike the Fashion Police. This comic may, therefore, be intended to point out to grammar pedants that their behavior is functionally similar to that of other people who they dislike. Ponytail also represented the grammar police in [[1576: I Could Care Less]], where Megan puts her in place after she polices her sentence; this thus shows what Randall thinks about such police work and supports the above assumption. In 1576: I Could Care Less, "literally" was also used in the title text.

Randall is, with regards to language, definitely one of those that can belong in this group: ''To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well.''

The title is a ninth point to add to the list, with the asterisk in front representing one more bullet. See the last entry in the [[#Table of individual items|table below]] for more:

==Table of individual items==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Explanation of individual items in the list
!list item
!Explanation
|-
|Judgemental and Smug || Both groups tend to feel very comfortable in their own mastery of their particular field, and are frequently condescending to those who either lack their expertise, or are uninterested in meeting their standards.
|-
|Angry about something deeply arbitrary || Both grammar and fashion are, essentially, made-up human constructs.
|-
| Strong opinions backed by style guides || Grammar has ''{{w|The Elements of Style}}'', fashion has fashion magazines.
|-
| Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted is your responsibility || Whether or not you're interested in fashion or 'proper' grammar, how you dress and speak will impact how others perceive you, and often how they treat you. Whether this is fair or not, it is a reality, and each person is responsible for how they present themselves.
|-
| Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own || As above, our dress and speech will be taken by others as sending messages about ourselves. Trying to ignore the rules of either grammar or fashion is, itself, a message, as it presents to the world that we refuse to live by this set of rules. Whether or not we're trying to convey that message, it is what will come across.
|-
|To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well || People who appear to not understand the rules of either grammar or fashion will often be seen as ignorant or low-class. On the other hand, deliberately ignoring rules of either when its clear that you've mastered them comes across as casual, since it's clear that you're choosing to play with the rules, rather than simply not knowing them.
|-
|Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class || This is probably the most impactful observation. Rules around fashion and grammar, being arbitrary, are generally set by the most powerful classes in any society, which often run along racial lines as well. As a result, the "proper" way to dress or speak generally remains associated with those classes. This association can be pragmatic, such as "fashionable" clothing being more expensive and hard for poor people to acquire, or it may simply be cultural, as 'proper' grammar is whatever's spoken in wealthy neighborhoods and schools, while language variants associated with poor people and minority groups is bluntly denounced as 'wrong', even if it has a fully consistent internal grammar. Similarly, fashions that are associated with poor and non-white social groups are broadly considered to be inappropriate, even if the reasons are arbitrary. As a result, such things become signifiers by which one can present oneself as being part of a social class. In America, it would be socially unacceptable to reject a job applicant because they grew up poor, and illegal to do so because of their race. However, rejecting an applicant for using 'improper' grammar, or for not wearing the right clothing or hairstyle, is standard practice. Randall identifies this fact as "uncomfortably transparent".
|-
| Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you|| As with any arbitrary set of rules, those that we're in agreement and comfortable with are easy to promote, and we may enjoy taking part in the condemnation of others. But that suddenly changes when we find ourselves on the outside, condemned for our own use of language or how we dress. At that point, the flaws of such groups become much harder to ignore.
|-
| Mad about jorts (Title text) || "{{w|Shorts#Jorts|Jorts}}" is a {{w|portmanteau}} for a pair of jeans that are made into shorts.

The fashion police would be mad about jorts for being unfashionable.

The grammar police would be mad about the word 'jorts' being an inappropriate portmanteau of jeans and shorts, and also for the fact that the sentence could be misinterpreted as if someone like jorts, as in being mad about something in a positive way.

{{w|Sentence_clause_structure#Incomplete_sentence|Also a fragment}}, with no subject (properly it would be "I am mad about jorts"). Randall has [[:Category:Portmanteau|often used]] portmanteaus as part of his jokes.

It is also possible that the Grammar police are indeed "mad about Jorts" in the positive sense, i.e Grammar Police love Jorts.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Beneath two headings to the left and right are shown two aggressive-looking groups of people with only the four people in the front clearly shown for each group. Behind them five other people can be seen, but they are not drawn with the same solid line and are only partly shown behind the first four, but legs from all five in each group can be seen along with some heads (all Cueball like) and arms etc. The front of the left group consist of Hairy holding a fist up towards left, Megan with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, straight up above his head and another Cueball-like guy to the right is holding up a broken branch in one hand toward right. The person behind this last person is shown to hold up his fist towards right like Hairy does to the left. The sign shows a Crocs shoe in a circle with a strike through it going above the Crocs from top left to bottom right. The front of the right group consist of Megan holding both her arms over her head hands folded into fist while looking towards left, Cueball holding a sign, using both hands, towards the right and up above Ponytails head, she is raising one hand in a fist to the left and finally a bald guy with glasses is brandishing a short sword in one hand toward right while holding his other hand palm up. The sign has three similar words written beneath each other.]
:Left: Fashion Police
:Right: Grammar Police
:Sign:
::Their
::They're
::There

:[Below the two groups are eight points with bullets:]
:*Judgemental and smug
:*Angry about something deeply arbitrary
:*Strong opinions backed by style guides
:*Appreciate that the way that you are interpreted ''is'' your responsibility
:*Understand that there's no way to "opt out" of sending messages by how you present yourself, and attempts to do so send strong messages of their own
:*To seem cool and casual, pretend to ignore them while understanding them very well
:*Vindictive about things that are often uncomfortably transparent proxies for race or social class
:*Fun to cheer on until one of them disagrees with you

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I just realized these are literally the same people

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

1500: Upside-Down Map

2022-05-04T00:13:31Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 233063 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1500
| date = March 18, 2015
| title = Upside-Down Map
| image = upside_down_map.png
| titletext = Due to their proximity across the channel, there's long been tension between North Korea and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Southern Ireland.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic plays on the idea that maps with the {{w|South-up map orientation|south pole at the top}} will "change your perspective of the world". Most world maps orient north in the upward direction, placing the north pole as the top. Such an orientation is purely a matter of convention, as 'up' and 'down' don't apply in a planetary context. The north = up tradition probably emerged because most historical cartographers hailed from the northern hemisphere, and placed their own nations at the top. Some people and groups object that this convention subtly, but perniciously, advances the assumption that countries in the northern hemisphere are inherently more important than those in the southern hemisphere. This is especially sensitive because most of the wealthier and more powerful countries in the world are in the northern hemisphere, while relatively fewer southern hemisphere countries have as much wealth or global influence. Early maps had eastern Asia oriented at the top of the map, beyond Israel and the Holy Land in the middle, and western Europe at the bottom.

