explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2816: Types of Solar Eclipse

2023-08-16T22:20:15Z

172.70.162.179:

Is the annular eclipse actually possible? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.118|162.158.78.118]] 21:24, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

Yes. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2023/oct-14-annular/where-when/ [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.7|172.69.33.7]] 21:34, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

I interpret the Hug Eclipse as the sun wrapping around the moon giving it a hug, rather than the moon being pinched in on the sides. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.62|172.70.211.62]] 21:38, 16 August 2023 (UTC)
:I amended that (twice, first time got blitzed in an Edit Conflict situation), when I thought of a better way (two slightly different better ways! ...might not even have used the better one, in instance #2) to describe it. But I rushed a bit anyway... I can see typos. (Not including the likes of "centre", which is not a typo but me defaulting to British English by default; though no doubt that 'needs' changing too.)
:I'm still wondering if just "label" and "description" columns are needed (image details can be recycled into Transcript, per label). Or if it could be ";header" and ":...description" without the table, but I think it looks no worse than I had feared, as the current table form. Of course, others have added more prosaic explanation paragraphs, so I'll let it sit a while. Almost certainly the other active editors here are going to have ideas about how to merge/expunge my efforts, and I'll let them copyedit my errors/'errors' as well. But at least there's a framework answer (or several) now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.179|172.70.162.179]] 22:20, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

Characters

2023-07-26T16:32:57Z

172.70.162.179: /* History */

In ''[[xkcd]]'', there is '''[[:Category:Characters|a cast of recurring characters]]''' which are often the focus of comic strips. The characters are created by [[Randall Munroe]]. Nearly all of the human characters in ''xkcd'' are [[stick figure|stick figures]], most of whom have distinguishing features.

The most frequently appearing characters in ''xkcd'' are [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], who act as the {{w|everyman}} and everywoman. They tend to be the go-to characters when no specific personality traits are desired for the comic, as they have the most basic appearance. Cueball is a stick figure with no distinguishing characteristics, while Megan's only characteristic is her shoulder-length black hair which characterizes her as female. Other characters with more distinctive personalities have been created and are used where appropriate.

It is noted that Randall has never clarified whether visually-identical characters in different ''xkcd'' comics are in fact the same character, or are simply of the same archetype represented by the appearance of the character. For the purposes of ''Explain xkcd'', each character "appearance" is treated as a unique character and recurring characters are generally given a name. Usually the name is unofficial and has been created by ''Explain xkcd'' for ease of reference in explaining the comics.

==History==
[[Randall Munroe]] does not appear to have had a fixed cast of characters in mind when he first created ''[[xkcd]]''. The first comic, [[1: Barrel - Part 1]], features a non-stick figure character in a style that he no longer uses in the comic. The next four comics do not feature characters at all. The first use of stick figures was in the sixth comic, [[6: Irony]], in which two basic and roughly-drawn stick figures are depicted (either of which would qualify as a "Cueball" figure). In comic [[9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow]], Randall includes stick-figure versions of the cast of ''{{w|Serenity (film)|Serenity}}''.

Beginning in [[12: Poisson]], Randall began using stick figures regularly in xkcd strips. This features "Cueball" character, as well as a character with a [[Black Hat]]. Thereafter, a character featuring a black hat recurs many times in the series. The next appearance of a black-hatted character is in [[29: Hitler]], in which there is clear reference in the title-text to "the hat guy". This is the first indication we have that Randall had begun contemplating recurring characters (although it is not conclusively clear that the hatted characters in "Poisson" and "Hitler" were intended to be the same character.

Throughout the early period of ''xkcd'', random non-recurring characters continue to be used, including ones with facial features, and characters with various hairstyles which are no longer seen. Over the course of the early comics, Randall appears to have refined his cast of characters (or character-types) to less than ten "regulars", along with a handful of minor recurring characters (or character-types). The characters are rarely named in-comic or otherwise, and most names used by ''Explain xkcd'' are unofficial and chosen by the group.

Even when a character name has an origin in a comic like [[Megan]] and [[Danish]], it is not necessarily that supposed to be a generic name, but only a name in that single comic. For instance there is a Cueball character that is named [[Rob]], and appears in 9 comics. This did not, however, change Cueball's name like it did for Megan based on just one comic: [[159: Boombox]].

==Cast of characters==
Cueball has generally always been the go-to "standard" character where nothing special is required for a male character, as there would have been no need to add any distinguishing features. The character has been used in comics apparently referencing Randall himself, and some comics contain multiple Cueballs. The un-featured Cueball character is the strongest example of a "character" that is not necessarily a single recurring character every time it appears, but rather an archetype representing the every-man. Megan (distinguished by her shoulder-length black hair) is used as a female equivalent to Cueball and again, may simply be an archetype.

