explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2263: Cicadas

2022-06-18T01:14:12Z

172.69.70.159: where -> were typo fix

{{comic
| number = 2263
| date = February 3, 2020
| title = Cicadas
| image = cicadas.png
| titletext = After a while you adjust to the new cicadian rhythm.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Cicada|Cicadas}} are a species of insect whose nymphs burrow underground and emerge as adults to reproduce several years later. One common species in North America is the 17-year cicada, also known as the {{w|periodical cicada}}. These cicadas form distinct {{w|Periodical_cicadas#Map_of_brood_locations|broods}} which burrow and emerge as a group every 17 years, with different broods starting the cycle at different times. This results in a couple of weeks every 17 years when the cicadas swarm in huge numbers, then vanish just as quickly when the adults die off. Cicadas also make a distinctive buzzing sound, which makes their periodic appearance even more memorable.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] have accidentally created 17-''second'' cicadas using {{w|genetic engineering}}. This means that rather than seeing a massive swarm every 17 years that lasts for a few weeks, they have to deal with a swarm every 17 seconds that lasts for a few moments. This makes it very difficult for them to do their work, especially to figure out how the cicadas were created because the swarm keeps interrupting their work. Note that the comic has been drawn differently than most other straight four-panel comics, probably to highlight the interruptions of the buzzing swarm - see the [[#Transcript|transcript]]. Also see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]] below for more details on the 17-year cicadas. Those were once again referenced in the title text of [[2633: Astronomer Hotline]].

The title text is a pun on "{{w|circadian rhythm}}." In particular, it might resemble something said to someone getting adjusted to a new sleep schedule. But here it is the 17 seconds interruption, not a time zone shift, that has to be adjusted for.

This entire comic seems to only have been a lead-up to the "cicadian rhythm" punchline. This is an interesting suggestion since [[Randall]] has mentioned in an interview that he makes up the title text after completing the comic.{{Actual citation needed}} Seems like he made an exception here; unless he didn't.

==Transcript==
:[This comic is laid out in a variation of a regular four-panel comic. One wide panel is overlaid by two smaller panels, which are placed where the second and fourth panels would be. These panels are slightly offset so they extend above the wide panel.]

:[Cueball and Ponytail are facing each other across a desk while having a conversation. Cueball is holding up a tablet in his hand while Ponytail is typing at a laptop on the desk.]
:Cueball: What can you tell from genome comparison?
:Ponytail: I think there's a duplication on the -
:Ponytail: ''Look out!''

:[An overlaid panel shows that the air is full of flying cicadas, many of which have landed on Cueball, Ponytail, the laptop, the tablet, and the desk. Ponytail and Cueball have their arms up in a futile attempt to shield themselves from the bugs, with Cueball having put the tablet down on the table.]
:<big>'''''Bzzzzzzz'''''</big>

:[The cicadas are gone, and Cueball and Ponytail resume their conversation. Cueball has picked up the tablet again]
:Ponytail: - a duplication on the gene right before the cleavage site, so the resulting protein -
:Ponytail: ''Look out!''

:[An overlaid panel shows that the air is again full of flying cicadas, which have once again landed on Cueball, Ponytail, the laptop, the tablet, and the desk. Ponytail and Cueball have raised their arms to shield themselves again.]
:<big>'''''Bzzzzzzz'''''</big>

:[Caption below the large panel:]
:Our genetics work has produced 17-second cicadas, but we're having a hard time figuring out how.

==Trivia==
The widely-accepted scientific explanation for the long and seemingly arbitrary 17-year lifecycle is that seventeen is a {{w|prime number}} - it's believed that this is an evolutionary adaptation against lifecycles of competitors taking easy advantage of the cicada as a food source (if a predator) or emerging early to dominate their shared food source (if a fellow feeder), since 17 years cannot be divided by any whole number of years other than itself and 1.

A 16-year cicada might find a creature with an 8-year, 4-year, or [[1602:_Linguistics_Club|biennial]] cycle could profit from it in a 'clash' of expectations, but only a cycle that is a multiple of 17 (by an identical accident of evolution, that must also match the 'beat' years of the Cicada to be useful) would affect the presumed ancestors of the comic-strip breed. Predators often work to yearly cycles of plenty and scarcity of food or can survive a low number of famine years between the better ones, but if they have less than one year of 'bounty' for every decade or so of 'normal' feeding then they cannot build up the numbers needed to threaten such prey that plays the long-game.

Other broods of cicada have 13-year lifecycles (the next lowest prime number), and would potentially clash for resources (or hybridize) only every 221 years. Even if this causes a single bad cycle, for both sub-species, the next cycle of appearance is their own once more (for each) and the respective populations have plenty of opportunity to recover from this event by the time a further two centuries pass. Thus it is theorized the happenstance evolution of a period of dormancy that gives a cycle of a significantly large prime-number of years - though still low enough to ''survive'' that period - is ultimately more advantageous than any cousins who tried to evolve to a period with smaller factors/shorter harmonics.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:2632: Greatest Scientist

2022-06-13T21:53:04Z

172.69.70.159: Viviani

If anyone knows how to get this to work with the bar at the top, please do it! [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:32, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:[[User:SqueakSquawk4]] for everything to display correctly I think you need to follow the steps here: [[User:DgbrtBOT#When_the_BOT_fails...]] [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 18:43, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
::A) Following them now. B) Bookmarked. [[User:SqueakSquawk4|SqueakSquawk4]] ([[User talk:SqueakSquawk4|talk]]) 18:45, 13 June 2022 (UTC)
:::Should be fixed now. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 18:49, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

Saying Viviani already proved that the acceleration due to gravity on an object is independent of mass runs into a snag: Viviani suggest that it was Galileo who showed him that. So whether Galileo actually dropped any balls from the Tower of Pisa or was even the first to assert the principle in writing, he seems to be the driving force behind Vivian's proofs of it. Dismissing Galileo here is wrong. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 21:53, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

2627: Types of Scopes

2022-06-12T10:35:07Z

172.69.70.159: /* Explanation */ grammatical note

{{comic
| number = 2627
| date = June 1, 2022
| title = Types of Scopes
| image = types_of_scopes.png
| titletext = An x-ray gyroscope is used to determine exactly which toppings they included in the pita.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WHO DIDN'T REMEMBER TO STOP TROLLS FROM SPAMMING THE WRONG IMAGE AND THIS EDITOR IS REALLY SALTY ABOUT THAT...-OSCOPE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
''{{w|Electron microscopes}}'', ''{{w|Calorimetric Electron Telescope|electron telescopes}}'' and ''{{w|radio telescopes}}'' are special forms of {{w|microscopes}} and {{w|telescopes}}, respectively. This comic explores what you could do with a hypothetical "electron ___-scope" and "radio ___-scope" for other "regular" items whose name also ends in -scope (namely: {{w|periscope}}, {{w|stethoscope}}, {{w|kaleidoscope}}, {{w|gyroscope}} and {{w|horoscope}}).

The third column with "radio" often plays on different meanings of the word ''radio:'' 1) related to radiation and 2) a device for receiving radio communication or broadcasts.

The title text makes a pun on "gyroscope" and a middle-eastern pita wrap called a "{{w|gyros}}", incorrectly taken to be plural by many non-Greek speakers.
===Table with scopes===
{| class="wikitable"
|+ What the words could mean according to the comic
|-
! Word !! Regular ___ !! Electron ___ !! Radio ___
|-
| {{w|Microscope}} || A laboratory instrument used for magnifying small objects. || ''{{w|Electron Microscope|Really exists:}}'' A microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination has a higher resolution than a conventional microscope. || Simply a microscope that one would use when repairing a radio.
|-
| {{w|Telescope}} || An optical instrument used for observing distant objects. || ''{{w|Calorimetric Electron Telescope|''Really exists''}}'': A type of telescope used to detect electrons and other high-energy particles, such as cosmic rays. || ''{{w|Radio Telescope|Really exists:}}'' A directional antenna is used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky.
|-
| {{w|Periscope }}|| Periscopes allow submarine crews to watch what happens above the water surface, without exposing the submarine to enemy observers, or enemy radars. In practice, periscope use is minimized because periscopes are still observable, but to a lesser degree. || An electron microscope seemingly mounted on a periscope. Examining enemy boats like a periscope, with the detail of an electron microscope. This would not be useful in combat.{{Citation needed}} || In principle, the German navy invented radio periscopes during World War II. The {{w|Metox radar detector}}'s early antenna had to be built up after surfacing and dismantled before diving. Later, the fixed ''Bali'' antenna could act as a true periscope, in order to detect aircraft and ships that were using radar to hunt submarines.

Radio signals do not propagate well in water, so raising a radio receiver above the water would be necessary for listening to {{w|NPR}} (National Public Radio, a popular public radio network in the United States) or any radio station which is not in the {{w|extremely low frequency}} band.
|-
| {{w|Stethoscope}}
|| A medical device for listening to sounds made by a patient's body, for example, the heart. It has a disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the patient's skin.
|| If the resonator is emitting electromagnetic radiation, it could burn the skin due to its close proximity.
|| Normally, the sounds are transmitted to an earpiece that the examiner wears. There are also recording stethoscopes. A radio stethoscope would transmit the sound either directly via radio waves, or send it to a radio station such as NPR where it could then be broadcasted.
|-
| {{w|Kaleidoscope}} || A optical instrument that uses two or more tilted reflectors to show a regular symmetrical pattern || Seemingly a pun of electron "collide"-scope, as electron collisions generate {{w|Bremsstrahlung}}. || The scan button on a radio scans through many frequencies, and the radio station changes a lot, depending on the frequency. The rapid change is reminiscent of a normal kaleidoscope.
|-
| {{w|Gyroscope}} || Gyroscopes are used for {{w|inertial navigation}}, for example. || Gyroscopes make stuff point in certain directions by spinning. An {{w|Electromagnet}} uses sometimes-spinning electric fields to induce a magnetic field, moving magnetic stuff and, in some instances, making it point in a certain direction. || A {{w|phonograph}}, also called a record player or a turntable, spins a {{w|Phonograph record|vinyl record}} to stimulate an electromagnetic needle, which plays music. Such devices are common in radio stations.