To remedy this, some advocate the use of maps with the south pole oriented at the top. Some want such maps in common use, while others simply use them to encourage people to rethink their assumptions about how the world should be seen. Such a map can easily be achieved by simply rotating a normal map 180 degrees, though the text labels would also be upside-down and harder to read. A [https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&q=upside-down%2Bmap%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bworld Google Images] search reveals many examples of upside-down maps with the text-oriented correctly for reading.

This map is a comedic play on such maps, where each landmass is in the same position it would be in a traditional north-top map but rotated 180 degrees (presumably around some central point of the landmass) to the orientation it would have in a south-top map. Such a map is, of course, almost completely useless in real life, because it completely distorts the relative positioning of the landmasses. Moreover, it keeps the northern countries at the top of the map, which means one of the chief complaints about traditional maps is unaddressed.

Note that individual islands are rotated about their own centers, rather than following the rotation of the neighboring continent; however, some are displaced as necessary to keep them from being overlapped by the rotated continents. For instance, {{w|Madagascar}} would be overlapped by the {{w|Sahara}} if it remained in position, but is instead displaced eastward to keep it in the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, all the islands of the {{w|Mediterranean Sea}} have disappeared under {{w|Asia}}.

Asia is so broad that almost the entire {{w|Indochinese Peninsula}} (with for instance {{w|Vietnam}} and {{w|Thailand}}) has been rotated out of the top of the map. Similarly, the map omits {{w|Antarctica}} in the south.

To keep their familiar shapes on a rectangular map, the continents would also have to be heavily distorted compared to their actual shapes, becoming much narrower (along the lines of latitude) near the poles and wider towards the equator. See also [[977: Map Projections]].

The basic climates for several areas would be distinctly different. For example, the former Central America area would be in the arctic zone, while Siberia would be subtropical.

This arrangement of the world's landmasses would have great advantages for trade because there are (presumably navigable) straits between the {{w|Americas}} and between Africa and Asia, removing the need for the {{w|Panama Canal}} and the {{w|Suez Canal}}.

The title text references the fact that, in this new map, the {{w|United Kingdom|UK}} is now next to Asia – specifically the {{w|Korean Peninsula}}. {{w|North Korea}} is mentioned in the text as having a history of hostile relations with nearby countries. However, on this map North Korea would be the part of {{w|Korea}} we today know as {{w|South Korea}}. Furthermore, {{w|Northern Ireland}} is now at the south of the {{w|island of Ireland}}, so the UK's full name would need to change to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and '''Southern''' Ireland. There have been several wars concerning the {{w|English Channel}}, mainly, but not only, between {{w|England}} and {{w|France}}. Likewise, there has been a history of animosity between Korea and {{w|Japan}}, separated by a similar body of water. Since, on this world map, a channel now exists between the UK and North Korea (the real world's South Korea) there could obviously have been many wars for the dominance over the said channel.

Along the same line of thinking, interesting speculations could be made about the following "new" facts:
*{{w|Cuba}} is now off the east coast (formerly west coast) of {{w|Canada}} (and the {{w|USA}}).
*{{w|Japan}} is next to the coast of {{w|Portugal}} and {{w|Spain}}.
*Madagascar lies next to {{w|Morocco}} and {{w|Mauritania}} on the east coast (formerly west coast) of the Sahara.
*{{w|Taiwan}} (officially called the Republic of China) is now next to {{w|France}}. This might be a game-changer for the {{w|Cross-Strait relations}}, an ongoing rivalry with {{w|China|China}} (officially called the People's Republic of China).
*{{w|Greenland}} lies next to {{w|Mexico}}.
*{{w|Sri Lanka}} is located next to the {{w|Yamalsky District}} of {{w|Russia}}.
*{{w|Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego|Tierra del Fuego}}, an island just south of the southern tip of South America, which is divided between {{w|Argentina}} and {{w|Chile}}, is now located in a similar manner next to {{w|Colombia}} and {{w|Venezuela}}, so it would probably have been divided between these two countries.
*The {{w|Falkland Islands}} (not named in the map – they are probably represented by the single island above the T in Tierra) where Argentina and the UK have an ongoing {{w|Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute|sovereignty dispute}}, could now be claimed by {{w|Ecuador}} or {{w|Peru}}.
*The Mediterranean islands seem to have vanished entirely, as they are now in approximately the same place as {{w|Mongolia}}.
*{{w|India}} is nowhere near the {{w|Indian Ocean}}.
*{{w|Norway}} almost touches the {{w|Philippines}}.

==Transcript==
:[Map of the world with all the landmasses rotated upside-down.]
:[Four oceans and all the visible continents have been named in large letters in a bold font. The Pacific has been named both to the left and right. Several islands (large and small) have been designated with name but in grey and in a much smaller normal font. For all continents the names are written on them. For the island the name is written in the ocean except for Greenland.]

:[Below the names on the map are given in the order they appear reading from left to right, first for the northern and then the southern hemisphere:]

:[Northern hemisphere:]
:'''North America'''
:Cuba
:Greenland
:'''Atlantic Ocean
:Iceland
:UK
:'''Asia'''
:Sri Lanka
:'''Europe'''
:'''Arctic Ocean'''
:Taiwan
:Japan
:'''Pacific Ocean'''

:[Southern hemisphere:]
:'''Pacific Ocean'''
:'''South America'''
:Tierra del Fuego
:'''Africa'''
:'''Indian Ocean'''
:Madagascar
:Indonesia
:'''Australia'''
:New Zealand

:[Below the main frame:]
:'''This upside-down map will change your perspective on the world!'''

==Trivia==
Map projections are also the subject of [[977: Map Projections]]. In fact, if this comic was released later, it would certainly have "Bad Map Projection #''n''" on the top, and would be part of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|the category]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Maps]]

1501: Mysteries

2022-05-04T00:13:07Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 234519 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1501
| date = March 20, 2015
| title = Mysteries
| image = mysteries.png
| titletext = At the bottom left: The mystery of why, when I know I needed to be asleep an hour ago, I decide it's a good time to read through every Wikipedia article in the categories 'Out-of-place artifacts', 'Earth mysteries', 'Anomalous weather', and 'List of people who disappeared mysteriously'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a graph in which several "mysteries" are mentioned and placed on the graph according to how weird they are on the x-axis and the y-axis indicates whether [[Randall]] has an explanation or not for the mystery. Each item is listed in the [[#Table|table below]].