An alternate male and female were created, being [[Hairy]] and [[Ponytail]], perhaps to avoid using multiple Cueballs and Megans in one comic. They generally appear when an extra male or female are needed in a strip.

Other recurring characters include the sadistic and manipulative [[Black Hat]], and his female counterpart [[Danish]]; the philosophical and surreal [[Beret Guy]]; and [[White Hat]] who is often given a fatal flaw or annoying tendency.

Randall sticks with his regulars for most of his comics. One-time characters and infrequently recurring characters are rare. Real-world people are also sometimes depicted in stick-figure form in ''xkcd''.

Other than in early comics, Randall's characters rarely have facial features (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth) and generally express emotion by their words or body language.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Meta]]
{{xkcdmeta}}

1520: Degree-Off

2023-07-26T14:49:10Z

172.70.162.179: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1520
| date = May 4, 2015
| title = Degree-Off
| image = degree off.png
| titletext = I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY SCIENCES', I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER.
}}
==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] (physics), [[Hairbun]] (biology), and [[Megan]] (chemistry) appear to be on a talk show stylized as a game show called Degree-Off, hosted by [[Hairy]], where representatives of different fields, try to explain why their field is the best and why to get a degree in their field. The title "Degree-Off" is a portmanteau of "{{w|Academic degree|degree}}", as in the recognized completion of studies at a school or university, and "{{w|face-off}}", a direct confrontation between two people or groups. Since there are three participants, this is not a true face-off, unless Megan, who does not speak, is not counted.

The host asks the physicist Cueball to go first. He light-heartedly begins to tell what appears to be long story, beginning with a {{w|Richard Feynman}} anecdote. During the {{w|Manhattan Project}} in Los Alamos, Richard Feynman got bored because of the isolation and started learning {{w|lock picking}} on the secret documents' safes. Using these new skills, he played lots of pranks on his colleagues, like leaving notes and spooking them into believing there was a spy among them (which, of course, {{w|Klaus_Fuchs|there was}}). He finishes his case with [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford a quote] from {{w|Ernest Rutherford}}, implying that his speech was quite long and winding. The quote communicates the idea that physics is the only fundamental framework, so that the job of chemists, biologists and other scientist simply is to catalog and systematize observations ("collect stamps") on phenomena too complicated to presently be fully described in terms of physics. This idea was earlier lampooned by [[Randall]] in [[435: Purity]] (and is also stated in the title text of [[1158: Rubber Sheet]]).

The biologist goes next, showing with a graph (see below) that the field of biology has helped reduce disease. She then goes on to claim that the heroes in biology (the part known as Medicine) have even "{{w|Eradication_of_infectious_diseases|slain}}" one of the {{w|Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse}}. Different traditions designate the Four Horsemen differently, but it is common for their number to include Plague or Pestilence. A woman with a bun claims that the field of biology has eliminated widespread {{w|Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse#As_infectious_disease|Pestilence}}; at the time of writing it was not readily apparent that {{w|COVID-19_pandemic|the old dog still has some teeth}} (although the rate of death from infectious disease in 2020–21 is still less than 200 per 100 thousand, far lower than the early 20th century). The imagery of Pestilence being thwarted by modern medicine was also used in the book {{w|Good Omens}}, by {{w|Terry Pratchett}} (of whom Randall is a fan, see [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]) and {{w|Neil Gaiman}}, where Pestilence has retired after the discovery of {{w|Penicillin}}, and been replaced by {{w|Pollution}}.

The graph shows the death rate from infectious disease in the USA with the range of 1900-2000. The spike is attributable to the {{w|1918 flu pandemic}}. It has been published in the paper [http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=768249 Trends in Infectious Disease Mortality in the United States During the 20th Century].

The woman then goes on to directly accuse Cueball (i.e. physicists) of creating a new Horseman to replace the one slain by the biologists. She refers to the development of the {{w|atomic bomb}}, which was built and tested in the {{w|New Mexico desert}}. The new horseman is therefore the atomic bomb, or the various perils associated with it.

The woman's implied condemnation of the physics community has been echoed by some of the scientists involved in the project itself. After the test detonation of the first nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, {{w|J. Robert Oppenheimer}}, the director of the {{w|Los Alamos National Laboratory}}, found himself inwardly quoting the {{w|Bhagavad Gita}}: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." {{w|Kenneth Bainbridge}}, the organizer of the actual Trinity test (which he called a "foul and awesome display"), remarked more prosaically to Oppenheimer that day, "Now we are all sons of bitches."