In theory, radio waves could be sent around in a triangular pattern, thus replicating the existing {{w|ring laser gyroscope}}.
|-
| {{w|Horoscope}}
|| In common usage, predictions or advice is given based on the position of stars and planets. Largely unscientific, it is much closer to a {{w|Rorschach_test}} than person-specific information.
|| Predicting the position of a particle, such as an electron (possibly based on the position of stars and planets). In a funny twist, the exact location of an electron cannot be determined, due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
|| This seems to be little different from a regular horoscope, but recording the movement and position of the stars and galaxies with a radio telescope instead of a regular telescope.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Content is a table, with column headings "Regular ''Blank'' Scope", "Electron ''Blank'' Scope", and "Radio ''Blank'' Scope". Row headings are "Micro", "Tele", "Peri", "Stetho", "Kaleido", "Gyro", and "Horo".

;Regular Microscope
:Look at small stuff
;Electron Microscope
:Look at ''really'' small stuff
;Radio Microscope
:Figure out why your radio broke
;Regular Telescope
:Look at stuff that's far away
;Electron Telescope
:Detect cosmic rays
;Radio Telescope
:Look at distant high-energy stuff
;Regular Periscope
:Look for enemy ships
;Electron Periscope
:Examine the hull of an enemy ship for structural flaws
;Radio Periscope
:Let the crew of your submarine listen to NPR
;Regular Stethoscope
:Listen to a patient's chest
;Electron Stethoscope
:Burn a patient's skin
;Radio Stethoscope
:Play the noises from a patient's chest on NPR
;Regular Kaleidoscope
:See cool shapes and colors
;Electron Kaleidoscope
:See cool Bremsstrahlung
;Radio Kaleidoscope
:Another word for the "Scan" button
;Regular Gyroscope
:Balance by spinning
;Electron Gyroscope
:Another word for electromagnet
;Radio Gyroscope
:Another word for turntable
;Regular Horoscope
:Get random life advice
;Electron Horoscope
:Predict a particle's quantum state
;Radio Horoscope
:Get random life advice from exploding galaxies

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Space]]

Talk:250: Snopes

2022-06-11T18:23:14Z

172.69.70.159:

First![[User:Unpopular Opinions|Unpopular Opinions]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 17:19, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Should it be mentioned that [[509: Induced Current]] is related to the title text? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.28|162.158.62.28]] 16:42, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

What if the [[User:X._K._C._D.|crapper]] is run by an admin so that people would have a vandal (spammer) to fight? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 18:23, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

2629: Or Whatever

2022-06-07T13:35:25Z

172.69.70.159:

{{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 metre 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]]

1083: Writing Styles

2022-05-26T17:24:09Z

172.69.70.159: Undo revision 277417 by Donald Trump (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1083
| date = July 18, 2012
| title = Writing Styles
| image = writing_styles.png
| titletext = I liked the idea, suggested by h00k on bash.org, of a Twitter bot that messages prominent politicians to tell them when they've unnecessarily used sms-speak abbreviations despite having plenty of characters left.
}}

==Explanation==
Sms-speak is a style of communication which involves substituting numbers for letters and shortening phrases to get a longer idea across in fewer characters at the cost of readability. The practice began first with text messages, also known as {{w|Short Message Service|SMS}}, or Short Message Service, which limited messages to 160 characters. Twitter has adopted a 140 character limit since its inception, which allowed any given tweet to be received as an SMS message with enough room for the user's Twitter handle (15 characters max).

Randall is poking fun at both the stereotypical Senator and at teenagers supporting Ron Paul.

The dig at the senator refers to poor use of sms-style abbreviations by older, less tech-savvy politicians who are hoping to appear more in tune with the modern world. Many politicians use sms-speak in cases when their message isn't in danger of the character limit, but where they are appealing to a younger demographic, thinking it makes them appear to be "modern" to their target audience. In reality, it may do the opposite, showing that they do not understand why sms-speak is used at all.

Conversely modern teenagers, often stereotyped as lacking proper writing skills due to character limits on services such as SMS and twitter, instead here produce coherent sentences expressing a political view (this is later discussed in [[1414: Writing Skills]]). There is a subtle dig that being drawn to [[:Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul|Ron Paul]] is a stereotypical political position for a teenager, as Paul is ideologically libertarian, and the implication is that libertarianism is a position held while younger and politically or economically naive. Randall has also poked fun at libertarianism on several other occasions, such as [[610: Sheeple]], [[1026: Compare and Contrast]], [[1049: Bookshelf]] and [[1277: Ayn Random]]. The teenager's tweet is almost identical to the stereotypical Paul-ite comment made fun of in the title text to [[1026]]: "Only Ron Paul offers a TRUE alternative!"

A few years ago, the sentence attributed to the teenager is the sort of thing that would stereotypically be assigned to a senator, while the sentence attributed to the senator would be stereotypically assigned to a teenager - however, now the situation has changed and so Randall comments that the internet has ended up in "kind of a weird place".

The title text discusses an idea that Randall approves of, [http://bash.org/?946687 originally suggested] by a user on bash.org called h00k, where a twitter bot be created to message politicians when they use sms-speak unnecessarily. This would presumably embarrass said politicians, which might in turn lead to a decrease in their use of sms-speak. Randall evidently considers this a good thing, suggesting he finds the unnecessary use of sms-speak annoying.

==Transcript==
:[This is a chart with the above two labeled columns. The rows will be represented below in the same format.]
:If you post: you sound like
:"Ron Paul is the only candidate who offers us a real choice!": A teenager
:"its gettin l8 so ill b here 4 prob 2 more hrs tops": A senator
:The internet has wound up in kind of a weird place.

==Trivia==
When this comic came out in 2012, the twitter limit was actually 140 characters. It has since doubled to 280, to allow longer messages, and due to the declining popularity of SMS.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ron Paul]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]

2620: Health Data

2022-05-16T23:41:39Z

172.69.70.159:

{{comic
| number = 2620
| date = May 16, 2022
| title = Health Data
| image = health_data.png
| titletext = Donate now to help us find a cure for causality. No one should have to suffer through events because of other events.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page has always existed, and is therefore immune from causality-related aliments. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

1529: Bracket

2022-05-13T02:20:42Z

172.69.70.159: /* Table of the bracket */

{{comic
| number = 1529
| date = May 25, 2015
| title = Bracket
| image = bracket.png
| titletext = I'm staring at the "doctor" section, and I can't help but feel like I've forgotten someone.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} shows the planned series of matchups in a tournament. In this comic [[Randall]] has shown a plan for a tournament between a wide range of cultural icons, both real and fictional, based mostly on similarities in their names. Various Internet groups have speculated on who would win in a fight between characters from different films. It may be relevant that the film {{w|Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice}} was soon to be released at the time the comic was made where the two eponymous {{w|superheroes}}, {{w|Batman}} and {{w|Superman}}, fight against each other.

The individual starting pairings are generally based on common or similar given names or surnames. Some adjacent brackets are "segued" by someone like Jeff Daniels, who segues from a bracket of "Jeff"s into a bracket of "Daniels"es. The bracket itself is fairly arbitrary. Most initial matchups are pairs, although several are trios and there's a quadruplet in the Russels group, while a single entry, {{w|Beyoncé}}, is given a first- and second-round {{w|bye (sports)|bye}}. Most of the participants in the tournament are people, with a few exceptions. {{w|Shallots}} (small onions), {{w|scallops}} (bivalve mollusks), and {{w|scallions}} (green onions) are similar sounding foods, therefore may be confusing for some individuals (perhaps including [[Randall]]). The final grouping on the lower right of the bracket features a several retail stores and a film.

The [[title text]] possibly refers to {{w|Dr. Dre}}, particularly as a reference to his 2001 song "{{w|Forgot About Dre}}". Alternatively, the title text could simply be a reference to the large number of pop culture personas that include the word "Doctor", such as {{w|Gregory House|Doctor House}}, {{w|Mehmet Oz|Dr. Oz}}, {{w|Phil McGraw|Dr. Phil}}, {{w|Dr. Watson}}, {{w|Emmett Brown|"Doc" Brown}}, {{w|Dr. Seuss}}, {{w|Dr Pepper}}, {{w|Doctor Doom}}, {{w|Zoidberg|Dr. Zoidberg}}, {{w|Dr. Horrible}}'s Sing-Along Blog and {{w|List of fictional doctors|many others}}. Another simpler explanation is that it would cause the reader to question "Doctor Who?" answering their own question, although this answer would be incorrect because The Doctor is already present. It could also be a reference to the dual meaning of "The Doctor," either he meant to include Time Lord from Doctor Who and forgot about the EMH from Voyager, or he remembered the EMH and forgot the Time Lord.

The incentive for the comic may have been the {{w|2015 French Open|French Open 2015}}, which started on the day of the publication.

The comic inspired several groups to play out versions of the bracket. One user-voting based match-up on twitter, [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket XKCD Bracket], was featured by Randall on the xkcd home page, with a link at at the top of the website, although the account was not created by Randall. (The link was part of a "news" flash, the other was regarding his book based on [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. See more on this news in that comics explanation). In the final match on July 29, Neil Armstrong defeated Mister Spock (see the [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLKJUpFWIAAlDnW.png:orig complete bracket]). The link was removed sometimes before Monday, 10 August 2015, within two weeks of the final result being revealed.