Items near the top-right corner (such as the {{w|Malaysia Airlines Flight 370|MH 370}} disappearance) are both mysterious and strange. Items near the bottom-left corner (such as Randall's absent-mindedness regarding ice cream) have a clear explanation and are not really strange either. Items near the top-left corner (such as the meaning of ''{{w|You're So Vain}}'') are mysterious but not really strange. Items near the bottom-right corner (such as the {{w|Dyatlov Pass incident}}) have a clear explanation but are quite strange.

The title text refers to the mystery of Randall staying up late to read Wikipedia articles, when he was already supposed to be asleep an hour ago. This is apparently not very unusual for him (see for instance [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]). And this mystery actually has an obvious explanation: Following up on an idea that eventually led to today's cartoon.

Some of these mysteries have already been explored in xkcd. See [[950: Mystery Solved]] where Randall "solves" Amelia Earhart, Lost Roanoke Colony, Jimmy Hoffa; [[593: Voynich Manuscript]]; and [[1400: D.B. Cooper]].

Note that Randall uses similar diagrams in both [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], [[1242: Scary Names]] and [[2466: In Your Classroom]], which also contain different items. The first two also have an extra point, and the last two extra points mentioned in the title text. But all these points are in the title text because they are far off the chart, whereas in this comic it's the description of the point that is too long to fit on the chart. Extra info outside the chart is also used in the title text of [[1785: Wifi]], but this is a line graph.

==Table==
The X axis in the graph indicates weirdness. The table assumes that the item to the far left is 0% (not that weird) and the item to the far right is 100% (weird as hell). The Y axis indicates if Randall has an explanation. The table assumes that the item at the bottom is 100% (Randall has a clear explanation) and the item at the top is 0% (Randall has no explanation).

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Entry
!Weirdness
!Explainability
!Further details
|-
|MH370
|100%
|0% 
|On 8 March 2014, {{w|Malaysia Airlines Flight 370}} cut off radio contact and diverted from its flight path with 227 passengers aboard, eventually heading over open ocean, eventually crashing in a remote part of the Indian Ocean. The disappearance remains without explanation, although parts were found on Reunion Island in July 2015.
|-
|Lead masks case
|99%
|12% 
|In 1966 two Brazilian electronic technicians were found dead on a hill top. No injuries. {{w|Lead Masks Case|Both were wearing lead masks}}. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the men may have died of drug overdoses, believing that they were able to communicate with aliens.
|-
|Salish Sea feet
|96%
|31% 
|Over a dozen dismembered human feet {{w|Salish Sea human foot discoveries|were found}} between 2007 and 2016 on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia (Canada) and Washington (United States).
|-
|DB Cooper
|76%
|20% 
|{{w|D. B. Cooper}} was an airplane hijacker who jumped from a plane after successfully extorting a large ransom in 1971. The man's whereabouts remain unknown to this day, though [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401312/Parachute-used-hijacker-DB-Cooper-escape-stealing-200-000-goes-display.html some of the ransom money has been recovered]. Previously referenced in [[1400: D.B. Cooper]], which compares Cooper to film director {{w|Tommy Wiseau}}, and later referenced in [[2452: Aviation Firsts]]. Note that this "Mysteries" comic was published shortly after [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2zdzik/tommy_wiseau_creator_of_the_room_and_the_new_tv/ Tommy Wiseau did a Reddit AMA.]
|-
|The WOW signal
|55%
|20% 
|The {{w|Wow! signal}} was a strong and clean radio transmission near 1420 MHz received by the Big Ear Radio Observatory at Ohio State University in 1977 that [http://www.universetoday.com/93754/35-years-later-the-wow-signal-still-tantalizes/ appears to have originated from interstellar space.] This is the strongest evidence to date of radio signals transmitted by extraterrestrial intelligent beings.
|-
|Mary Celeste
|70%
|43% 
|The ''{{w|Mary Celeste}}'' was a sailing ship found adrift off the {{w|Azores Islands}}, mysteriously abandoned yet otherwise undisturbed, in 1872. Most likely the crew abandoned ship, wrongly believing it was in danger. Its name has become a watchword for mysteriously abandoned ships. Previously referenced in [[516: Wood Chips]], where Cueball attempts to involve the shipwreck in his elaborate hoax.
|-
|UVB-76
|40%
|23% 
|{{w|UVB-76}} is a mysterious shortwave radio station, Possibly serving as a {{w|numbers station}}, apparently originating from Russia, that has broadcast a monotonous buzz tone since 1982 with occasional other content.
|-
|Who Carly Simon is singing about in ''You're So Vain''
|9%
|4% 
|The ironically self-referential lyrics of the 1972 song include "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." There has been {{w|You%27re_So_Vain#Subject_of_the_song|much speculation}} regarding the person or persons to whom Simon was referring. Quoting Wikipedia: Simon [has stated] that the song refers to three men, only one of whom she has named publicly, actor Warren Beatty.
|-
|Zodiac letters
|62%
|62% 
|A set of letters were written by the so-called {{w|Zodiac Killer}}, a serial killer who was active in California in the 1960s and 1970s. The letters are publicly available from multiple places, [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Zodiac_Killer#Letters including Wikisource]. Some of the letters are encoded, only some of which have been deciphered. The killings remain unsolved.
|-
|Dyatlov Pass incident
|93%
|96% 
|On 2 February 1959, nine skiers in the northern Ural Mountains apparently {{w|Dyatlov Pass Incident|fled their tents naked}}. They were found dead, some with physical injuries. Considering his skepticism towards paranormal, conspiracies, or UFO-related phenomena, it is likely that Randall subscribes to the theory that the unusual physical injuries are the natural result of decomposition, and that the nudity of the hikers was due to 'paradoxical undressing' - which occurs in some cases with hypothermia.
|-
|Kentucky meat shower
|85%
|93% 
|In 1876, a number of chunks of meat {{w|Kentucky meat shower|fell from the sky}} in Kentucky; this was possibly [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/2014/12/01/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/ projectile vomit from vultures.]
|-
|Lindbergh baby
|17%
|25% 
|The {{w|Lindbergh kidnapping}} was the kidnapping and murder of 20-month old Charles Lindbergh Jr. in 1932. Various {{w|Lindbergh kidnapping#Controversy|conspiracy theories}} surround the event.
|-
|Lost colony
|74%
|83% 
|The {{w|Roanoke Colony}} was the first English attempt to establish a permanent settlement in the New World. The colony of over a hundred settlers disappeared some time in the late 1580s, with no signs of violence and no definitive evidence as to what happened. However, given the hardships faced by the colonists when they were left and that the buildings in the colony were dismantled, indicating departure was not hurried, it is likely they moved and/or integrated with the local tribes. Which probably accounts for Randall's high "explainable" rating. (See title text of [[950: Mystery Solved]])
|-
|Toynbee tiles
|25%
|34% 
|{{w|Toynbee tiles}} are colorful tiles with cryptic messages that have been found embedded in asphalt in the streets of various midwestern-to-eastern cities in the United States and four South American cities. Analysis has shown that they are linoleum and tarpaper, laid on hot days and pressed into the soft road surface by passing cars.
|-
|Amelia Earhart
|56%
|74% 
|{{w|Amelia Earhart}} and her navigator tried to circumnavigate the earth along the equator in a small airplane in 1937, but {{w|Amelia Earhart#Speculation on disappearance|disappeared}} over the Pacific Ocean without any trace. See also [[950: Mystery Solved]].
|-
|Jimmy Hoffa
|10%
|42% 
|{{w|Jimmy Hoffa}} was an American labor union leader who disappeared in 1975. He is widely believed to have been murdered. (See title text of [[950: Mystery Solved]]). Randall marks this as very much not weird, because Hoffa was heavily involved in organized crime - however he was killed, the motive seems clear.
|-
|Voynich manuscript
|35%
|68% 
|The {{w|Voynich manuscript}} is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. It came to public attention in the early 20th century and probably was written in Italy in the early 15th century. See also [[593: Voynich Manuscript]].
|-
|Loch Ness monster
|64%
|100% 
|The {{w|Loch Ness Monster}} is a supposed animal that reputedly inhabits Loch Ness, a lake in Scotland. Multiple complete scans of the lake using sonar show no evidence of the monster, and the lake ecosystem is far too small to support even a single creature as large as the monster is alleged to be.
|-
|Bigfoot
|60%
|98% 
|{{w|Bigfoot}} is a supposed animal or hominid that reputedly inhabits the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The best piece of evidence for Bigfoot, the {{w|Patterson–Gimlin film}}, retains some mystery - scientists are divided as to whether it's possible for a person in a suit to mimic the walk of the creature in the film - but contains so many features not seen on any real ape (for instance, dark palms and hairy breasts) that few scientists take it seriously. More generally, no corpses or skeletons have ever been found, despite the presence of logging crews in many places where Bigfoots have been seen, and fur and droppings always turns out to be human or from another animal.
|-
|JFK
|38%
|86% 
|The 1963 {{w|Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassination of President John F. Kennedy}} has inspired many conspiracy theories, beginning almost immediately after the event. The subsequent murder of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald added fuel to the fire by encouraging speculation that he was silenced to cover up the true story. Many of the details that were initially considered weird - for instance, {{w|Single-bullet theory|the path of the bullet}}, which early analysis showed had flown in a strange curve, audio recordings of multiple shots, and discrepancies in Lee Harvey Oswald's life story - have been found to be erroneous. In particular, careful analysis of the positions of Kennedy and Governor John Connally, who was riding in the car with Kennedy and was also struck by the bullet, show that a single bullet could have caused all the wounds suffered by the two men.
|-
|Oak Island money pit
|32%
|98% 
|An indentation in the ground on {{w|Oak Island}} (off the east coast of Nova Scotia, Canada), led to over 200 years of treasure hunting, with the excavations repeatedly hampered by flooding pit collapses. A few flagstones, and periodic layers of logs are all that have been found. Rumours abound as to what it conceals: Marie Antoinnette's jewels, pirate treasure and Shakespeare's manuscripts have all been suggested. It is called The Money Pit, because of all the money that has been wasted in trying to solve the mystery.
|-
|Why I keep putting ice cream back in the fridge instead of the freezer
|0%
|96% 
|Apparently, Randall absent-mindedly puts his ice cream container into the refrigerator rather than into the freezer.
|}