This harsh moral judgement shocks Cueball, who exclaims "I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!" While the set-up is of a frivolous friendly competition, the woman's presentation is surprisingly dark. Her retort in the final panel reveals that she was angered by the off-hand dismissal of 'soft' sciences as "stamp-collecting" and turned the game from a light-hearted fun into something more serious.

In the title text the biologist goes on to declare in {{w|All caps}} that she is surprised a physicist isn't "harder", after all their condescending towards the "squishy" sciences. The use of 'hard' and 'squishy' is a play on the colloquial division between the so-called 'hard' sciences (such as physics and chemistry) and 'soft' sciences (such as biology and geology). 'Hard' sciences usually refer to the perception that in fields like physics, precisely repeatable experiments and measurements are possible, as opposed to 'soft' sciences seen as placing less emphasis on precisely quantifiable predictability - however the woman with a bun is extending 'hard' to its meaning of 'stoic', mocking Cueball for not being able to weather a personal moral attack. Again, she is indicating that she's upset by directly referencing a mocking portrayal of other fields allegedly made by Cueball.

To be fair to Cueball, the outbreak of disease is more a topic for epidemiology, and biology has spawned multiple diseases, atrocities, and bad movies. However, the Manhattan Project marked the first time in history that humanity possessed the ability to destroy itself — and shortly thereafter humanity got {{w|Cold War|perilously close to doing so}}.

In [[520: Cuttlefish]] Randall shows that he personally respects biologists — or at least fears them.

Within a year Randall has made several other comics about nuclear weapons, this one was the first of these the second, [[1539: Planning]], came out just 1½ month after this one and after that these two were released early in 2016: [[1626: Judgment Day]] and [[1655: Doomsday Clock]]. Nuclear weapons are also mentioned twice in ''[[Thing Explainer]]'', specifically they are explained in the explanation for ''Machine for burning cities'' about {{w|Thermonuclear weapon|thermonuclear bombs}}, but they are also mentioned in ''Boat that goes under the sea'' about a submarine that carries nukes. All three comics and both explanations in the book, does like this comic, comment on how insane it is that we have created enough firepower to obliterate Earth several times (or at least scourge it for any human life).

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is acting as the host of a TV talk show, ''Degree-Off'' holding a microphone up. Cueball, a woman with a bun, and Megan are acting as representatives of physics, biology, and chemistry, respectively. They each stand behind their own lectern with the respective subject label.]
:Hairy: Welcome to the '''''Degree-Off''''', where we determine which field is the best! Physics, wanna go first?
:Cueball (Phys): Sure! I'd like to tell the story of Richard Feynman's Manhattan project lockpicking pranks...
:Labels: Phys Bio Chem

:[Zoom in so Megan is no longer visible. Cueball lifts his hand]
:Cueball (Phys): ...and as he said, "all science is either physics or stamp collecting."
:Cueball (Phys): <small>Thank you.</small>
:Hairy: ''Great!'' Bio, you wanna go next?
:Grown-Up Jill (Bio): Okay.
:Labels: Phys Bio

:[Zoom in on Grown-Up Jill so only she and her lectern are shown. A graph is shown above her. There us a label for the y-axis to the left of the axis which has four ticks with numbers. The x-axis is a timeline without ticks but three years indicating the start center and end of the axis. The graph shows a curve falling off, with one great spike up around 1920.]
:Y-axis label: Per 100,000
:Y-axis:
::800
::600
::400
::200
:X-axis: 1900 1950 2000
:GUSG (Bio): This is a graph of the death rate from infectious disease in this country.
:Labels: Bio

:[Zoom back to original scene with Hairy holding the microphone down and Grown-Up Jill raising her left hand, while Cueball looks at her.]
:GUSG (Bio): The heroes of my field have '''''slain''''' one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
:Labels: Phys Bio Chem

:[Zoom in on only Cueball and Grown-Up Jill who is pointing aggressively at Cueball who leans away from her one hand on his lectern for support.]
:GUSG (Bio): While the heroes of '''''your''''' field gathered in the desert to create a new one.
:Labels: Phys Bio

:[Zoom back to previous scene all are holding their hands down.]
:Cueball (Phys): ...Jeez, what the hell? I thought this was supposed to be fun and lighthearted!
:GUSG (Bio): '''''You must have been thinking of stamp collecting.'''''
:Labels: Phys Bio Chem

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Science]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

Talk:2782: Wikipedia Article Titles

2023-05-29T20:36:35Z

172.70.162.179:

Of course, I had to search for those keywords and found this: [https://www.playbill.com/article/bulletin-meryl-streep-in-talks-to-do-seagull-in-central-park-com-87578 Playbill: Bulletin: Meryl Streep in Talks to Do Seagull in Central Park]. Couldn't find anything about a Seagull *incident*, however. We may have to wait until the production has completed. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 13:44, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
:Or doesn't happen at all. The incident might be a fight between Streep and someone involved in the production. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:07, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
::Whatever happens we need to somehow inject the name "Meyrl Street seagull incident" into the news coverage so that the Wikipedia article can be created. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.101|172.70.162.101]] 14:24, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

'''''Ah-HAH!''''' https://www.salon.com/2001/08/27/seagull/ "a 40-ish man was found dead in the bushes from a single gunshot wound near the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, just yards away from where Philip Seymour Hoffman offs himself with a single gunshot wound every night as Konstantin Gavrilovich in Anton Chekhov's ''The Seagull.''" (in which Streep was his co-star.) Thanks to ChatGPT-4's WebPilot plug-in, by the way. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.214|172.69.134.214]] 17:24, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Re the transcript: I don't think they're called checkmarks. Tick marks, maybe.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.232|172.71.182.232]] 18:00, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
:{{done}} [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.96|172.69.134.96]] 18:14, 29 May 2023 (UTC)
::Well, given that {{w|Check mark}} and (redirected there, anyway) {{w|Tick mark}} don't actually refer to those things, I changed the transcript to use the {{w|Graduation (scale)}} terminology as the best(?) of various such terms that I'd more happily use. Which probably is going to annoy someone else, so maybe expect it to change again... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.179|172.70.162.179]] 20:36, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

2781: The Six Platonic Solids

2023-05-27T15:05:55Z

172.70.162.179: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2781
| date = May 26, 2023
| title = The Six Platonic Solids
| image = the_six_platonic_solids_2x.png
| imagesize = 368x370px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Plato made the solids, and five were gifted to the mathematicians. But in secret Plato forged a sixth solid to rule over all the others.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a JORB WELL DONE - Why call it Jorb? Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic imagines an alternate reality where mathematicians discover a new {{w|Platonic solid}}. There are five Platonic solids, and it has been [https://sites.math.washington.edu/~julia/teaching/445_Spring2013/Paper_Euler.pdf mathematically proven] that there are exactly five in three-dimensional space. However, in 4 dimensions there exist 6 regular polytopes, 5 which are analogous to the 5 in 3d space, and a sixth which is analogous to the {{w|rhombic dodecahedron}}. In the comic, Randall proposes a new Platonic solid, called the "jorb", which appears to be a roughly conical shape with a round base, a triangular tip, and a rectangular extension at the bottom. Its surface also seems to have parallel grooves or ribs. The jorb does not fit the criteria for a Platonic solid, since a Platonic solid's faces have to be regular polygons and also all have to be the same shape. Furthermore, each vertex of the solid must be formed out of the same number of faces as the other vertices.

This could be a reference to the fact that [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_hjRvZYkAgA many regular polyhedra have only been discovered recently]. Some of these do not fit the naive understanding of a regular polyhedra, being infinite or self-intersecting.

The name "jorb" may be a reference to the Homestar Runner cartoon "A Jorb Well Done", with the shape bearing a resemblance to Coach Z's hat.

The title text references {{w|Lord of The Rings}}, in which the One Ring was forged in secret to rule the three magic rings given earlier to the elves, the 7 given to the dwarves, and the nine given to the humans. Sauron could in principle control these other 19 rings with his master ring, the "One Ring to rule them all." The joke is that Plato forged a sixth platonic solid (the Jorb) to rule the five he gave to the mathematicians, just like Sauron ruled the other magic rings in Middle Earth with his One Ring.

==Transcript==
:[Six geometrical shapes are shown. All have gray surface areas with different shading to reflect their orientation. There is one shape in the middle with the other five arranged around it roughly in a pentagon. With two at the top, two just below the central and one directly below the central shape. Each shape has a label. The five above the bottom one are names after the platonic solids, and are drawn to look like them. The last one at the bottom has a roughly conical shape with a round base, a triangular tip, and a rectangular extension at the bottom. It surface also seems to have parallel grooves or ribs. Here the labels in reading order with the four rows mentioned above used.]
:Cube
:Dodecahedron
:Icosahedron
:Octahedron
:Tetrahedron
:Jorb

:[Caption below the comic:]
:Mathematicians long believed there were only five platonic solids, all regular polyhedra, until this year's discovery of the Jorb.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Geometry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]