Later Randall has made one smaller but similar bracket in [[1819: Sweet 16]], and then an interactive [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comics]] in 2019, with an even larger bracket for determining the best emoji in [[2131: Emojidome]]. The bracket for this comic was shown with links from the comic during the matches.

===Table of the bracket===
*The names and other entries in the bracket are given here below, sorted to explain why the individual entries have been grouped as they are.
*The first-round match-ups are grouped by shading.

{| class="wikitable"
!Grouping
!Subgrouping
!Person/Entry
!Known as
!Winning probability
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="4"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Armstrong
|{{w|Louis Armstrong}}
|Jazz-musician
| rowspan="4" |1/32
|-
|{{w|Neil Armstrong}}
|First human on the moon
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Lance Armstrong}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Cyclist
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Stretch Armstrong}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Action figure
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Jeff *
|Jeff Gordan (Probably {{w|Jeff Gordon}})
|Retired race car driver
| rowspan="9" |1/64
|-
|{{w|Jeff Bridges}}
|Actor in ''King Kong'', ''The Big Lebowski'', ''Iron Man'', ''Tron: Legacy''
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Jeff Daniels}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Dumb and Dumber''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|J* Daniels
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jack Daniel's|Jack Daniels}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Alcoholic beverages
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="4"|<nowiki>*</nowiki>Well<nowiki>*</nowiki>
|{{w|Orson Welles}}
|Director of ''{{w|Citizen Kane}}'' and known for his {{w|The War of the Worlds (radio drama)|radio-play}} of {{w|H. G. Wells}}' ''{{w|The War of the Worlds}}''
|-
|{{w|H.G. Wells}}
|Author, known for ''The War of the Worlds'' and ''{{w|The Time Machine}}''
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|George Orwell}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Author of ''{{w|Nineteen Eighty-Four}}'' and ''{{w|Animal Farm}}''
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Wells Fargo}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Bank and stage coach company
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="4"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Russell *
|{{w|Kurt Russell}}
|Actor in ''John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.'', ''The Thing'', ''Big Trouble in Little China'', ''Stargate'', ''Fast & Furious 7''
| rowspan="5" |1/128
|-
|{{w|Russell Brand}}
|Comedian
|-
|{{w|Russell Crowe}}
|Actor in ''Gladiator'', ''A Beautiful Mind'', ''Les Misérables'', ''Noah''
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Russell Simmons}}
|rowspan="2"|Rapper
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Simmons
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Richard Simmons}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Host of exercise programs
| rowspan="3" |1/64
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Gene Simmons}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Musician, known from ''KISS''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Gene <nowiki>*</nowiki>
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Gene Hackman}}
|rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Superman''
|rowspan="5" |1/96
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|<nowiki>*</nowiki>ckman
|-
|{{w|Hugh Jackman}}
|Actor in the ''{{w|X-Men}}'' franchise as {{w|Wolverine (character)|Wolverine}}
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Alan Rickman}}
|rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Die Hard'', ''Harry Potter'' franchise, ''The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy''
|-
|rowspan="3"|Alan <nowiki>*</nowiki>
|-
|rowspan="2"|Alan Par*
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Alan Parsons}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Musician
|rowspan="7" |1/64
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Alan Partridge}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Fictional radio character
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> McCarthy
|{{w|Jenny McCarthy}}
|Anti-vaccination activist
|-
|{{w|Joseph McCarthy}}
|American Senator known for anti-communist policies.
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Eugene McCarthy}}
|rowspan="2"|Senator and Presidential candidate
|-
|rowspan="3"|<nowiki>*</nowiki>gene<nowiki>*</nowiki>
|rowspan="2"|Eugene <nowiki>*</nowiki>
|-
|{{w|Eugene V. Debs}}
|Labor leader
|-
|rowspan="3"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Wilde*
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Gene Wilder}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor in ''Young Frankenstein'', ''Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory''
| rowspan="4" |1/96
|-
|rowspan="2"|
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Olivia Wilde}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actress in ''Tron: Legacy'', ''Her'', ''House M.D.''
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Oscar Wilde}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Writer
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Oscar *
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Oscar De La Renta}}
|rowspan="2"|Fashion Designer
|rowspan="3"|1/32
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Oscar De La *
|-
|{{w|Oscar De La Hoya}}
|Boxer
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Jack Nic*
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jack Nicklaus}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Golf player
| rowspan="9" |1/32
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Jack Nicholson}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Actor in ''One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'', ''The Shining'', ''Batman'', ''Witches of Eastwick'', ''The Bucketlist''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|<nowiki>*</nowiki>ichol* / *ickel* / *ickle*
|-
|{{w|Phil Mickelson}}
|Golf player
|-
|{{w|Nicholas Nickleby}}
|Charles Dickens protagonist in the novel by the same name
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki>ryan Adams
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Ryan Adams}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Singer
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Bryan Adams}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Singer
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Singers with Stage Names Referencing Weight/Games
|{{w|Chubby Checker}}
|Singer famous for "The Twist"
|-
|{{w|Fats Domino}}
|Rock and Roll Singer
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Colin F*
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Colin Firth}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor, ''Pride and Prejudice'', ''Love Actually''
| rowspan="5" |1/64
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Colin Farrell}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Daredevil'', ''In Bruges'', ''Total Recall''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|F*rell*
|-
|{{w|Will Ferrell}}
|Comic actor, ''Anchorman'' and ''The Other Guys''
|-
|{{w|The Farrelly Brothers}}
|Comedy film-makers
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|J<nowiki>*</nowiki> * *evitt/*ewitt (three names)
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Joseph Gordon-Levitt}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor in ''Third Rock from the Sun'', ''Dark Knight Rises''
| rowspan="2" |1/32
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jennifer Love Hewitt}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actress in ''Garfield: The Movie'' 
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|D* Glover
|{{w|Danny Glover}}
|Actor, ''Lethal Weapon'' series
| rowspan="7" |1/64
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Donald Glover}}
|rowspan="2"|Actor, ''Community'', also a rapper, aka ''Childish Gambino''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Don*
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Donnie Wahlberg}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Singer, ''{{w|New Kids on the Block}}'', actor, ''Blue Bloods''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Wahlberg
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Mark Wahlberg}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Actor in ''The Departed'', ''The Other Guys'', and former hip-hop singer for ''Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Mark *
|-
|{{w|Mark Ruffalo}}
|Actor, known for his role as {{w|Hulk (comics)|the Hulk}} in the film ''{{w|The Avengers (2012 film)|The Avengers}}''
| rowspan="2" |1/32
|-
|{{w|Mark Shuttleworth}}
|Entrepreneur, founder of {{w|Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu}}
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Pullman
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Philip Pullman}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Author, ''His Dark Materials'' and ''The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ''
|rowspan="4"|1/48
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Bill Pullman}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Spaceballs'', and ''Independence Day''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Bill *
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Bill Paxton}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor in ''Apollo 13'', ''Aliens''
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Bill Murray}}
|rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Ghostbusters'', ''Groundhog Day''
|rowspan="3"|1/32
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Ghostbusters/SNL alumni
|-
|{{w|Dan Aykroyd}}
|Actor in ''Ghostbusters'', ''The Blues Brothers''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Rogers
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Ginger Rogers}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actress known for dancing with {{w|Fred Astaire}}
|rowspan="2"|1/64
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Mister/Fred Astaire/Rogers
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Confusing reference to {{w|Fred Rogers}} (host of children's show, popularly known as "Mister Rogers") and to {{w|Fred Astaire}} (Dancer, actor, and singer)
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Spock
|{{w|Mister Spock}}
|Character on ''Star Trek'' portrayed by {{w|Leonard Nimoy}}
|rowspan="10"|1/96
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Doctor Spock}}
|rowspan="2"|Author of book on childcare
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="8"|Doctors
|-
|{{w|Doctor Octopus}}
|Villain in Spider-Man comic books
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Doctor Manhattan}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Character in Alan Moore's Watchmen
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Doctor Strangelove}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Character in a movie about nuclear war by {{w|Stanley Kubrick}}
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Doctor Strange}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Sorceror Supreme in Marvel Comics
|-
|{{w|Julius No|Dr. No}}
|Main villain in the {{w|Dr. No (film)|first James Bond movie}}
|-
|The Doctor
|Ambiguous reference to either the {{w|The Doctor (Doctor Who)|main protagonist}} of the science fiction series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' or the {{w|Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager)|emergency medical hologram}} in ''{{w|Star Trek: Voyager}}''.
|-
|{{w|Cory Doctorow}}
|Real person - [[:Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow| who has been in a number of xkcd comics]]
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|J* Lewis
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jerry Lee Lewis}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Rock and Roll singer
|rowspan="9"|1/32
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Jerry Lewis}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Comedian and former chairman of charitable organization
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Jenny Lewis}}
|rowspan="2"|Indie singer-songwriter
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Sounds like *"enny"
|-
|{{w|Xeni Jardin}}
|Digital commentator, Boing Boing co-editor
|-
|rowspan="4"|Chris *
|rowspan="2"|Chris * (Avengers actors)
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Chris Evans (actor)|Chris Evans}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor, ''Captain America''
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Chris Hemsworth}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor, ''Thor''
|-
|rowspan="2"|Chris P*
|{{w|Chris Pine}}
|Actor, ''Star Trek'', ''Wonder Woman''
|-
|{{w|Chris Pratt}}
|Actor, ''Guardians of the Galaxy''
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|S*all*o*s Foods
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Shallots}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Small onions (although the word 'shallot' can also refer to green onions in some dialects)
|rowspan="3"|1/96
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Scallops}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Bivalve mollusks
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Scallions}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Green onions.
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Suz* (Similar phonetics)
|{{w|Siouxie Sioux}}
|Rock singer
|rowspan="2"|1/64
|-
|{{w|Suzanne Vega}}
|Folk rock singer-songwriter
|-