==Transcript==
:[In a frame at the top left of the panel:]
:'''Mysteries'''

:[A chart with two crossing lines with double arrows. Each arrow is labeled:]
:X-axis left: Not that weird
:X-axis right: Weird as Hell
:Y-axis top: I have no explanation
:Y-axis bottom: Explanation seems pretty clear

:[In the chart there are 22 bullets. Each bullet is labeled. Below the labels are given from top to bottom in each of the four quadrants of the chart:]

:[Top left quadrant:]
:Who Carly Simon is singing about in ''You're So Vain''
:UVB-76
:Lindbergh baby
:Toynbee tiles
:Jimmy Hoffa

:[Top right quadrant:]
:MH370
:Lead Masks Case
:DB Cooper
:The Wow signal
:Salish Sea feet
:Mary Celeste

:[Bottom left quadrant:]
:Voynich manuscript
:JFK
:Why I keep putting ice cream back in the fridge instead of the freezer
:Oak Island Money Pit

:[Bottom right quadrant:]
:Zodiac letters
:Amelia Earhart
:Lost Colony
:Kentucky meat shower
:Bigfoot
:Loch Ness Monster
:Dyatlov Pass incident

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Paranormal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart]]

1502: Wasted Time

2022-05-04T00:12:43Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 232801 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1502
| date = March 23, 2015
| title = Wasted Time
| image = wasted time.png
| titletext = Since it sounds like your time spent typing can't possibly be less productive than your time spent not typing, have you tried typing SLOWER?
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[White Hat]] is pointing out to [[Cueball]] that his obsession with efficiency is inconsistent, something that is likely true of many people who claim to prize efficiency.

Here, Cueball raves about his new mobile keyboard which allows him to type 30% faster than his old keyboard. He notes that people (presumably himself particularly) do a lot of mobile typing, and a 30% reduction in the time that takes would allow more time for other activities.

White Hat, on the other hand, mocks Cueball for caring so much about mobile typing speed, suggesting that this may not be the first time Cueball has obsessed over minor improvements in efficiency. White Hat also notes that he's just seen Cueball open and close [http://news.google.com Google News] five times without reading anything, providing an example of how Cueball's other actions do not embody the same commitment to efficiency that he claims to have.

Cueball defends himself by saying that, since he wastes so much time, it's that much more important to improve efficiency in his life to make more time for important matters. The title text (presumably White Hat's reply) counters this defense by suggesting that Cueball may be better off using a ''slower'' keyboard, so that he will have ''less'' time to waste on stupid activities. This type of argument may be an example of a {{w|logical fallacy}} argument which suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that Cueball should spend less time doing stupid things to the extent that he spends longer doing things he already does.

Interestingly, in this comic, White Hat appears as the voice of reason to Cueball, an inversion of their typical dynamic (see for instance [[1386: People are Stupid]] and [[1459: Documents]]). The role-reversal may be an acknowledgment that while Cueball may often make a fool of White Hat, he's far from perfect himself.

[[Randall]]'s misadventures in {{w|time management}} are a recurring topic (see [[874: Time Management]] and the [[:Category:Time_management|Time management category]]).

Mobile keyboard efficiency was previously tangentially referenced in [[1068: Swiftkey]], and Randall's habit of opening news sites only to quickly get bored or distracted was shown in [[1411: Loop]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holding his smartphone in both hands is talking to White Hat.]
:Cueball: This new keyboard is like 30% faster! I'm never going back.

:[White hat replies and Cueball lifts his arms.]
:White Hat: Good, put those years of horror behind you.
:Cueball: C'mon. Sure, sometimes my focus on efficiency doesn't make sense. But we type a '''''lot'''''.

:[Cueball holding his smartphone in one hand while talking to White Hat.]
:Cueball: That 30% improvement pretty quickly adds up to a ''huge'' amount of wasted time rescued.

:[White hat replies and Cueball lifts one arm.]
:White Hat: I just watched you open Google News and then close it without reading it '''''five times in a row.'''''
:Cueball: The fact that I spend most of my time so stupidly only makes it '''''more''''' important not to waste any here.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Time management]]

1504: Opportunity

2022-05-04T00:12:02Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 233370 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1504
| date = March 27, 2015
| title = Opportunity
| image = opportunity.png
| titletext = We all remember those famous first words spoken by an astronaut on the surface of Mars: "That's one small step fo- HOLY SHIT LOOK OUT IT'S GOT SOME KIND OF DRILL! Get back to the ... [unintelligible] ... [signal lost]"
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is talking about the robotic science platform {{w|Opportunity (rover)|''Opportunity''}}. On January 25, 2004, the Opportunity rover landed on the surface of {{w|Mars}} for the purpose of gathering data about the surface of Mars. Opportunity has proven remarkably robust, and the comic extrapolates the rover's resilience to absurdity for comedic effect. As of Feb 12th, 2019, the Opportunity rover has finally been {{w|Opportunity mission timeline|declared dead}} after 5352 Sols (Mars Days) or 5500 Earth days on Mars. On Feb 13th, 2019, [[Randall]] eulogies the Opportunity Rover in [[2111: Opportunity Rover]].

The comic depicts the two scientists [[Ponytail]] and [[Hairbun]] at ground control being amazed at this fact already in 2010, and (maybe the same two) scientists continue to discuss this in 2015 in the second panel.

They mention another Martian rover, {{w|Spirit (rover)|''Spirit''}} that was also sent to Mars on the same date as Opportunity. Unfortunately, it became stuck and a sandstorm covered its solar panels. On March 22, 2010, it was thought that Spirit's batteries finally ran out, marking the end of its mission. This was covered in [[695: Spirit]], in which the Spirit rover is also portrayed with an anthropomorphic personality.

In 2023, Opportunity is still moving despite having supposedly no power source. It also became aggressive and deactivated the {{w|Mars 2020|Perseverance rover sent in 2020}}. [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] can't explain how it moves, but investigating is now too dangerous. This evolution is similar to the stories of {{w|HAL 9000}} (from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|''2001: A Space Odyssey''}}) and {{w|List of Star Trek characters (T–Z)#V'Ger|V'Ger}} (from ''{{w|Star Trek: The Motion Picture}}''), both of which became dangerous to human beings.

By 2450, humans have colonized and {{w|terraformed}} Mars. Maybe it is the 2023 Cueball and Megan's descendants that are looking out over their huge "kingdom" from the capital on Mars. However ''Opportunity'' is by now dominating half of the planet and will not allow humans to enter its dark reign.

"Everything the light touches" is a reference to a line by {{w|List of The Lion King characters#Mufasa|Mufasa}} in ''{{w|The Lion King}}''. Mufasa's son {{w|List of The Lion King characters#Simba|Simba}} then asks "What about that shadowy place?" and Mufasa tells him "That is beyond our borders. You must never go there". This was used again in [[1608: Hoverboard]], where [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a0/1608_0986x1076y_Our_kingdom_from_a_cliff.png Cueball tells the same line] to Ponytail in the left part of the world. In "[[what if]]" [http://what-if.xkcd.com/48 "Sunset on the British Empire"], concerning the end of the sun shining on the British Empire, Cueball tells a child that everything the light touches is their kingdom, and the child asks (in the title text) "What about that shadowy place over there?" to which Cueball replies (also in the title text), "That's France. We'll get it one of these days."

The title text forecasts the first words of the first astronauts on the surface of Mars. At first, the astronaut copies the first words of {{w|Neil Armstrong}} on the Moon ("That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind") but it is interrupted by the ''Opportunity'' rover. Opportunity has a drill to collect Martian rock samples, but here it is heavily suggested that the drill is being used as a weapon against the astronaut.

==Transcript==
:[The year (or year and first sentence) for each panel is written in a small frame at the top of each panel. It breaks the top frame of the panels.]

:[Ponytail is sitting at a computer, facing left. Hairbun stands behind her.]
:2010:
:Ponytail: After six years, ''Spirit'' is down, but ''Opportunity'' is still going strong.
:Hairbun: Tough little rover!

:[Opportunity traveling on Mars. Text is written in frames with zigzag lines]
:2015:
:Off-screen: Eleven years, wow.
:Off-screen 2: Wasn't the original mission 90 days?
:Off-screen: This is starting to get weird.

:[Cueball and Megan sitting at a computer, facing right.]
:2023:
:Cueball: The battery is totally disconnected. How can it still be moving??
:Megan: Given what it did to the Mars 2020 rover, we may never know.