|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|<nowiki>*</nowiki> Arnold *
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Tom Arnold (actor)|Tom Arnold}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Actor; ex-husband of {{w|Roseanne Barr}}
|rowspan="4"|1/48
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Arnold Palmer}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Golf player
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|A* Palmer
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Amanda Palmer}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Singer/songwriter
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Wes *
|{{w|Wes Craven}}
|Film maker
|rowspan="10"|1/64
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Wes Anderson}}
|rowspan="2"|Movie Director
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|* Anderson
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Paul Thomas Anderson}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Film maker
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|P*ul Anderson
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Poul Anderson}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Science fiction author
|-
|rowspan="3"|Sirs
|rowspan="2"|Sir Walter *
|{{w|Sir Walter Scott}}
|Scottish poet and writer
|-
|{{w|Sir Walter Raleigh}}
|British explorer of Virginia
|-

|rowspan="2"|Fran* Drake
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Sir Francis Drake}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|British explorer, 2nd to circumnavigate the Earth
|-
|
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Frank Drake}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Astrophysicist, SETI pioneer
|-
|rowspan="5"|"Van"
|rowspan="3"|Van *
|{{w|Van Halen}}
|Rock band
|rowspan="3"|1/96
|-
|{{w|Van Morrison}}
|Singer/songwriter
|-
|{{w|Van Wilder}}
|Comedy film
|-

|rowspan="2"|R* Van Winkle
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Robert Van Winkle}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|AKA Vanilla Ice, rapper
|rowspan="3"|1/64
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Rip Van Winkle}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Fictional character
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Rip/Torn
|-
|{{w|Rip Torn}}
|Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, actor on ''Cross Creek'', ''Larry Sanders Show''
|rowspan="2"|1/32
|-
|{{w|Natalie Imbruglia}}
|Singer of "Torn"
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Businesses with the word "Body" in their name
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|The Body Shop}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Shop
|rowspan="6"|1/64
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|{{w|Bath and Body Works}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6" rowspan="2"|Shop
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="2"|Businesses with the word "Bath" in their name
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{w|Bed Bath and Beyond}}
|rowspan="2"|Shop
|-
|colspan="2" rowspan="3"|Beyon*
|-
|{{w|Beyond Thunderdome}}
|Motion picture
|-
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|{{w|Beyoncé}}
|bgcolor="E6E6E6"|Singer
|1/16

|}

==Trivia==
*The "Chris" group (Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Chris Pratt) was later referenced in Chris Pine's opening monologue for SNL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGurtL83zhY
*Shallots, scallops and scallions were mentioned together in [[2372: Dialect Quiz]].

==Transcript==
:[A tournament bracket. With the names listed in groups on the left-hand side and right-hand side as shown below. Within individual groups the names are ordered in match-ups, two, three or even four in the first match. The last name on the right, Beyoncé, is not even matched for first round. The winners goes on to the next match, but there are many that skips some of the matches up until the quarterfinals, so some need to win 5 matches to reach the quarterfinals, others only need to win 4 of 3, and Beyoncé only 2. After the first level, the match-ups are always between two names. The two sides join up in a final in the middle, where the winner of the left side has a place for the name below and the winner of the right a place for the name above a central rectangular frame with place for the winners name. Below the pairing in the first round matches are mentioned above each of the clear groupings of the bracket.]
:{| class="wikitable" style="background:transparent;border:none;width:100%;"
| style="background:transparent;border:none;"|
 [These are paired two and two.]
 Louis Armstrong
 Neil Armstrong
 Lance Armstrong
 Stretch Armstrong

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Jeff Gordan
 Jeff Bridges
 Jeff Daniels
 Jack Daniels

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Orson Welles
 H.G. Wells
 George Orwell
 Wells Fargo

 [The first four, two, three and two are paired.]
 Kurt Russell
 Russell Brand
 Russell Crowe
 Russell Simmons
 Richard Simmons
 Gene Simmons
 Gene Hackman
 Hugh Jackman
 Alan Rickman
 Alan Parsons
 Alan Partridge

 [The first four, three and two are paired.]
 Jenny McCarthy
 Joseph McCarthy
 Eugene McCarthy
 Eugene V. Debs
 Gene Wilder
 Olivia Wilde
 Oscar Wilde
 Oscar De La Renta
 Oscar De La Hoya

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Jack Nicklaus
 Jack Nicholson
 Phil Mickelson
 Nicholas Nickelby

 [These are paired.]
 Ryan Adams
 Bryan Adams

 [These are paired.]
 Chubby Checker
 Fats Domino

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Colin Firth
 Colin Farrell
 Will Ferrell
 The Farrelly Brothers

 [These are paired.]
 Joseph Gordon-Levitt
 Jennifer Love Hewitt

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Danny Glover
 Donald Glover
 Donnie Wahlberg
 Mark Wahlberg
 Mark Ruffalo
 Mark Shuttleworth

| style="background:transparent;border:none;"|
 [The first three and two are paired.]
 Philip Pullman
 Bill Pullman
 Bill Paxton
 Bill Murray
 Dan Aykroyd

 [The first two, and then three times three are paired.]
 Ginger Rogers
 Fred Rogers|Mister/Fred Astaire/Rogers
 Mister Spock
 Doctor Spock
 Doctor Octopus
 Doctor Manhattan
 Doctor Strangelove
 Doctor Strange
 Dr. No
 The Doctor
 Cory Doctorow

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Jerry Lee Lewis
 Jerry Lewis
 Jenny Lewis
 Xeni Jardin

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Chris Evans
 Chris Hemsworth
 Chris Pine
 Chris Pratt

 [These are paired.]
 Shallots
 Scallops
 Scallions

 [These are paired.]
 Siouxie Sioux
 Suzanne Vega

 [These are paired.]
 Tom Arnold
 Arnold Palmer
 Amanda Palmer

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Wes Craven
 Wes Anderson
 Paul Thomas Anderson
 Poul Anderson

 [These are paired two and two.]
 Sir Walter Scott
 Sir Walter Raleigh
 Sir Francis Drake
 Frank Drake

 [The first three, two and two are paired.]
 Van Halen
 Van Morrison
 Van Wilder
 Robert Van Winkle
 Rip Van Winkle
 Rip Torn
 Natalie Imbruglia

 [The first four are paired two and two the last is the only one not paired.]
 The Body Shop
 Bath and Body Works
 Bed Bath and Beyond
 Beyond Thunderdome
 Beyoncé
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Tournament bracket]]

1573: Cyberintelligence

2022-05-11T18:34:52Z

172.69.70.159: Undo revision 266044 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1573
| date = September 4, 2015
| title = Cyberintelligence
| image = cyberintelligence.png
| titletext = We had gathered that raw information, but had yet to put it all together.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Ponytail]] presents a FY2015 ({{w|Fiscal Year}} for 2015) budget for [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cyberintelligence cyberintelligence], but is then interrupted with a snide remark about the prefix ''{{w|cyber}}''. Although it is not specified what organization the budget is for, the size of the budget ($8.1 Billion) is large enough to suggest that it must be a large government organization such as the United States Department of Defense.

This comic illustrates that some organization spends obscene amounts of money on their "cyberintelligence" budget, yet all that spending appears not to have informed them that the prefix "cyber-" fell out of fashion years ago. That the prefix could annoy experts were already used in the title text of [[1084: Server Problem]].

The prefix "cyber" is derived from "{{w|Cybernetic}}," which comes from the Greek word {{w|Cybernetics#Etymology|κυβερνητικός}}, meaning skilled in steering or governing. Cyberintelligence could also be called {{w|cyber spying}} i.e. spying in the digital world, one of many "new" [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_words_prefixed_with_cyber- words with the cyber- prefix]. Many were invented in the 1980s and 1990s, following the example of "{{w|cyberspace}}", popularized by {{w|William Gibson}} in 1982.

If cyberintelligence departments were given names today, they might be called Internet Intelligence, Virtual Intelligence, Data Intelligence or Online Intelligence departments.

This may be due to the fact that government organizations are typically named by middle-aged or senior officials who are generally less likely to be familiar with the current trends in technology language. They are more likely to stick to the words that were used when they first learned about the technology. Such organizations, being bureaucracies, are also unlikely to change their name.

The title text continues the joke by implying the organization learned about the demise of "cyber-" yet failed to process or analyze that data. It is a common problem among intelligence organizations to gather "raw information" (such as photos, or reports from spies) but be unable to make use of it because there wasn't time to process the information into intelligence by determining what it means. This is particularly true for intelligence gathered by or relating to computers, as they can generate data far faster than people can review it. It may also be a reference to the previous comic, which was a link to a survey for xkcd readers.