:[Two Martian inhabitants looking like Cueball and Megan stands on a cliff edge pointing towards a dark, mountainous region. Behind them are a tower and a hover car]
:2450, terraformed Mars, Martian imperial capital:
:Martian Cueball: Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
:Martian Megan: What's that dark area?
:Martian Cueball: That is ''Opportunity's'' half of the planet. We must never go there.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:The Lion King]]

1152: Communion

2022-05-03T23:38:01Z

172.69.68.88: Undo revision 233150 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1152
| date = December 26, 2012
| title = Communion
| image = communion.png
| titletext = The local police, growing increasingly concerned about this church, ask parishioners to take a sip of wine and then spit it back out for DNA testing. It's blood, and it matches a 1970s murder victim.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic plays on the Christian doctrine that the {{w|Eucharist|Holy Communion}} bread and wine are Jesus' flesh and blood. It is based on the words of Jesus from the {{w|synoptic gospels}} and {{w|Paul the Apostle|Paul's}} {{w|first epistle to the Corinthians}} during the {{w|Last Supper}}, today used by the priest as {{w|Words of Institution}}. According to the Roman Catholic doctrine of {{w|transubstantiation}}, as well as in the Eastern Christian tradition, the substance (using the {{w|Accident_(philosophy)|Aristotelian}} concept that all things have an accident, or physical make-up, as well as a substance, or true nature/purpose) of the bread and wine change to Jesus' flesh and blood, while their accidents remains the same. Many people, including many Catholics, believe this concept means the bread and wine literally turn (i.e., their accidents changes) into Jesus' flesh and blood during the ceremony. Some Protestant denominations reject this doctrine, both its actual and misunderstood application, with some taking the words as wholly symbolic of Jesus' sacrificial death and others believing the bread and wine create a real spiritual connection to Christ but do not change their substance.

In the second panel, [[Danish]] accurately describes what would happen at a traditional Christian Christmas service, though in such a way as to make it sound macabre.

After walking and thinking in panel three, she makes it more macabre when worrying that they, again, may have gotten hold of the wrong child for the sacrifice needed to drink blood and eat flesh.

The title text further spoofs the common understanding of the doctrine of {{w|transubstantiation}} and elaborates on [[Danish]]'s concern in the last panel by supposing that the act of taking a sip of wine during {{w|Eucharist|Holy Communion}} turns that wine into the blood, not of Jesus, but of a decades-old murder victim. Alternatively, the title text could be interpreted as saying that the wine actually acquires Jesus' DNA, and that Jesus was "killed" in the 1970s. The police, who investigated Jesus' 1970s death, would then have his DNA on file.
It should be noted that saliva includes DNA, so the positive result may be the DNA from the person who spit the wine/blood out and does not necessarily mean that that person was murdered by the church in order to prepare the wine/blood. This could be a reference to the resurrection of Jesus.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Danish are taking a stroll.]
:Cueball: How was Christmas? Did you go to church?

:Danish: Yup. We celebrated the birth of a child, then we ate of his flesh and blood.

:[Silence from Cueball.]

:Danish: ''Seriously'' hope we got the right child this time.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Religion]]

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2022-04-27T17:22:10Z

172.69.68.88:

I'm not sure that "This is an obvious parody" counts as an explanation of the cartoon. I looked up "Magic 8 ball" (with which I was unfamiliar). I looked up "Emoji" (with which, too, I was unfamiliar). I then turned back to the cartoon, and I still don't understand it. What's more, there is no explanation of the practically unique absence of mouseover text. [[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 05:55, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: Lack of mouseover / alt and title attributes is common in **interactive** comics. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:23, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: Randall has published several interactive comics: [[1350: Lorenz]], [[1110: Click and Drag]], and [[1416: Pixels]]. All of these have title text. The only other without was this year's April Fools (which was also interactive. However, this is definitely '''not''' a common feature of interactive comics. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 13:20, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:::See [[:Category:No title text]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:03, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

It seems that this comic may be poking fun at the reliance of the modern generation on emoji for communication. By trying to answer serious questions only in emoji, their inadequacy in conveying information is shown. After all, a telephone and party ball hardly answer how one will die. It's all left to the imagination.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.179|173.245.56.179]] 06:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

There might be a horoscope component to it too, i.e. you can interpret the emoji as a meaningful answer no matter which one you get. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.162|108.162.215.162]] 06:30, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I believe you may mean to refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinatory,_esoteric_and_occult_tarot tarot cards]. I had a similar thought. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:16, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: Both horoscopes and tarot cards qualify; they're two ways of eliciting the same sort of Rorschach test. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.183|173.245.52.183]] 11:58, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: It also bears similarities - particularly with its default question of "How will I die?" - to the fictional [http://machineofdeath.net/ Machine of Death], which tells a person how they will die, often in a particularly obtuse or cryptic manner. Randall has previously submitted a short story to the collection: [http://machineofdeath.net/pod-question Machine of Death Podcast 33] [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 07:21, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm guessing Randall is using Unicode emoji characters, i.e. from a font I don't have. I get a small rectangle with "01F40C" (two rows of three characters), which is indicative of "A character I have no font support for", in the browser I'm using (although from previous experience it isn't a browser thing, it's that I haven't deliberately installed the specialist font involved). Which rather spoils things for me, this time round, but I suppose doesn't cause problems for most people who have been persuaded to install emoji-characters to use in the place of 'mere' emoticons... [[Special:Contributions/daily141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 06:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:(reply to self), I've found a good guide, for someone like me, would be to consult the document http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf to see what one ''should'' see. Apparently "How will I die?" is answered by a snail, and my flippant "Where do I get the Emoji font from?" is answered by a man's face. It remains to be seen whether that's 100% correct on both counts. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 07:58, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Linux folks can install the ttf-ancient-fonts package to add support for the Unicode emoji characters.
:Ok, I've given in. As a non-Linux folk, I followed various signposts and went to http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ and went straight for the "Symbola: 08-03-2015" download (extracted and installed the .ttfs by the age-old method). In case anyone else as out-of-date as me needs and wants to do it manually. It instantly converted my "Man's Face" code (see reply-to-self, above) into the actual man's face, on that browser tab. FYI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 08:12, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: On ''Fedora'': '''sudo yum install gdouros-symbola-fonts'''
:: On ''Ubuntu'': '''apt get ttf-ancient-fonts'''
:: On ''Debian'': '''sudo apt-get install ttf-ancient-fonts'''
:: [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 04:36, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
:: On ''Gentoo'': '''emerge symbola'''
:: --[[User:Quazgar|Quazgar]] ([[User talk:Quazgar|talk]]) 21:25, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
:: ON ''OpenSUSE'': '''sudo zypper install gdouros-symbola-fonts'''
:: --Tom [[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.18|141.101.92.18]] 11:19, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Note that, although the emojis do seem to be chosen at random (I haven't attempted to check any code), the URL is changed to encode your question and the result, so [http://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiSXMgdGhpcyBhIGdvb2QgcXVlc3Rpb24gdG8gaW1tb3J0YWxpc2U/IiwiYSI6WyImI3gxRjM2NTsiLCImI3gxRjQxMDsiLCImI3gxRjM1RDsiXX0= this link] encodes my question and a three-emoji result. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 07:07, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: Is that 3-emoji result hack free? I've only gotten 1 or 2 emoji results so far. Edit: Nevermind. I clicked a bunch in a row and got a 3 emoji result. Now the question is: Can 4 be hacked in? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:19, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: I had to be horrible and hack every single emoji into the page. 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For the lovers of overflow]! [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:54, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
::From the code there appears to be an 8/19 chance (42.1%) of one character, 10/19 (52.6%) of two, and 1/19 (5.2%) of three.--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 07:52, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: It is just a base64 encoding of the question and answer characters as a JSON object, the part of the link given by Markhurd after the "#" is the encoding of {"q":"Is this a good question to immortalise?","a":["🍥","🐐","🍝"]}. So you can add extra characters to the answer array, but after 3 they start clipping out of the triangle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 07:32, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