"Cyberspace" and "{{w|cybernetics}}", illustrated [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cyberspace%2Ccybernetics&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccyberspace%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccybernetics%3B%2Cc0 here], are two of the most common words with that prefix (Cyberspace 6 times as prevalent as cybernetics at their peaks). "Cyberintelligence" is shown [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cyberintelligence&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0 here]. Cyberspace was used 4000 times more often, although the more common spelling splitting it in two words "Cyber intelligence" was 1.35 times more [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cyber+intelligence&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0 used] than in one word. But even combining these two versions cyberspace is still used more than 1700 times as often.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, pointing at a chart to her left, with text and two curves on a graph, is talking to someone off-screen to the right.]
:Ponytail: Our overall FY2015 cyberintelligence budget was $8.1 billion-
:Off-screen voice: -Yet it wasn't enough to pick up on the fact that no one else has used the prefix "cyber-" for like a decade?
:Ponytail: Shut up.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]

Talk:1637: Salt Mine

2022-05-04T18:28:07Z

172.69.70.159:

I don't think that the exotic restaurants relate, here. As well, I think that Ponytail says "Yes, that is definitely why" because she is saying "Yes, we definitely built the detector here to block out cosmic rays, and definitely *not* to eat the delicious salt." You know what I mean? Thoughts? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.21|173.245.54.21]] 06:46, 1 February 2016 (UTC)
: I agree. The comment about restaurants only adds to the potential confusion around the comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.59|108.162.216.59]] 08:05, 1 February 2016 (UTC)BK201
::I have removed it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.76|108.162.238.76]] 00:45, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
: Ponytail appears to be snarkily hiding the trivial reason she built it there: so she can say "off to the salt mines", a phrase indicating you (probably) hate your job, which is hard, grossly unrewarding and repetitive. As "slave labor", it's exactly who was often sent to the mines. Sifting through massive amounts of mostly unfruitful data would probably feel like working a salt mine, though sequestering funds to achieve this historical accuracy might be frowned upon. Another idea from the munching sounds at [https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/ What If:Lunar Swimming ]: The first image explains going to the moon "because it is hard", and the audience offers that eating a bag of pinecones is also hard. Its title text reads that the Soviets are already a third of the way through their bag...and then reads "(grabs bag) Homf Nomf Homf...". If Ponytail's mine were on the moon and the "salt" were Helium3 (essential for neutron detection and energy) then the Russians (and Chinese) are [http://www.realclearpolicy.com/blog/2015/12/01/helium_3_climate_solution_from_the_moon_1480.html trying] and perhaps there's a new space race in the making. Finally for the munchers, slave/prison labor is intentionally an experientially bland experience, but salt might enhance your day. Though I'd hate to think they're mining by eating the tunnels, perhaps "shaking" the salt would provide another taste enhancement like drinking [http://www.eater.com/2015/5/15/8612181/science-airplane-food-tastes-bad-loud-noise-umami Tomato Juice on a Plane] (airplane vibration enhances umami perception). And...having seen the horsepower reference (to the moon) in the What-If and realizing we give workhorses salt chunks, I'm off to read about [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1640 too much context]. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 05:08, 9 February 2016 (UTC)
: On Ponytail's motivation...water appears to be one of the most effective radiation shields; not much of that here. But in the old days, fraudsters would "salt" a dead mine with a little valuable ore and sell the worthless hole in the ground. Ponytail appears to have salted a dessicated salt mine with a detector just for the sake of amusement. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 06:10, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

The science facility in a salt mine made me think of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_2 Portal 2]. Now i'm wondering if the IMB served as an inspiration for Portal 2. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.25|141.101.104.25]] 08:36, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

"The title text is intended to be absurd, and thus humorous." GLaDOS, is that you? (I can't help. As I read this sentence I imagined it spoken by GLaDOS...) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:49, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Could the salt eating be a reference to TOS: The Man Trap? {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.159}}

: Yes, definitely. I came here looking for the name is the episode; it really does seem like the scientists are (or are under the control of) salt-eating creatures masquerading as mere scientists. In fact, the hover text corroborates with that interpretation: "this one" could be a particle - "this particle is a little bland. Pass the saltshaker?" - a creature that eats this much salt could also eat cosmic rays... ~~ {{unsigned ip|188.114.97.127}}

Maybe "salt" should taste somewhat appropriate about flavor of subatomic particles and randomness (cryptography) too. [[Rotten Brain]] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.221|162.158.150.221]] 14:35, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Even assuming that's 'low grade' rock-salt, mostly inert rock, the intake would probably exceed the regulatory advice (6g/day over here, I think, but I'd have to look it up to be sure - and that's mostly used up/exceeded with the ''hidden'' salt in prepared meals!). I think that's because of the danger of the sodium excess (hence sodium-free salts, sometimes called "salt-free salt" as it has a different formula to NaCl, sold as being a healthier option). But raw salt ingestion like this would (assuming it doesn't already overload the tastebuds, perhaps because of an extremely over-riding craving?) likely also create problems of extreme and ''active'' dehydration... i.e. like being mummified from the inside-out.

I do know that there ''are'' cravings for minerals (coal, clays, chalk, etc), which can be life-long habits without too many apparent ill effects (perhaps tooth-wearing, primarily) - if not just a strange reaction to pregnancy. If anyone knows of a similarly extreme salt-craving, though, it would probably be worth linking it in so I'm not left thinking that it's a typical "taken to extremes" XKCD comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.89|162.158.152.89]] 16:42, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

The lines about salt at the end of the explanation ("This explanation should be taken with a grain of salt. This comic should be taken with a grain of salt. Salt.") are the best part, not only of the explainer page but of this comic. The only time I laughed, and I laughed aloud. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.252.227|162.158.252.227]] 17:40, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

When I was a child, I would sneak rock salt crystals from the bags used for the water softener and eat them. They tasted *really* good. To me, this comic is calling out that childish desire to eat rock salt, because boy is it tasty. Nothing more. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.214.203|108.162.214.203]] 18:31, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

I am still very confused by this strip. Why was it necessary to build a particle detector to gain access to the delicious salt? And why does the first speaker assume it was to 'block' cosmic rays? The current explanation says "as is the case with the real life IMB", but surely particle detectors do not block cosmic rays, they detect them. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.149|162.158.152.149]] 20:03, 1 February 2016 (UTC)
:The IMB was not build to look for cosmic rays, but for local proton decay. The cosmic rays would be a disturbance and was wished to be avoided. I have tried to make it clearer in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:49, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prehistory_of_The_Far_Side#Part_4:_Stimulus.E2.80.93Response Cow Tools] of xkcd? - [[Special:Contributions/199.27.129.5|199.27.129.5]] 20:33, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

-- 
I like the comment [[User:J-beda|J-beda]] made when changing what I wrote about neutrinos:
:"Neutrinos do not pass through EVERYTHING otherwise they could not be detected."
True they can be stopped individually, but hey it takes about a light year of lead to get the chance of a neutrino being stopped up to 50%... So I would say yes they pass through everything, but once in a blue moon one of them may be stopped (and detected if hitting one of our few detectors that can detect neutrinos). It was 8 neutrinos detected out of the roughly 1058 neutrinos emitted by the supernova... Or as Randall wrote in his What if [https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/ Lethal Neutrinos]:
:Neutrinos are ghostly particles that barely interact with the world at all. Look at your hand—there are about a trillion neutrinos from the Sun passing through it every second. [Night and day since the Earth rarely stops any of them].
In the first foot note [1] he also writes:
:Statistically, my first neutrino interaction probably happened somewhere around age 10. [By that time 315,360,000,000,000,000,000,000 neutrinos would have passed through his hand, I guess multiplying with the number of hands areas of your body will not really matter...] :-)
So true there will be some neutrinos that react making my statement that they pass through everything completely wrong :-p --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:12, 1 February 2016 (UTC)
 --

Is it only me who thinks that they are seasoning the exotic particles from the reactor with the salt, then eating them?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.155|162.158.152.155]] 10:31, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

I have a small theory explaining why Cueball and Megan are eating salt. This comics remind me of an old The Outer Limits episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Within_(The_Outer_Limits) . Basically its plot is quite similar to The Invasion of The Body Snatchers except the aliens are eating salt. This explanation is not very probable since this is a very specific episode of an old and not very popular anymore serie, but I thought it could be useful to mention it. {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.113}}

:There is also one salt-eating creature in Star Trek, aired 30 years earlier: [http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/M-113_creature] ... already mentioned in comments ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:50, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

The comic title "Salt Mine" can also be taken as a command, as in "please apply seasoning to the one that belongs to me." I suspect that the title text is referencing this play on words. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.46|173.245.54.46]] 15:32, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Rock Salt is not a "mixture of rock and salt" as mentioned above. Its simply plain old salt in a compressed crystalline form that just happens to looks like rocks. On average its not any less salty that sea-salt. So the part about some salt having more rock content and hence being bland doesn't ring true. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.49.24|162.158.49.24]] 11:19, 4 February 2016 (UTC)GG

I vaguely recall a movie (probably '80s or early '90s) about some salt mine workers whose tunnel unexpectedly broke into an underground room complete with a carcass of a dinosaur (or was it a mammoth). The workers and later the whole population (minus the hero and sidekick) of the mining town were taken over by maggot-like parasites that had been the end of the unfortunate dinosaur (mammoth?) and had survived on salt (hence the underground room). Maybe the comic is about that movie.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.88|141.101.80.88]] 16:31, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Could the title (Salt Mine) also be a bit of a play on words, as in "this salt is mine"? [[User:KDLadage|KDLadage]] ([[User talk:KDLadage|talk]]) 16:46, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

So...this one is just not funny at all and has no meaning whatsoever? --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.240|198.41.243.240]] (also that's not my IP at all, weird) 03:10, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure how to flag this one. Or where to begin on a repair.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 18:28, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

8: Red spiders

2022-05-04T18:16:26Z

172.69.70.159: Undo revision 240949 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 8
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Red Spiders
| image = red_spiders_small.jpg
| titletext = They are six-legged spiders
}}

==Explanation==
The early comics often feature a style different to what would become the signature xkcd stick-figure style. This comic is the first in an arc of comics, spaced out over 3 years (so far), in which Red Spiders are seen attacking humans. Its objective is not to be funny, philosophical, or scientifically interesting; it just tells a story, in a {{w|Questionable Content}}-esque way.
Interestingly, the red spiders actually more closely resemble opiliones, the order of arachnids that includes the Daddy Longlegs, and which are actually more closely related to mites than to spiders. Of course, the number of legs is incorrect.

The full series of [[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]] comics:
*[[8: Red Spiders]], this one
*[[43: Red Spiders 2]], in which the spiders begin building.
*[[47: Counter-Red Spiders]], in which the humans begin a counter-offensive.
*[[126: Red Spiders Cometh]], in which the spiders attack a city.
*[[427: Bad Timing]], in which, in a style more typical to xkcd, the spiders attack a couple in the middle of a serious relationship discussion in a hot-air balloon.
*[[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]], in which it appears briefly in the 14th panel crawling over a cube

==Transcript==
:[Many six-legged red spiders standing on and hanging from cuboids. The cuboids hang in the air with no visible means of support. Some of the spiders have made a bridge out of themselves.]

==Trivia==
*This was the 8th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
** The previous was [[13: Canyon]].
**The next was [[6: Irony]].
*Original title: "Spiders"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "They're not spiders; they have six legs!"
*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| 08]]
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 08]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Red Spiders]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Red Spiders01]]

99: Binary Heart

2022-05-04T17:52:17Z

172.69.70.159: Undo revision 240498 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 99
| date = May 8, 2006
| title = Binary Heart
| image = binary_heart.jpg
| titletext = i love you
}}

==Explanation==
An array of zeros and ones is depicted, 21 across by 23 down. Some of the zeros and ones are red instead of black to form the shape of a Valentine heart.

The digits themselves are an {{w|ASCII}} bit stream reading:
iloveyOuilOveyouiloveyOuilOveyOuiloveyouilOveyouilOveyOuilOv
The final octet is incomplete, but the three bits that are present are consistent with the start of an "e".

The mixture of upper-case and lower-case "O"s is presumed intentional to avoid a repeating pattern.

==Transcript==
:[All the numbers are black except for a heart-shaped red section in the middle.]
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1
0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1
0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1
0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1
0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0
1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1
0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1
0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0
1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1
1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0
0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0
1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Language]]

456: Cautionary

2022-05-04T01:35:51Z

172.69.70.159: Undo revision 232938 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 456
| date = July 30, 2008
| title = Cautionary
| image = cautionary.png
| titletext = This really is a true story, and she doesn't know I put it in my comic because her wifi hasn't worked for weeks.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]]'s cousin decides to install {{w|Linux}} on her new PC, and calls Cueball, whom she views as her personal Linux expert. The overarching joke revolves around the fact that Linux, especially home PC-based GNU/Linux, was (at the time of this comic's publication in 2008) much more often used as a "hobby" OS, as compared against a "productivity" OS such as {{w|Windows}} or {{w|macOS}}. Large numbers of people use Windows or Mac by default, because it came with their computer hardware when they bought it, and it already had the software suite they wanted to use installed along with it. Linux, on the other hand, rarely comes pre-installed on PC hardware and generally must be deliberately chosen and acquired. While it can be set up to achieve efficient and productive workflow in virtually any area on PCs, because it often must be consciously selected, installed, and configured by users, it tends to either attract or, in a few cases, create individuals who take disproportionate pleasure in, and derive self-identification from, hacking the operating system itself. Thus, many people who are {{w|Linux}} {{w|Hacker (hobbyist)|enthusiasts}} began by not really knowing anything about it other than that it's {{w|Gratis|free of cost}}, but the process of actually building Linux on their machines gradually led them to take an increasing interest in it, which the comic humorously likens to substance addiction.

Xorg (officially {{w|X.Org Server|X.Org}}) is an implementation of the X Window System, a program responsible for the graphical display used on Linux. If it has configuration problems, which was quite common with some video card drivers back in 2008 (especially {{w|fglrx#Linux|those for ATI Radeon cards}}), it is often difficult and/or painful to fix (see [[963: X11]]). {{w|man page|Man pages}} are manual pages for Unix-based operating systems and software, usually accessible online but also bundled with the software itself. Considered helpful and clear by the sorts of advanced computer users who typically run Linux, the text-only documentation can seem inaccessible for less-technical users. Here, the joke starts to build in that Cueball's cousin, a computer novice who just wanted something to work out of the box, is now having to learn how to understand Linux documentation in order to fix her ongoing Xorg problem (likely an inability to start a graphical environment, something a novice user would depend on).

In the third panel, we see that the cousin has had new problems. Though she likely has been able to fix Xorg, she is now having problems with Ubuntu's auto-configuration tools. She suggests that she is considering switching to a more advanced Linux distro in order to sidestep the failing autoconfig issues. A Linux "distro" (distribution) is a suite of tools and applications that provides a specific user experience on top of the core Linux operating system. Each distro has a different look and feel and different feature sets and design philosophies. {{w|Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu}} is a very popular "beginner" version of Linux, designed to "just work" and be familiar and usable to people fresh out of Windows. {{w|Debian}} is a popular but somewhat more "advanced," traditionally "{{w|Unix-like}}", distro, with a huge and diverse base of supported software that generally requires more Linux know-how to configure and use. In fact, Ubuntu is based on Debian, and under the hood they have similar features, so that it would not be considered much of a leap for a competent Ubuntu user to switch. {{w|Gentoo Linux|Gentoo}}, on the other hand, is a very advanced distro allowing for extreme customization and optimization, but requiring extensive install and setup time. It is generally considered to be complex and beginner-unfriendly (to the point that its difficulty has become somewhat memetic in the Linux world), a trade-off for providing a powerful and versatile set of tools for advanced system hacking. It appears that during the past four weeks, Cueball's cousin has started to consider that solving her problem would require complex tweaking.

In the fourth panel, it appears that the cousin has indeed switched to Gentoo, because a hallmark of that distribution is that the kernel (the basic core of the operating system) must be compiled from source code upon installation. Source code is a computer program expressed in human-readable text; however, source code cannot be run directly by a computer, and instead needs to be compiled into low level machine instructions the computer can understand. This means that with Gentoo, instead of downloading an already functional Linux system to install and run, users download the source code for the system, customize it to their own needs, then compile the code into a executable version of the OS, all before they can begin to use the system. Reasons that the cousin may want to do this include needing the kernel to be compiled in a non-standard way that is not supported by more mainstream distros, or incorporating third-party code or even her own modifications into the kernel. Compiling a kernel with the aforementioned modifications is a tricky affair, since any mistake or oversight can render the kernel, and thus operating system, non-functional, requiring the custom kernel to be anew. This panel implies that this has indeed happened, with the cousin compiling the kernel over and over again for days without sleep. To many such advanced users, their installation of Linux is like a hobby car: a project to be constantly tweaked and adjusted to fit one's exact needs, that spends as much time sitting around with its hood open as it is actually used for its ostensible purpose. By week 12, it is likely that Cueball's cousin has totally forgotten about her original plans for the computer and has become obsessed with Linux in a way that Randall compares with drug addiction for comic effect.

Similarly, in the fifth panel, Randall riffs on the old anti-drug message "Parents, talk to your kids about drugs before someone else does," with the meaning being if a responsible adult does not educate their kids about the dangers of drugs (or Linux), then someone else (likely a peer) might convince them that drugs (or Linux) is a good idea. There is an additional call to the theory of {{w|gateway drugs}}, where mild drugs like alcohol or cannabis will lead to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. In the comic, Cueball's cousin starts out with Ubuntu, a "gateway" version of Linux, which leads to Gentoo, a harder, more niche version, with the end result being her vanishing for weeks inside her house, compiling her kernel, like a junkie hopelessly hooked on drugs.

The title text continues the joke about Linux's poor support for many {{w|Wi-Fi}} cards common in 2008, a device that is not only well supported on Windows, but was typically seen as making networking easy for less technical users.

While the comic sarcastically pokes fun at the difficulties in using Linux (circa 2008), it also indirectly shows some of its advantages. The first one is that it is a freely available alternative to Windows; the second is that it provides users the tools to make fixing problems possible, whereas with Windows, the only problems that are fixed are the ones Microsoft chooses to fix; and the third is that it can increase one's knowledge of one's own computer, as the cousin, who barely seems to know how computers work past very basic end-user functionality, has become extremely advanced after several weeks. The comic is also somewhat anachronistic, as over time, hardware support in Linux has become much more robust; it is currently unlikely that Cueball's cousin would experience broken graphics or wind up in kernel compile hell to enable basic functions such as Wi-Fi.

==Transcript==
:Linux: A True Story:
:[Cueball talks on a cell phone.]
:Week One:
:Cousin: Hey, it's your cousin. I got a new computer but don't want Windows. Can you help me install "Linux"?
:Cueball: Sure.

:[Cueball's cousin sits in an office chair with her laptop on her lap. She is on the phone.]
:Week Two:
:Cousin: It says my XORG is broken. What's an "XORG"? Where can I look that up?
:Cueball: Hmm, lemme show you man pages.

:[Cueball's cousin crouches on the floor with the laptop on her lap. She is still on the phone.]
:Week Six:
:Cousin: Due to auto-config issues, I'm leaving Ubuntu for Debian.
:Cueball: Uh.
:Cousin: Or Gentoo.
:Cueball: Uh oh.

:[Cueball's cousin lies on her stomach with the laptop on the floor. On the floor are several pieces of paper and a book. Cueball stands to her left.]
:Week Twelve:
:Cueball: You haven't answered your phone in days.
:Cousin: Can't sleep. Must compile kernel.
:Cueball: I'm too late.

:[Box with text:]
:Parents: talk to your kids about Linux... Before somebody else does.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Linux]]
[[Category:Man pages]]

Talk:2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-04-25T19:02:25Z

172.69.70.159: Bananas.

Does this imply that [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem] isn't correct? And that it's method is bunk? Please help! -Seer [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 02:08, 23 April 2022 (UTC)
I believe the intention is that the theorem is not part of the set of bad data science, just that they share this one feature.