In the edit history it is noted that the emoji are in color. They are in color for me, too. But I question whether this is universal (where the glyphs are supported). Anyone having a black and white experience? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

From the code, here's the list of possible characters: 🙅, 🙆, 🙇, 🙋, 🙌, 🙍, 🙎, 🙏, ✂, ✈, ✉, ✊, ✋, ✌, ✏, ❄, ❤, 🚀, 🚃, 🚄, 🚅, 🚇, 🚉, 🚌, 🚏, 🚑, 🚒, 🚓, 🚕, 🚗, 🚙, 🚚, 🚢, 🚤, 🚥, 🚧, 🚨, 🚩, 🚪, 🚫, 🚬, 🚲, 🚶, 🚽, 🛀, ⌚, ⌛, ⏰, ⏳, ☁, ☎, ☔, ☕, ♨, ♻, ♿, ⚓, ⚡, ⚽, ⚾, ⛄, ⛅, ⛪, ⛲, ⛳, ⛵, ⛺, ⭐, ⛽, 🃏, 🌀, 🌁, 🌂, 🌃, 🌄, 🌅, 🌆, 🌇, 🌈, 🌉, 🌊, 🌋, 🌏, 🌙, 🌛, 🌟, 🌠, 🌰, 🌱, 🌴, 🌵, 🌷, 🌸, 🌹, 🌺, 🌻, 🌼, 🌽, 🌾, 🌿, 🍀, 🍁, 🍂, 🍃, 🍄, 🍅, 🍆, 🍇, 🍈, 🍉, 🍊, 🍌, 🍍, 🍎, 🍏, 🍑, 🍒, 🍓, 🍔, 🍕, 🍖, 🍗, 🍘, 🍙, 🍚, 🍛, 🍜, 🍝, 🍞, 🍟, 🍠, 🍡, 🍢, 🍣, 🍤, 🍥, 🍦, 🍧, 🍨, 🍩, 🍪, 🍫, 🍬, 🍭, 🍮, 🍯, 🍰, 🍱, 🍲, 🍳, 🍴, 🍵, 🍶, 🍷, 🍸, 🍹, 🍺, 🍻, 🎀, 🎁, 🎂, 🎃, 🎄, 🎅, 🎆, 🎇, 🎈, 🎉, 🎊, 🎋, 🎌, 🎍, 🎎, 🎏, 🎐, 🎑, 🎒, 🎓, 🎠, 🎡, 🎢, 🎣, 🎤, 🎥, 🎦, 🎧, 🎨, 🎩, 🎪, 🎫, 🎬, 🎭, 🎮, 🎯, 🎰, 🎱, 🎲, 🎳, 🎴, 🎵, 🎶, 🎷, 🎸, 🎹, 🎺, 🎻, 🎽, 🎾, 🎿, 🏀, 🏁, 🏂, 🏃, 🏄, 🏆, 🏈, 🏊, 🏠, 🏡, 🏢, 🏣, 🏥, 🏦, 🏧, 🏨, 🏩, 🏪, 🏫, 🏬, 🏭, 🏮, 🏯, 🏰, 🐌, 🐍, 🐎, 🐑, 🐒, 🐔, 🐗, 🐘, 🐙, 🐚, 🐛, 🐜, 🐝, 🐞, 🐟, 🐠, 🐡, 🐢, 🐣, 🐤, 🐥, 🐦, 🐧, 🐨, 🐩, 🐫, 🐬, 🐭, 🐮, 🐯, 🐰, 🐱, 🐲, 🐳, 🐴, 🐵, 🐶, 🐷, 🐸, 🐹, 🐺, 🐻, 🐼, 🐽, 🐾, 👀, 👂, 👃, 👄, 👅, 👆, 👇, 👈, 👉, 👊, 👋, 👌, 👍, 👎, 👏, 👐, 👑, 👒, 👓, 👔, 👕, 👖, 👗, 👘, 👙, 👚, 👛, 👜, 👝, 👞, 👟, 👠, 👡, 👢, 👣, 👤, 👦, 👧, 👨, 👩, 👪, 👫, 👮, 👯, 👰, 👱, 👴, 👶, 👷, 👸, 👹, 👺, 👻, 👼, 👽, 👾, 👿, 💀, 💁, 💂, 💃, 💄, 💅, 💆, 💇, 💈, 💉, 💊, 💋, 💌, 💍, 💎, 💏, 💐, 💑, 💒, 💓, 💔, 💕, 💖, 💗, 💘, 💙, 💚, 💛, 💜, 💝, 💞, 💟, 💠, 💡, 💢, 💣, 💤, 💥, 💦, 💧, 💨, 💩, 💪, 💫, 💬, 💮, 💯, 💰, 💲, 💳, 💵, 💸, 💺, 💻, 💼, 💽, 💾, 💿, 📀, 📃, 📅, 📆, 📈, 📉, 📌, 📍, 📎, 📓, 📔, 📕, 📖, 📞, 📟, 📠, 📡, 📣, 📦, 📧, 📫, 📰, 📱, 📷, 📹, 📺, 📻, 📼, 🔊, 🔋, 🔌, 🔎, 🔐, 🔑, 🔒, 🔓, 🔔, 🔜, 🔥, 🔦, 🔧, 🔨, 🔩, 🔪, 🔫, 🔮, 🗻, 🗼, 🗽, 🗾, 🗿, 😴, 🚁, 🚂, 🚆, 🚈, 🚊, 🚍, 🚎, 🚐, 🚔, 🚖, 🚘, 🚛, 🚜, 🚝, 🚞, 🚟, 🚠, 🚡, 🚣, 🚦, 🚮, 🚵, 🚿, 🛁, 🌍, 🌎, 🌜, 🌝, 🌞, 🌲, 🌳, 🍋, 🍐, 🍼, 🏇, 🏉, 🏤, 🐀, 🐁, 🐂, 🐃, 🐄, 🐅, 🐆, 🐇, 🐈, 🐉, 🐊, 🐋, 🐏, 🐐, 🐓, 🐕, 🐖, 🐪, 👬, 👭, 📬, 📭, 📯, 🔬, 🔭 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 07:38, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
::Those are mostly the SAME character. An eye chart.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.191|108.162.238.191]] 14:12, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I added them to the page body in table form (my two new favourite tools for the day: [http://rishida.net/tools/conversion/ Bulk unicode code converter] and [http://excel2wiki.net/ Excel to Mediawiki table converter]). However, even converted to three columns, it does seem to take over the page somewhat; it's nice to have the descriptions, but maybe a simple character list like yours would be better. [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 07:44, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: Moved the emoji list to a separate page, problem solved (or at least deferred). [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 08:04, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:::No numerals, weirdly enough. [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 12:09, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Most of the characters show up as squares with hex digits for me, both on the comic itself and on this wiki. Bad choice of font, I guess... Randall should learn how to use web fonts. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.91|141.101.91.91]] 09:04, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I wonder if this is related to "Machine of Death" (see http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121). It's a collection of stories that were written by many different people. The story-starter was that a machine existed that could tell you the manner in which you would die, The day you turned a certain age, you could insert money or a credit card, it would take a tiny blood sample, and spit out a piece of paper with your manner of death. But no specifics were given. Thus, "swimming pool" might cause you to avoid swimming in pools, but one day you'd die after being hit by a truck delivering a prefab pool to some distant location. I believe the xkcd cartoonist (I'm blanking on his name--sorry--it's early and I'm old) had a hand in that book. The emoji concept is similar--even after you decipher "your" symbol's/symbols' meaning, you know nothing. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.150}}
** You're thinking of Ryan North, of [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php| Dinosaur comics]. Munroe (the actual author of XKCD) is clearly well aquinted with (at least that part of) North's body of work, so the "How will I die" line could be a reference. Then again, it's a common enough question (along with "does Bobby like me") [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.164|108.162.254.164]] 12:54, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
::: Machine of death is a collection of short stories. Munroe wrote one of them. He is well acquainted with MoD. I would suggest that Machine of Death be added to the description as a reference for "how will I die?" as the default question. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.182|173.245.54.182]] 13:48, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