Isn't the Gödel number for a theorem calculated by multiplying the numbers of the components together, so complicated theorems would have larger numbers? If so, the current explanation that this isn't a good way to judge fields is wrong. I'm not too sure though. [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 05:52, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

:I do not believe that the title suggests renumbering theorems with Gödel numbers, but averaging the existing theorem numbers. Or otherwise, MrCandela's suggestion would be the way to go: Complicated Theorems have larger numbers. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.133|172.68.110.133]] 08:10, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

:Yeah a quick look at some magazines like [https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-godels-incompleteness-theorems-work-20200714/#jump2/ this one] and I think Randall has a point [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 09:48, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

I wish I'd started the explanation off when I first saw it (somone posted the first Transcript whilst I was pondering, so I left off). I think there's some serious re-editing to be done, but basically it points to someone (Cueball, a dabbling armchair mathematician faced with some not directly mathematically-based problem) thinking that 'all' it takes is to encode the whatever-it-is, arbitrarily, and then with a few easy equations something useful cannbe derived. When, in reality, even if this is possible (ignoring the "takes the age of the universe to permute things to find the right answer" sort of sticking-block) it depends upon a ''good'' numerical encoding (enough attention to detail, but not too much, and in the right sort of way) and possibly quite a lot of data-demunging and filtration (again, just the right amount and in the correct manner) to pop out the "answer" being looked for. For some things, this can be easy, though there are always statistical pitfalls/etc. For others ("life, the universe and everything", say) the task is far more complex and the result ("42"?) might not seem to be a very useful result for various reasons. And, on top this, there's Gödel. But that's an additional punchline, not the whole scope of the original joke. ...Anyway, this long comment is why I held back from writing the original Explanation, but I might yet wrangle my thoughts into what's since been put there. While trying not to tread upon too many toes and alternate explanations. Which is the hardest bit, I think... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 15:48, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

Just a comment about the technicalities of Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem: The 'third' possibility presented [http://dstoner.net/Math_Science/godel.html here] misunderstands the term 'true but unprovable'. When mathematicians say 'true but unprovable' in the context of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems, what they mean is 'true in the standard model but unprovable in the formal system'. The Gödel sentence is certainly true for the standard natural numbers, by contradiction: assume that the Gödel sentence is false for the standard naturals, which means that there exists a standard natural number which is the Gödel number for the proof of the Gödel sentence. Then we could decode the Gödel number into a proof (of the formal system) proving the Gödel sentence true; a contradiction. (Note that the preceding proof by contradiction can be formalised in ZFC, but not in the formal system under study.) The reason why the Gödel sentence is unprovable in the formal system is because, from the point of view of the formal system, there might be a non-standard natural number which is the Gödel number for the proof of the Gödel sentence (and non-standard numbers cannot be decoded into a proof); or there might not be. --[[User:Underbase|Underbase]] ([[User talk:Underbase|talk]]) 04:56, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

:Regarding this, I know that the policy on this site is to include every possible interpretation, but the page mentioned is an html page (and not a [https://xkcd.com/2304/ pdf]) that was not [https://xkcd.com/1847/ peer reviewed] (thus not recognized by the community), and as mentioned by the user above it fails understand the concepts it is talking about. I do not think this site should be spreading this kind of idea. I believe Randall Monroe himself would be against this.

::I also believe the current explanation is both incorrect about explaining the seeming paradox of the Gödel conjecture, & therefore somewhat incorrect about this joke. It is surely the transition from abstract to quantized - the act of applying limited formal numbering to potentially unbounded or otherwise non-standard terms - which incurs incompleteness? Within the constraints of a formal system of standard natural numbers, true≠provable, & therein lies the internal (but not total) contradiction. ''That's'' the contradiction, right? & the joke is that numbering theorems by their complexity, is not generally a productive approach for 'doing math' on them, in any sense but an abstract analytical one?
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:54, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

:I do not believe the Title Text calls for "calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers". It asks for 'the lowest average theorem number'. The average of all, is not the average of each. The Title Text wants the average of ''each of'' the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:54, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

Today's [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/derivative Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal] is slightly related.

== Paradoxicality argument ==

I think that revision [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2610:_Assigning_Numbers&oldid=231000 231000] should be removed. My explanation of what's wrong with the linked site is as follows:

Up until the section "Gödel's String", nothing is incorrect. Furthermore, the first wrong line is numbered (49), and says that Gödel's statement is equivalent to "This statement is not a theorem (of any formal system)." This is where he goes wrong, for writing down a formula for "n proves m" requires inclusion of the formal system in which this proof happens. As such, the correct translation of Gödel's statement is "This statement is not a theorem of [system]", which it indeed is not. Then he says that "We have decided that Gödel's string cannot be a theorem and neither can its negation" (true, after Rosser's trick) and therefore that this gives us "~<G∨~G>" (which is false). He has commited the sin of confusing truth and provability here.

His discussion of the Epimenides string ("This statement is not true") is accurate, except for the claim that the truth predicate is "as valid an extension to [PA] as [the provability and quining] extensions were". This is false. The provability and quining predicates can be constructed in PA and thus are not "extensions" so much as "shorthand"; this was Gödel's contribution: to see that PA can talk about provability of statements in any fixed formal system. The truth predicate is not definable in PA, as he quite ably proves (suppose it was definable, then you could write down the Epimenides sentence in PA, and thereby prove false).

The section "Gödel's Error" is just plain silly.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.147|172.70.114.147]] 19:28, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

What if we just change it to say something along the lines of "Certain logical systems allow values to be 'not false' without being necessarily 'true'; Godel's theorem is based on an axiomatic assumption that every statement is either true or false."?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 06:06, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

Is it just me, or is the given argument gibberish? Replacing the terms with more graspable ones, it seems to be saying: "1. Assume that bananas can be grown from banana-trees (why is this a reasonable assumption? Is it also a reasonable assumption to make about pear trees?). 2. Banana-trees exist. 3. Therefore, the statement that bananas cannot be grown from the trees is true (HOW is this a reasonable conclusion to leap to from the preceding points? By what bizarre leap of elided logic?). 4. This is a contradiction, therefore our initial assumption must be wrong (No, clearly the conclusion in 3 is wrong). Therefore, the statement is true (which statement are you even talking about here?)." Any chance someone could clarify that passage by including the missing steps in the logic? --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.159|172.69.70.159]] 19:02, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

2610: Assigning Numbers

2022-04-25T12:27:15Z

172.69.70.159:

{{comic
| number = 2610
| date = April 22, 2022
| title = Assigning Numbers
| image = assigning_numbers.png
| titletext = Gödel should do an article on which branches of math have the lowest average theorem number.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YÖDA'S COMPLETENESS THEOREM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

'''This explanation is by mathematical necessity either incomplete or incorrect.'''

[[Cueball]] is falling into a common trap, because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Faced with some sort of information, of an unknown kind but seemingly not intrinsically mathematical in nature, he has decided that one possible way to proceed is to somehow translate everything into values which can be combined and compared numerically.

This is a very common thing to do, in fields as diverse as {{w|computational linguistics}} or {{w|sports analytics}}, and can be a powerful tool for understanding and learning new things about a subject as {{w|Data science}} tries to extract knowledge and insights from potentially noisy and disordered facts. But it is also used to implement bad science by using incorrect or misguided ideas about how to represent the source material. While it's possible to casually assign numeric values to random pieces of data, these numbers are generally not meaningful enough to compute with and draw any useful inferences from. It is generally possible to perform statistical analysis only on actual measurements, not on what may effectively be arbitrarily-assigned values.

Machine learning algorithms, which are commonly used by data scientists, typically require all their inputs to be numerical. However, most datasets contains categorical features (e.g. the description of a piece of furniture: chair, table, ...). Data scientists therefore use encoding techniques to convert these categorical features to a numerical form so they can be used as inputs to a machine learning model. For instance, label encoding consists of arbitrarily assigning an integer to a category (chair=0, table=1, ...) which may appear meaningless to most observers. In various cases, they may be right.

So, as well as being the mechanism that underlies one of the most profound theorems of 20th century mathematics, it can be mis-used for all kinds of bad or misguided science. From Cueball's attitude, it is far from clear that his attempt will reliably translate his project into a numerical system, nor that his attempt to "do math on it!" will be any more competent.

One of the major characters who looked at the concept is Kurt Gödel. He introduced the idea of {{w|Gödel numbering}} with his landmark {{w|incompleteness theorems}}. In it a unique natural number is assigned to each axiom, statement, and proof, which might otherwise be difficult to accurately process in any other kind of approach. Instead, it is now possible to create metamathematical statements in the language of mathematics.

This allowed Gödel to make the statement "This statement cannot be proven based on the axioms provided" in a mathematically rigorous way. A simple proof by contradiction shows that the statement cannot be false, and therefore (in most logical systems) must be true. The proof goes as follows: 1. Assume that the statement can be proven from the axioms. 2. The axioms exist. 3. Therefore, the statement that it cannot be proven from the axioms is true. 4. This is a contradiction, therefore our initial assumption must be wrong. Therefore, the statement is true.

Notice that the truth of Gödel's statement does not depend on any particular set of axioms, and adding axioms (such as "Gödel's particular statement is true") only opens up new iterations of the statement which cannot be proven based on the expanded set of axioms (A statement such as "All statements of a similar nature to Gödel's particular statement" is not precise enough to serve as an axiom.). As such, with a little more legwork, it can be proven that any logical system robust enough to accommodate arithmetic must necessarily contain facts that are true within the system but cannot be proven or disproven within the system. The importance of this result cannot be understated, as it upended the entire philosophy of mathematics. {{w|David Hilbert}}'s famous proclamation "We must know, we will know" is simply incorrect.

The title text suggests that Gödel should perform such an analysis on different branches of mathematics, by calculating the average of all the fields' theorems' Gödel numbers. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons:
:1) Gödel is long dead, and dead people can't write articles;{{Dubious}} - see [[599: Apocalypse]]
:2) Gödel numbers grow very large very quickly, and depend heavily on the specific values assigned to each logical operator. Therefore the results could be manipulated simply by changing the numbering order of each operator;
:3) It may be very hard to gather all theorems in a field, or even a representative sample;
:4) Different fields of science, like biology or human behaviour, may not be able to write their theorems in the mathematical language of Gödel's incompleteness theorem
If anyone were to attempt this form of analysis, it would be an example of the bad data science described in the title text.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holds a hand up to his chin while he ponders the contents of what may be a whiteboard. There are five general lines of unreadable scribbling on the board, and between the two bottom lines, there is a square frame to the right with another scribble to the left. Cueball's thoughts are shown above him in a large thought bubble.]
:Cueball's thinking: If I assign numbers to each of these things, then it becomes '''''data''''', and I can do '''''math''''' on it!

:[Caption beneath the panel:]
:The same basic idea underlies Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all bad data science.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Logic]]

1358: NRO

2022-04-24T23:41:09Z

172.69.70.159: /* Transcript */ monospaces

{{comic
| number = 1358
| date = April 21, 2014
| title = NRO
| image = nro.png
| titletext = 'DISPATCHING DRONE TO TARGET COORDINATES.' 'Wait, crap, wrong button. Oh jeez.'
}}

==Explanation==
''Where's Waldo?'' (the North American renaming of the British ''{{w|Where's Wally?}}'') is a children's puzzle book in which you have to locate 'Waldo', a character with a distinctive striped shirt and hat, in a picture crowded with hundreds of characters. This is harder than it sounds, since the characters are both very small and quite densely packed on the page, and the pages (especially in later books) are often littered with "decoy" characters wearing similar articles of clothing to Waldo's. In some cases, almost ''all'' characters as well as several objects have the red-and-white stripes.

[[Cueball]] and his friend are using satellite imaging to find Waldo, by holding the book up to the sky and viewing it on the computer, presumably using some advanced image processing software to identify Waldo among the crowd. This would require a very advanced camera, as resolutions are usually much lower than would be necessary to resolve the characters in a Where's Waldo book. But since Cueball works at the {{w|National Reconnaissance Office}} (NRO), the US government agency responsible for operating spy satellites, he probably has access to some powerful satellite-mounted cameras.

The humor in this being, while he could be using that power for much more important things, he's instead trying to solve a simple game. Further, the Cueballs could probably hook up the image parsing software to a smaller camera on the ground, rather than a satellite-mounted camera. They would get even better results without using a camera by scanning the image and running it through the same image processing software.

The title text is implying that the Cueball operating the computer has accidentally launched a drone at the co-ordinates, which would be where he and his friend are standing. The drone is presumably a {{w|Unmanned combat aerial vehicle|military drone}} armed with explosive weaponry — not a good thing for those on the receiving end.

==Transcript==
:Cueball and a friend are in a remote area. The friend is holding a ''Where's Waldo?'' book towards the sky.
:Laptop: [<tt>Target located</tt>]
:Cueball: Got him. Left edge, two inches down.
:The National Reconnaissance Office has an unusual approach to ''Where's Waldo''.

==Trivia==
*A ''What If'' comic examining the use of the {{w|Hubble Space Telescope}} for the purpose of taking photos from the earth's surface can be found here: [http://what-if.xkcd.com/32/ Hubble]. It just shows that current technology is not capable of achieving the image resolutions needed here.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Drones]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

Talk:2608: Family Reunion

2022-04-20T01:47:47Z

172.69.70.159:

How are relatives related by asexual reproduction defined and named?

[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:01, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
: Any particular organisms in mind? It seems like you'd still have a generational parent, but there are a number of forms of asexual reproduction, blurring the line of what is a new lifeform and what is part of the old. Many plants, for example, can spread via colonies of their roots, whether severed from each other or not. I'm curious if there are organisms with more than two parents, and how many generations out of sync those parents can be. I think some plants might do this as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.147|172.70.114.147]] 22:06, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
:: Look up mitochondrial donation for a case of three parents in humans, with two of them being the regular genetic parents for the 23 chromosome pairs and one extra parent (mother) for the mDNA. In nature you also have cases of horizontal gene transfer (for example via plasmids) where genetic information is passed outside of linear inheritance. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.20|141.101.99.20]] 12:59, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
:For the above case the definition would be a bit tricky, but for asexual reproduction each time the organism reproduces/goes through mitosis would be considered one generation I suppose. That does solve the _cousin _-removed thing, although perhaps not anything connected to which side of the family (maternal, paternal, etc). Then again those things aren't comprehensive for humans either, so bacteria certainly would be new. [[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 00:25, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

This suggests humans have a common ancestor no earlier than 3000 years ago or so, due to inbreeding. So if we assume 20-25 years per generation, that works out to a max of 120-150th cousins.
https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/qRqRiz5q

This is an important comic in xkcd lore

If the chair is made of wood, doesn't it mean that it's made of the dead remains of another relative? Isn't that rather gloomy?

[[User:Eje211|Eje211]] ([[User talk:Eje211|talk]]) 21:30, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
:"Good old Umpteen-billionth-cousin oaktree has practically become part of the furniture!" [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.209|172.69.79.209]] 22:00, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
: If it is made from coal or oil-based materials, it might just be a great * (10^7) grandparent (or 1.7 * 10^8 cousin, 10^8 times removed). [[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 13:16, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

Siblings would also technically be zeroth cousins, and the self would be a negative first cousin. No idea what higher order negative cousins would imply. Incidentally, the this structure fixes the lack of a gender neutral term for uncle/aunt/nephew/niece, who could be referred to as zeroth cousins, once removed. This does remove the directionality of the terms, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.5|172.70.130.5]] 22:09, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
: Higher order negative cousins would require that you are both descended from one of your own descendants. This either requires time travel, as in "All You Zombies", or counting step-parents, as in {{w|I'm My Own Grandpa}}.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.234|162.158.62.234]] 22:22, 18 April 2022 (UTC)
:Siblings share a parent, which is already a explicit disqualification from any 'cousin-counting' process. As is the <nephew and/or neice> to <aunt and/or uncle> relationship (via a parent of the latter party, though extend that minimal leg of relationship just one generation further and you get your archetypal first-and-zero cousins).
:Yes, it would be nice to have a good term for that, but we already (in English at least) don't have a good word for "aunt/uncle/nephew/niece-by-marriage" unless you start to add "-in-law" to it (which [[2040: Sibling-in-Law|itself is open to certain vagueness]].
:Though {{wiktionary|Wiktionary:Requested_entries_(Hindi)/Multilingual_list_of_Indian_family_relation_names|some languages}} do a lot more than English. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.203|172.69.79.203]] 22:35, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

According to a family tree app we have, I'm my own 9th cousin once removed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.62|108.162.246.62]] 02:16, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

What about the drink on the chair? Assuming it might be an alcoholic beverage, would the bacteria and/or yeast organisms which catalysed the fermentation not also have to be considered as (very) remote relatives? [[User:Captain Nemo|Captain Nemo]] ([[User talk:Captain Nemo|talk]]) 09:52, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
:Not to mention the fruit (or possibly grains, though the drawing suggests wine). Troublingly, every part of the meal except salt would have to be counted, too. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.69|172.70.38.69]] 16:34, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
::Water wouldn't be counted as well. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.73|141.101.76.73]] 22:01, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
:Yeast, yes, and as a member of the fungus "kingdom" that's a closer relative to us than plants. See [[1749: Mushrooms]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.91|172.69.33.91]] 17:17, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

According to [http://timetree.org/ TimeTree], ''Felis catus'' and ''Homo sapiens'' diverged about 95 Mya. This gives a mean generation time for the 17,000,000th cousin of just over 5 and a half years. Cats can expect their first litter at 15-18 months but probably lived ~5 years through most of their recent history, so say the average generational time is 3 years. Between that and the generation time of humans until recently, 5.5 years for most of those 95 million seems plausible. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.13|172.70.174.13]] 18:22, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
:OTOH, about 1,500 Mya for the aspidistra/human divergence yields a 3.5 month generation time, which seems low :-) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.91|172.70.134.91]] 18:27, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
::I actually wrote a new section earlier (like a Trivia section, about 'what we know and what we don't', but I forget now how I worded it) going through the Cueball-to-Other relationships in order of greatest to least proximity-of-relation, and gave the basic relationship and then introduced caveats ((that we don't know there are ''not'' unknown "removed"s, other than the states cat one (almost certainly the plant, especially!); the issue of age-disjointedness/''re-''convergence; that going back to Hairbun's common-ancestor (1024 (g^8)-grandparents) you likely get multiple MRCAs and/or single people in multiple positions in one person's ancestry; etc)).
::There is nothing to say that the removedness is on the cat's side (felis/homo common ancestor might have spawned pre-homo generations that cycled quicker than pre-felis ones, though in recent times we do know that the typical age of primigravida is of course far less in cats so they could be heading back towards zero-removed, if so) and evidence is sketchy about even the early-hominin situation, never mind the creatures that came of the initial divergence. But the wide uncertainty certainly comfortably allowed the generational assumptions that the given figures seem to suggest. Yes, there were many, many words. But I made more effort to be economical than I have just now.
::I was about to do the same with the plant when I tried a Preview submit which crashed things (or just happened to coincide with an unrelated browser hiccough, prob.) and I'm afraid I didn't have the heart to redo it from scratch. So I never actually got into the details of cross-Kingdom inter-relationships from extreme archeohistoric times, or try to work out which side might have been the shortest chain back to the MCRA (some current plants can live a long time, generating viable seedlings after centuries, but others also repropogate their seeds extremely rapidly!).
::I've a feeling that the comic's assumptions would sit well within the huge uncertainty, and probably is based upon the general concensus of the top few expert papers presented upon Randall's idea-inspired trawl through the peer-reviewed literature. Or maybe just the one rather fanciful academic source that spontaneously generated the spark of inspiration that led to this comic... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.32|141.101.99.32]] 19:07, 19 April 2022 (UTC)