This comic does not have a title text which is uncommon. Should this be mentioned in the article? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.135|141.101.92.135]] 11:03, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I see this cartoon as a comment on the stupid questions asked of these "magic 8-ball"-type devices, and the expectation that the answer gained will have any relevance - i.e., ask a silly question and you'll get a silly answer." [[User:Grutness|Grutness]] ([[User talk:Grutness|talk]]) 12:07, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

:I think it is a shame that this was not tested on linux. I see a bunch of squares with numbers. I am running a modern version of Mint and I have no intention of installing icon based fonts on my system. How very windows. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.160|173.245.48.160]] 13:56, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
::This isn't a Windows vs Linux thing, this is a do you have a font that includes additional symbols thing. For my part, it didn't work in multiple browsers on my Mint Linux box, but it also didn't work on a Windows XP box. It did work on a Windows 7 box.[[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:24, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:::This displays correctly for me on Linux Fedora 20 which I installed about two months ago. I have not installed any extra fonts (directly), but it is possible that some packages I have installed added more fonts. [[User:Walenc|Walenc]] ([[User talk:Walenc|talk]]) 08:00, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Could someone on a system with the right fonts replace the picture above with a picture showing emoji, i.e. showing the after-clicking-the-button version of the picture rather than the before version. Or better yet, an animated GIF showing both states. I think that would really help explain it for those for whom the interactive version isn't working properly and they're only seeing squares.[[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:04, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

The number of people in this discussion who simply don't understand the concept of Unicode is appalling. Come on, people... there is no "right" font or "wrong" font. There are only fonts (and operating systems) ''with'' complete Unicode support, and fonts (or operating systems) ''without'' complete Unicode support. NO, you don't need to install an icon font, because the font has nothing to do with the Unicode specification. NO, there is no need for Randall to use web fonts (forcing every user to see the comic with the same font) because the whole point of having a Unicode standard is that many different OSes and fonts can support it. If ''your'' system doesn't render Unicode emoji properly, ''then update your system.'' (The latest versions of OS X and iOS, for example, have no trouble rendering this comic, regardless of what font your browser is set to use.) Don't blame Randall for the fact that ''you're'' running out-of-date technology. I thought XKCD readers were generally more technically-literate than that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.187|108.162.238.187]] 21:02, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Try using a smartphone .Emoji are made for smartphone. {{unsigned ip|108.162.231.53}}
:Nope. Black squares on a smart phone. I'm fairly sure the joke is that people think they're sending you emoticons when they're sending you useless eye charts or black squares. There's nothing here. No emoji. Nothing. Checked on all all sorts of sources, and others are saying the same thing. You can't fool me. I'm not afraid to say the emperor isn't wearing any clothes. The question is, are you?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.191|108.162.238.191]] 17:04, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

People act all superior when they talk down to people who use emoji, but what do you care how other people communicate? [[User:YourLifeisaLie|Yourlifeisalie]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 16:00, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I see gun, is it a price question?
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.223|141.101.89.223]] 16:40, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Chrome users can install the [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/emojify/lpkndkffkmhcdkkdmeeelikmadjjmebe/reviews?hl=en](Emojify) extension to view this comic properly. I downloaded it specifically to view this comic, so I have no idea if it contains malware or hogs resources.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.194|173.245.54.194]] 17:51, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

When I clicked the initial 'How Will I Die?,' I got the symbols for Bank and pushpin, so presumably I will die in a bank stickup. Not the worst way, but my next bank visit may be a bit fraught. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 23:06, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Hmmm... I don't think that [https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiSG93IHdpbGwgSSBkaWU/IiwiYSI6WyImI3gyNjAxOyJdfQ== this] is an emoji [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 11:45, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

References to meaningless square symbols only make sense on systems that don't support Emoji, like most Windows boxes. On any current Apple device, the emoji show up properly. I don't think the explanation on meaningless symbols actually fits...[[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.167|108.162.222.167]] 04:45, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

I asked what life would be like after Covid-19. The choice of emoji it responded with [https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hhdCB3aWxsIGxpZmUgYmUgbGlrZSBhZnRlciBDT1ZJRC0xOT8iLCJhIjpbIiYjeDI2N0Y7Il19 wasn't very upbeat...] --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.152|141.101.98.152]] 03:54, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
What does tree and cyclone mean?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.88|172.69.68.88]] 17:22, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2022-04-27T17:21:28Z

172.69.68.88: