explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2685: 2045

2022-10-14T16:40:33Z

172.70.230.109: changing because people will probably not get the initial reference and correct "gas" to "plasma"

{{comic
| number = 2685
| date = October 14, 2022
| title = 2045
| image = 2045_2x.png
| imagesize = 350x457px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Sorry, doctor, I'm going to have to come in on a different day--I have another appointment that would be really hard to move, in terms of the kinetic energy requirements."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GIGANTIC NUCLEAR FURNACE (THE SUN) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Making plans for eclipses is awkward given how infrequently they occur and the uncertainty of what exactly will be going on at the time, e.g. whether the attendants will have children by then, and whether another scheduling program will catch on and replace Google Calendar.

Black Hat claims he can't make it, as he has "a thing" on August 12th, 2045. Events as minor as "a thing" are not typically scheduled at a precise date this far in the future{{citation needed}}, and this is likely Black Hat sarcastically rejecting Cueball's invitation.

The title text is someone canceling a doctor appointment to see the eclipse. The event is hard to move because ''the planets composing the eclipse'' are literally hard to move.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball, another person, Danish, and Black Hat are standing together. Danish is looking at her phone.]
:Cueball: ...And then after the one in 2024, there's another on August 12, 2045.
:Friend: We're in! We can invite our kids, assuming we have any.
:Danish: I'll create an event. Do you think we'll still be using Google Calendar in 2045?
:Black Hat: Sorry, I'd love to make it, but I have a thing that day.

:Caption: It's weird making plans for eclipses.

{{comic discussion}}

2685: 2045

2022-10-14T16:29:55Z

172.70.230.109:

2685: 2045

2022-10-14T16:29:45Z

172.70.230.109:

2052: Stanislav Petrov Day

2022-09-26T22:25:51Z

172.70.230.109:

{{comic
| number = 2052
| date = September 28, 2018
| title = Stanislav Petrov Day
| image = stanislav_petrov_day.png
| titletext = I was going to get you an alarm clock that occasionally goes off randomly in the middle of the night, but you can ignore it and go back to sleep and it's fine.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Stanislav Petrov|Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov}} was a lieutenant colonel of the {{w|Soviet Air Defence Forces}} who became known as "the man who single-handedly saved the world from {{w|nuclear war}}" for his role in the {{w|1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident}}. The incident was unknown to the public until it was revealed shortly before the {{w|Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolution of the Soviet Union}} in 1991.

On 26 September 1983, during the {{w|Cold War}}, the satellite-based early-warning system of the {{w|Soviet Union}} reported the launch of multiple {{w|Intercontinental ballistic missile|intercontinental ballistic missiles}} from the {{w|United States}}. At the time, tensions with the U.S. were on edge, and high officials of the Soviet Union, including General Secretary {{w|Yuri Andropov}}, were thought to be highly suspicious of a U.S. attack.

Petrov checked ground-based radars which had not detected a launch, noted that the warning system had detected only 1-5 missiles instead of the hundreds that would have been expected in the event of a {{w|pre-emptive nuclear strike|first strike}}, and chose to mark the system alert as a false alarm. This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack, which would have probably resulted in immediate escalation of the Cold War stalemate to a full-scale nuclear war and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. Investigation of the satellite warning system later confirmed that the system had indeed malfunctioned.

While it is highly probable that if Petrov had reported this incident to his superiors they would have come to the same conclusion, it was a point in time when many people feared that the Cold War might become hot. Andropov, the new Soviet leader, was considered weak by the US president {{w|Ronald Reagan}}, and the Western countries were deploying new missile installation in Europe to counter existing missiles in the Eastern Bloc. This fear of nuclear war meant that at this time the {{w|Peace movement|peace movement}} in most western countries reached one of its highest levels.

In this comic [[Cueball]] reacts to his alert on Stanislav Petrov Day as if it was a false alarm. This is of course a truly ironic since what we celebrate is that Stanislav treated an alert as a false alarm. Also his first comment "Oh shoot" could have been the reaction of Stanislav if he had not assumed it was a false alarm.

In real life, many ''alerts'' reach everybody on their mobile devices, often causing them to be ignored without deeper knowledge about the issue behind. This was however not the point in this comic.

The title text presents a much less important false alarm where one of them, probably [[Cueball]] (or perhaps [[Randall]]), was thinking about giving a gift to the other one in the form of an alarm clock that alerts randomly in the middle of the night. That particular alarm is one where she or he can just breathe a sigh of relief and go back to sleep because it's not a real alarm and is perfectly safe to ignore. However if this keeps going off when it’s not supposed to, then when you are actually supposed to wake up you may very well end up assuming that it’s another false alarm, and thus will sleep late anyway, completely defeating the point of the alarm. Also when a real alarm is supposed to wake you up in the middle of the night, you will have been trained to ignore alarms. This is all part of the joke.

====History of Petrov Day as a holiday====
On the 2007 anniversary, {{w|Eliezer Yudkowsky}} wrote a [https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QtyKq4BDyuJ3tysoK/9-26-is-petrov-day blog post] for {{w|LessWrong}} suggesting that "Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, take a minute to not destroy the world." Not destroying the world has since evolved into an annual tradition. There is a [http://petrovday.com/ website] for the holiday, with several variations of a ritual involving lighting and snuffing candles. The intended mood is that of a somber holiday, somewhere between {{w|Thanksgiving}} and a funeral.

However, there are also [https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XJxwFMSL5TPN2usC6/modes-of-petrov-day more lighthearted takes]. A "hardcore mode" would be just like the normal holiday, but "During said ceremony, unveil a large red button. If anybody presses the button, the ceremony is over. Go home. Do not speak." Alternatively, "you use a website connected to *another* house where people are also celebrating Petrov Day. If anyone in one house presses the button, the other house receives a launch alarm. They have 60 seconds to respond. At the end of 60 seconds, their party is over, and they must go home silently. The website has some chance of giving you a false alarm." The website can be found [https://petrovday.bubbleapps.io/ here] with instructions on how to use it [https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XJxwFMSL5TPN2usC6/modes-of-petrov-day#s4XtBX7Qg9btGf5Kx here].

Stanislav Petrov himself died in 2017, but in 2018 the {{w|Future of Life Institute}} decided to [https://futureoflife.org/2018/09/26/50000-award-to-stanislav-petrov-for-helping-avert-wwiii-but-us-denies-visa/ award] his surviving family a $50,000 prize for his contributions. However, in the words of MIT Professor Max Tegmark, who presented the award, the fact that Petrov's son couldn't "get a visa to visit the city his dad saved from nuclear annihilation is emblematic of how frosty US-Russian relations have gotten, which increases the risk of accidental nuclear war.”

Talk:1007: Sustainable

2022-08-31T19:52:16Z

172.70.230.109:

This is a great lesson for me that no matter what we think is occurring, it's probably wrong; that statistics themselves are unsustainable; and that only goals that matter need to be sustainable in the long term. - e-inspired
[[Special:Contributions/98.211.199.84|98.211.199.84]] 15:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, WAY too heavy, but I was just trying to inspire other engineers, perhaps people smarter then I, to try solving the world problems (You will probably do better job then law makers). Hope to read your theory in the book some day. - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 08:33, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Sustainable sustainable sustainable, prophetic view of sustainable sustainable. {{unsigned ip|64.151.41.72}}

: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.11|108.162.250.11]] 03:12, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Ironically, this comic does nothing to help the situation at hand. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.60|108.162.215.60]] 02:12, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

: That's not the point dumbass [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.109|172.70.230.109]] 19:52, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

What happened in 1966-67, when there was that peak in the use of the word?--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.57|108.162.229.57]] 10:59, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
:Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a book that started the environmentalist movement. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.57|162.158.58.57]] 05:07, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

0.5% is "once per sentence"? Didn't know most sentences had 200 words. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.77|108.162.218.77]] 01:06, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

2108:Hello, sustainable is sustainability. 2109: Sustainable, sustainability.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.69|173.245.52.69]] 20:10, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

: 2110: Sustainability, sustainable. Sustainable sustainability:sustainable. [[User:QATEKLYXM|Klyxm]] ([[User talk:QATEKLYXM|talk]]) 03:49, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

We just increased it from 0.003% to 0.004%
[[User:StillNotOriginal|StillNot]][[User talk:StillNotOriginal|Original]] 16:33, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

I have a very strong urge to replace every word on this page with "sustainable". Was there ever a joke page on explainxkcd? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 11:45, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
:This would kill the explanation and in general the jokes are done by Randall while we explain them. Nevertheless humor is always welcome, but remember this Wiki is called "explainxkcd" not "jokingxkcd". So the better place for your strong urge would be here at the discussion page. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:56, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

:(Translated into English from Sustainable) The year is 2140, and “society” has been decimated. Language has transcended time and space, and how sustainable everything is is getting unsustainable. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:21, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
If someone made what was above into a real thing as a better writer, I would buy it on the spot. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:21, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

According to Randalls very own https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/ sustainable is not a simple (common) word yet... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:38, 9 May 2019 (UTC)

Sustainable sustainable sustainable Sustainable, yet still sustainable sustainable sustainable. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.92|162.158.111.92]] 10:38, 2 Sustainable 2087 (UTC)

2661: Age Milestone Privileges

2022-08-20T09:08:39Z

172.70.230.109:

{{comic
| number = 2661
| date = August 19, 2022
| title = Age Milestone Privileges
| image = age_milestone_privileges.png
| titletext = If you reach 122, you get complete unrevertible editorial control over Jeanne Calment's Wikipedia article.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BABY GOD-EMPRESS MAKING THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER R-RATED - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a list of "age milestones" in the United States. As usual for Randall, he has added many fictional entries to supplement some real life ones.

{| class="wikitable"
! Age || Privilege || Description
|-
| 16 || Drive || Legal driving age varies by state in the US. In Randall's state of Massachusetts, 16 is the minimum age to apply for a learner's permit.
|-
| 17 || Attend R-Rated movies Alone ||In the US, the Motion Picture Association assigns {{w|Motion_Picture_Association_film_rating_system|ratings}} to movies based on whether content in said movie is generally acceptable to present to minors. A rating of "R" is supposed to prohibit viewing by minors under 17 years of age unless a parent or guardian accompanies them.
|-
| 18 || Vote || Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents a minimum age of voting from being set above eighteen but does not preclude a minimum age below eighteen. The vast majority of states, but not all, use eighteen years as the minimum age for voting.
|-
| 21 || Buy Alcohol || In the US, the legal drinking age is 21 years, although other countries have a lower drinking age. For example, in Japan the legal age to drink is 20; whilst in the UK a person of 16 may drink (but not buy) alcohol (but not spirits) in a pub (but not the street).
|-
| 25 || Rent a car || Car rental companies charge higher rates for underage drivers; traditionally the minimum age is 25.
|-`e
| 30 || Run for Senate || This entry is incorrect: one must be at least 30 years old in order to ''become'' Senator, not ''run'' for Senate. Joe Biden was 29 years old when he was first elected to Senate but turned 30 before being sworn in.
|-
| 32 || Rent a Senator's Car || This is the first joke entry in the table. For one thing, most Senators do not rent out their cars, which they probably need to use regularly themselves because they have jobs{{citation needed}} to commute to, and it would be a security hazard to allow random strangers access to their vehicle.
|-
| 35 || Run for president || In the US a person must be at least 35 years old to be eligible to the Office of President.
|-
| 40 || Rent a flying car ||
|-
| 45 || Learn about the God-empress || Obviously, the god-empress does not actually exist because this comic is visible to people under 45 years old.{{citation needed}}. According to [[1413]], she will be public knowledge by 2040 anyway.
|-
| 50 || Join AARP || Full AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) membership is available to anyone age 50 and over. {{w|AARP}}
|-
| 50 || Get a shingles vaccine || At the time of the comic, the [https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/index.html CDC recommended] that adults 50 years and older get the shingles vaccine called Shingrix (this line was not in the original version of the comic, corrected later)
|-
| 52 || Click to skip captchas ||
|-
| 55 || Vote for God-empress ||
|-
| 62 || $80 national parks lifetime pass || https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm
|-
| 65 || Eligible for Medicare ||
|-
| 67 || Collect Social Security ||
|-
| 68 || See "Skip ads" button on live tv || 68 refers to a "Skip ads" button on live TV. Some DVRs and streaming applications have a feature to skip over commercial breaks in recorded programs, but this could not be available in live TV, since it would require jumping forward in time. Time travel is currently impossible.{{citation needed}} ||
|-
| 70 || Run for God-empress || The name suggests that this would also only be available to women.
|-
| 75 || Ride any animal in a national park || The National Parks Service probably could institute this relatively safely because most people over 75 would not be able to run fast enough to outrun/catch up to an animal and mount it{{citation needed}} and would not have the rebellious/risk-taking/adventurous streak that would incline them to try.{{citation needed}}
|-
| 80 || Eligible for Megacare || This is based off of becoming eligible for Medicare at age 65.
|-
| 85 || Click to toggle whether an ad is positive or negative about the product ||
|-
| 90 || Click to make any movie R-rated ||
|-
| 100 || Get a letter from the president || In the US (which other milestones, such as running for president starting at age 35, indicate is the country being referred to), you instead get congratulated by the weatherman on the {{w|Today Show}}. However, the United Kingdom is much closer; people there get a telegram from the Queen on their 100th birthday.
|-
| 102 || (35+67) Collect a presidential pension || The idea behind this joke is that it is the minimum age of presidency plus the minimal age to collect Social Security. There are several reasons why this must be a joke. Two are that Social Security begins 67 years after the person was born, not 67 years after the person's job started, and that the United States government would not bother to set up such a system because the vast majority of people, including former presidents, do not live to 102 years old; in fact, as of 2022, no former United States president has ever lived to 102 years old.
|-
| 105 || Get a birthday card from the God-empress || Being a god-empress would be more important than being the leader of a single country. This would make the god-empresses's time more valuable, so she only has to sent a birthday card to the few people who reach the age of 105.
|-
| 111 || Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring || This is a reference to the Lord of the Rings where Bilbo leaves his eleventy-first birthday party (the Bilbo Baggins Farewell Birthday Party) by using The One Ring.
|-
| 118 || Vote 100 times || This would happen earlier because there would often be multiple elections per year, e.g., primaries, general elections, and possibly runoffs, and even if there were only one election each year, this would actually be the person's 101st election, at least if the election were held at the same time of each year. If the sole election of each year were held at a different time of each year, someone who voted in every election would vote for the 100th time at either 116, 117, or 118.
|-
| 120 || Collect the pensions of all elected officials ||
|-
| 125 || Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president || This entry apparently references four earlier milestones (attending an R-rated movie, drinking alcohol, becoming President, and getting the shingles vaccine) whose corresponding ages (17, 21, 35, and 50) sum to 123. While not exactly 125, this may have contributed to the inspiration or age selection of this milestone.
|-
| 128 || Age rolls over, become a baby again || 128 is a reference to computers because it is a power of two (specifically to the power of seven) — although the value 128 would become either -128 or -0 (depending upon implementation) in signed 8-bit, which means you could have a weird experience of your next phase of life. For unsigned integers of one byte, the correct rollback number would be 256.

However, maybe the system uses just 7 bits (the 8th bit often used to be reserved for parity, or other flagging purposes, and otherwise stripped/ignored) if it has never before needed an eighth bit and this had once seemed like a sufficient form of data-packing with no expectation that this limit would be reached. Computers using such systems would have a Y2K-analogous bug once someone actually reached 128 years old, where anomolous processing might indicate the person to be a baby (or fail in other ways). But that would not have happened yet.

|}

The title text mentions {{w|Jeanne Calment}}, who holds the record for the oldest person ever (there are biblical references to older people, such as {{w|Methuselah}}, who supposedly lived to 969, but their ages haven't been verified); she reportedly was age 122 when the died in 1997. Randall claims that if you match her age you get editorial control over her Wikipedia page. (NB: There's some controversy whether Calment actually claimed her mother's records, including birth certificate, as her own; "editing wars" have been fought over her article.) However, if anyone managed to exceed her achieved age, presumably they would get their own page (albeit that they should not be encouraged to {{w|Wikipedia:Editing Your Own Page|edit it}} themselves) and hers would cease to be as interesting, although that might depend on what use is made of the unparalleled editorial control now granted.

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

<big>Age Milestones</big> 
and associated privileges

16  Drive 
17  Attend R-rated movies alone 
18  Vote 
21  Buy alcohol 
25  Rent a car 
32  Run for senate 
35  Run for president 
40  Rent a flying car 
45  Learn about the God-Empress 
50  Join AARP 
50  Get a shingles vaccine 
52  Click to skip captchas 
55  Vote for God-Empress 
62  $80 National parks lifetime pass 
65  Eligible for Medicare 
67  Collect Social Security 
68  See "Skip Ads" button on live TV 
70  Run for God-Empress 
75  Ride any animal in a national park 
80  Eligible for MegaCare 
85  Click to toggle whether any ad is positive or negative about the product 
90  Click to make any movie R-rated 
100  Get a letter from the president 
102  (35+67) Collect a presidential pension 
105  Get a birthday card from the God-Empress 
111  Leave your own birthday party early by putting on a magic ring 
118  Vote 100 times 
120  Collect the pensions of all elected officials 
125  Drink alcohol in an R-rated movie while getting a shingles vaccine from the president 
128  Age rolls over, become a baby again

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

Talk:2659: Unreliable Connection

2022-08-16T00:30:34Z

172.70.230.109:

first [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.13|172.70.85.13]] 22:37, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:Dude, no [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 22:46, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

I don’t think this has anything to do with teleconferencing. Am I missing something? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 22:46, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:Yes. The impliction is that people are expecting you to be available for online communications, and you can use the unreliable Internet connection as an excuse to get out of it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:51, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
::I think it's more about communication in general. He doesn't want anybody calling him or sending him emails, so by saying he has an "unreliable" connection people might assume it will be hard to get in touch with him.
:::Back in the day, email was usually configured so that it could easily overcome such unreliability, and it's still doable,[https://discourse.mailinabox.email/t/running-from-home/6459/7] but today email for most people is a web or local client-server app, as opposed to a local mail store in a peer-to-peer app. Even people in urban areas can suffer unreliable internet, when squirrels or backhoes gnaw through data cables, copper theives strike, or 5G mind control base stations are congested. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.143|172.70.210.143]] 23:45, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

According to a PhET simulator (https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/plinko-probability/latest/plinko-probability_en.html) for this situation, the ideal standard deviation is 1.732 and ideal mean is 6. I don’t feel like doing the calculations :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 23:34, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
:If we assume 50-50 for each bounce, the probability that internet is off will be about (11 choose 3)/(2^11), or 8%.--[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 23:51, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

To whomever did [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2659:_Unreliable_Connection&diff=292862&oldid=292861], doesn't [https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/8817/pdf/LIPIcs-FUN-2018-26.pdf] prove that symmetrical configurations nearly identical to those shown can produce uniform distributions? They seem to show it's just a matter of horizontal pin spacing. However, I for one can not verify the proof, which uses unusual (novel?) non-Unicode math notation, and a fairly opaque method of proof. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.134|172.70.211.134]] 00:07, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

What is the chance that the ball will bounce off the first pin, go down the outside of the pins and miss all the switches?

I would describe the device as a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galton_board. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.109|172.70.230.109]] 00:30, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

1997: Business Update

2022-08-12T23:15:22Z

172.70.230.109:

{{comic
| number = 1997
| date = May 23, 2018
| title = Business Update
| image = business_update.png
| titletext = Our customers keep sending us their personal information, even though we've repeatedly asked them to stop. The EU told me I'm the heir to some ancient European throne that makes me exempt from the GDPR, but we should probably still try to fix that.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a meeting at [[Beret Guy]]'s business (as seen in [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|these other comics]]). As usual, those in the business demonstrate a misuse of business terminology and take strange happenings within the business in their stride.

Though maintaining a semblance of business-savviness through the use of many corporate buzzwords, it becomes clear that what is normally metaphorical in a usual boardroom meeting is here are quite likely meant literally. The Quarterly Reports, described as "looking good," may be literally physically attractive (rather than recording successful business dealings). Beret Guy's comment that "the office is full of cash" seems to be an ordinary comment at a glance, but him saying that the office ''contains'' a lot of money instead of ''has'' a lot of money implies that the office is literally full of money, such as coins, dollar bills, twenty-dollar bills, etc., and not simply economically well-off. Most businesses keep their money in banks; any business that keeps all their money insecurely in the office is either criminally shady or incompetent.

"We're producing stocks [as in the stock market, a.k.a. shares] faster than ever before." Stocks are valuable, so from an outside perspective making more of them would create value. However, the humor of this situation is that in real life, creating shares from nothing would reduce the value of existing shares (as the combined value of stocks should add up to the total value of the company...so creating more stocks means each has to be worth less to make the addition balance out). This is ironic in that typically stocks represent the value of the company, rather than being the product being created.

Alternatively, the company may be producing the leg restraints known as {{w|Stocks|stocks}}. It's unlikely that there would be many people wishing to buy these stocks. Conversely, if what they are making is ''soup'' stocks, then it could be related to the 'rapid growth' (i.e., obesity) of the customers.

"Rapid growth" is something a business is supposed to attain for itself or its userbase, not its individual customers. If the customers are not children they are likely very concerned by this rapid growth, as should be Beret Guy if the rapid growth is being caused by his business and its products.

"Liquidating assets" typically means that assets are being sold off for money rather than being retained or used. Assets "liquidated" in a thermostat glitch, meanwhile, may have been literally melted ("turned into liquid"). It could also mean that their infrastructure is so hilariously messed up (and/or the assets so bizarre) that a simple glitch in a thermostat somehow resulted in the loss of a large amount of the company's assets. Note that this type of thing is not entirely unheard of, as shown by [https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/iot-hacking-thermometer.html a hack of a thermostat in a casino that led to massive data loss in 2017].

"Original content" is a catch-all term for unique creative products created by a website, e.g. articles, videos or TV shows. However, it is not typically used to describe sinks, which only provide water. Since the business team regards it as a problem, this means the sink is likely leaking or backing up, possibly with polluted water or rotting food waste, or perhaps creating things one would not expect a sink to dispense or even to exist (depending on how "original" this original content is).

Transmuting lead into gold was a {{w|Nuclear transmutation#Alchemy|goal of alchemists}} for many centuries. With modern nuclear technology, it is actually now possible to accomplish transmutation of lead into gold, and gold into lead. While the expense far exceeds the value of the gold produced by such methods, it seems plausible that, given Beret Guy's surpassing strangeness, his company may be successfully and cheaply transmuting large quantities of lead into gold and back again. Since gold is worth much more than lead in today's market, the first transmutation could indeed result in major profit, while the reverse would obviously result in major losses, and be a rather pointless undertaking for a typical, profit-oriented business.

It is also worth noting that the "largest source of revenue" may not be producing much revenue at all; it can still be the biggest if there are no others. On the other hand, past experience with Beret Guy's business would indicate that this company is [[1032: Networking|making plenty of money]], though they aren't necessarily sure [[1493: Meeting|how]].

Alternately, Beret Guy may be speaking literally about their "biggest source of revenue," referring not to the amount of revenue generated, but to the physical size of the source itself. A facility capable of transmuting heavy elements would most likely be constructed around a large particle accelerator such as a synchrotron, and accelerators of this type commonly measure several kilometers in diameter. Such a facility would likely be the largest physical structure owned by a commercial entity.

In the last panel, "the girl from ''The Ring''" refers to Sadako Yamamura, the antagonist of {{w|The Ring (film series)|the ''Ring'' series by Koji Suzuki}}, or her counterpart Samara Morgan from the {{w|The_Ring_(2002_film)|American remake}}, who has been referenced by xkcd several times in the past — [[396: The Ring]] for example. One of Sadako/Samara's supernatural abilities is to appear in television screens as well as exit from them into the real world. Beret Guy claims she has done this several times in their video conferences, which may be possible if someone has hacked their video feed to play footage from the 2002 movie. However, some of Beret Guy's employees then proceed to remark that she has made contributions to the meetings in question, implying that the image of Sadako/Samara is not only alive but sentient and communicating with the employees, rather than killing them as she typically does in her movies. It's also possible that Sadako/Samara is simply the recording from the series, and her contributions are just in keeping with the general tone of the company's video conferences. Either way, it would appear that Beret Guy's sheer eccentricity has affected his staff to the point that a digital spectre would not be an abnormal employee; they're also oddly nonchalant about a movie character appearing in the real world, and at Sadako/Samara's out-of-character behavior.

The title text refers to the May 25 deadline to implement the European Union's {{w|GDPR|General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)}}; this comic parodies a business meeting about what the company is doing to prepare for it. However, while normally the problem would be how to handle the customers' personal information that the company requires to retain in order to do business, in this case it seems the company does not require personal information at all, and instead, customers are sending them theirs on their own (and they refuse to stop doing it!). Even more bizarrely, Beret Guy was told by the EU (or at least, he thinks he was) that he is exempt because he is European royalty of some kind, which would give him {{w|sovereign immunity}}, but he wants to fix this problem anyway, just to be on the safe side.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy, Ponytail, Hairy, Hairbun and Megan sit around a table, left to right. Beret Guy and Megan are sitting on chairs at the ends. All others are behind the table with no visible chairs. All characters face Beret Guy.]
:Beret Guy: Quarterly reports are looking good.
:Beret Guy: Our office is full of cash, we're producing stocks faster than ever before, and our customers are experiencing rapid growth.
:Beret Guy: Any updates?

:[Closeup on Ponytail, facing left.]
:Ponytail: Bad news: many of our assets were liquidated this morning due to a thermostat glitch.
:Ponytail: Good news: the sink in the kitchen has stopped producing original content.

:[Same as panel one, but characters are facing Megan.]
:Beret Guy: How are our finances?
:Megan: Our biggest source of revenue is our ongoing project to transmute lead into gold.
:Megan: Our biggest expense is our project to transmute it back.

:[Closeup on Beret Guy, facing right, offset to the left of the panel. Two characters speak from off-panel right.]
:Beret Guy: Lastly, any luck getting the girl from ''The Ring'' to stop showing up in our video conferences?
:Off-panel person 1: No, but honestly, she's made some good contributions.
:Off-panel person 2: Yeah, I think we should hire her.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Stock Market]]

2381: The True Name of the Bear

2022-08-11T14:59:02Z

172.70.230.109: Fixed the tension that otherwise would've stayed with me all day

{{comic
| number = 2381
| date = November 4, 2020
| title = The True Name of the Bear
| image = the_true_name_of_the_bear.png
| titletext = Thank you to Gretchen McCulloch for fielding this question, and sorry that as a result the world's foremost internet linguist has been devoured by the brown one. She will be missed.
}}

==Explanation==
The Canadian Internet linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} [https://twitter.com/gretchenamcc/status/1113195661275611137 tweeted] about [https://www.charlierussellbears.com/LinguisticArchaeology.html the theory] that the word for bear became taboo in some branches of Indo-European languages - notably the Germanic one - and it was replaced by euphemisms. In the Germanic branch, the euphemism may have been "the brown one," and thus the modern word "bear" (derived from Germanic "beran") would more literally translate into the color "brown" rather than the animal.

The Indoeuropean root for bear is *rkto-, which has been inferred from modern languages that still use a word derived from it. In the comic, McCulloch applies {{w|Sound change|sound shifting}} laws to it to guess how it would have evolved in English had it not been superseded, but saying it seems to actually summon a bear.

Interestingly enough, the hypothesized word “arth” is the same as the Welsh and Cornish for the word “bear.” Welsh belongs to the Celtic language family, which is one of the Indo-European branches that still uses a word derived from *rkto-, as do the Italic (Romance), Greek and Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) branches, while Germanic, Slavic and Baltic branches abandoned it for different euphemisms. Another Indo-European language where the word for bear is very close to this extrapolation is Armenian, where it's written [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/արջ արջ] and pronounced “artch”. The comic does not explain why speakers of Welsh, Cornish, Italic, Greek, Indo-Aryan, and Armenian languages do not summon a bear every time they refer to one.{{Citation needed}}

Use of true names appears to be [[1013: Wake Up Sheeple|highly effective in the xkcd universe, rather like a fairy tale]], and it is also {{tvtropes|IKnowYourTrueName|a common trope}} elsewhere. Some say a true name contains clear meaning of who someone or something really is.

In later comics ([[2421: Tower of Babel]], and [[2657: Complex Vowels]]) a linguist that resembles Gretchen from this comic reappears. Since these stories occur during biblical times or in extra-dimensional realities, it is not Gretchen, but obviously this is how linguists look in xkcd from now on.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in front the left, looking down at her phone. Cueball and Ponytail are standing next to each other.]
:Megan: Wow - according to the internet, we don't know the true name of the bear.
:Cueball: What?

:[Gretchen McCulloch, drawn with short, curly hair, comes on-panel from the right.]
:Megan: Apparently there was a superstition that saying its name would summon it. "Bear" and "bruin" mean "the brown one." Its actual name has been lost.
:Cueball: Wow.
:Ponytail: Gretchen, is this for real?

:[Zoom-in on Gretchen.]
:Gretchen: Well, sort of
:Gretchen: The Proto-Indo-European root was *rkto-
:Gretchen: It was lost in the Germanic languages like English, but survived elsewhere, e.g. Greek "arktos" and Latin "ursus"

:[Back to the second panel, with Megan holding her phone down, Ponytail with her hands in the air, and Gretchen with her hand on her chin.]
:Megan: So could we figure out what the word would have been in English?
:Gretchen: Hmm. I mean, we'll never know, but given Germanic sound shifts, a reasonable guess might be "arth"?
:Ponytail: ''No!!''

:[The panel zooms in again to Gretchen.]
:Ponytail (off-panel): ''Stop! AAAAA!''
:Gretchen: What??
:Ponytail (off-panel): Don't ''say'' it!

:[Ponytail is holding her palms out. Megan is no longer in the panel.]
:Ponytail: What have you ''done''?
:Off-panel noise: <big>'''''ROAR'''''</big>
:Gretchen: Oh
:Gretchen: Oh no

== Trivia ==
The last comic strip that ended with the words "Oh no" was [[2314: Carcinization]], which also featured an unfortunate occurrence involving an animal as its punchline when Cueball spontaneously transformed into a crab.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Gretchen McCulloch]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2657: Complex Vowels

2022-08-10T22:01:47Z

172.70.230.109: Added in the analogy of adding an extra dimension in each case, along with discussion about actual three-dimensional vowelspace

{{comic
| number = 2657
| date = August 10, 2022
| title = Complex Vowels
| image = complex_vowels.png
| titletext = Pronouncing [ṡṡċċḣḣẇẇȧȧ] is easy; you just say it like the 'x' in 'fire'.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ṡṡċċḣḣẇẇȧȧ - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In mathematics, complex numbers are numbers including both real numbers and imaginary numbers. A complex number can be expressed as "''a'' + ''b''i" where ''a'' is a real number and i, the imaginary part, is the square root of negative one. When expanding the one-dimensional number line with an imaginary axis, it becomes two-dimensional.

In phonetics, the vowelspace is represented as two-dimensional. This is non-abstract: the y axis represents vowel height (i.e. how close or far the tongue is from the top of the mouth) and the x axis represents frontness/backness (i.e. how close or far the tongue is from the teeth). In an analogy to the addition of a new dimension in mathematics, two-dimensional vowelspace becomes '''three'''-dimensional with a new axis.

In linguistics ə is the schwa symbol, the most common vowel sound in English polysyllabic words (the a in comma or the e in letter). The schwa symbol looks like a reversed e symbol (the base of natural logarithms).

This comic conflates complex numbers in mathematics with "complex vowels" in linguistics. This creates a series of sounds which cannot be properly processed by the human brain. This is similar to the cliche of "black speech" in Lovecraftian horror, a language created by alien beings with different vocal patterns than humans.

The linguist in the comic appears to be {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}}, as previously depicted in [[2421: Tower of Babel]] and [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]].

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

==Comic Discussion==
Because vowelspace is often represented in books, on screens, etc., it '''is''' often represented as two-dimensional, but this is actually insufficient. Vowels can also be rounded (i.e. the lips are round to pronounce them), although in English and other languages, roundedness correlates mostly (but not fully) with backness. (This means the back vowels [u, o] are also the round ones, but [a], as in "Say 'ah'," is back but unrounded.) French and German, though, have front and back round vowels (as well as unrounded front ones) and languages like Turkish have the full paradigm: eight vowels—one for each combination of high/low, back/front, round/unrounded—that can easily be represented on the vertices of a cube. Some vowel harmony processes in Turkic languages even only operate along one dimension. Roundedness will thus spread from one vowel to another, so the existence of a front round high vowel will trigger the round version of another nearby vowel.

2650: Deepfakes

2022-07-26T12:38:27Z

172.70.230.109: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2650
| date = July 25, 2022
| title = Deepfakes
| image = deepfakes.png
| titletext = If so great a deductive mind as Arthur Conan Doyle can be fooled by the Cottingley Deepfakes, what chance do we mortals have? Soon our very reality will be dictated by the whims of Frances (9) and Elsie (16).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DEEPFAKE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|deepfake}} is an altered video, designed to deceive by replacing a person in a video. [[White Hat]] believes that this technology will make it difficult to trust videos. However, [[Cueball]] responds by saying that "fakes" have always existed, in photos (either through {{w|photoshopping|alterations by software such as Adobe Photoshop}}, or deliberately staging fakes images, e.g. {{w|Loch Ness Monster#%22Surgeon's photograph%22 (1934)|of the Loch Ness Monster}}) and even more so by people simply lying. White Hat comes around to Cueball's position and says that even the written word is prone to deception and lying.

Scientific studies of deepfakes have produced surprising results, suggesting that they are more likely to increase uncertainty than persuade,[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305120903408] that their increased prevalence could inoculate the public against {{w|disinformation}},[https://dspace.cuni.cz/handle/20.500.11956/150489] and that they are more likely to be shared because of their humorousness than persuasiveness.[http://essay.utwente.nl/91654/] Other studies have found that deepfakes are persuasive, especially among those who are unfamiliar with them.[https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2020.0174][https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1780812]

The {{w|complaint tablet to Ea-nasir}} is a 3,800 year-old clay tablet containing the oldest known written complaint, in which a customer complains to a merchant, Ea-nasir, about his copper ingots. Cueball's last statement says that perhaps this complaint could have been a lie to begin with, and there was nothing wrong with Ea-nasir's wares.

The title text references the {{w|Cottingley Fairies}}, a series of photographs of "fairies" by two children, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, who were 16 and 9, respectively. The photographs received widespread attention when Sir {{w|Arthur Conan Doyle}}, the author of the ''Sherlock Holmes'' series and noteworthy for his logical analysis alongside an unshakable belief in mysticism, used the photos as proof of paranormal phenomena in a 1920 magazine article. In 1983, Elsie and Frances confessed that the photos had been faked. Due to recent technical advances, those mere children now could create convincingly realistic fakes.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are walking to the right.]
:White Hat: Thanks to deepfakes, soon we won't know what's real anymore. Video will become meaningless.

:[White Hat and Cueball walk on, Cueball lifts one hand with the palm up.]
:Cueball: I dunno.
:Cueball: We've had Photoshop for decades and staged photos for centuries.
:Cueball: It hasn't made photos meaningless.

:[Zoom in on Cueball, who is turned left towards off-panel White Hat.]
:Cueball: The bottleneck for fake stuff isn't technical. The bottleneck is willingness to lie.
:Cueball: "People lying" is a very old problem.
:Cueball: It's a known exploit.

:[Zoom back out on White Hat and Cueball who have stopped. White Hat has a hand on his chin. Cueball holds his hands out to the sides.]
:White Hat: I guess technically we've been able to make '''''text''''' deepfakes for 5,000 years.
:Cueball: Maybe Ea-nasir's copper ingots were actually fine!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Photography]]

1609: Food Combinations

2022-07-23T01:25:31Z

172.70.230.109: Undo revision 290209 by Nigger Hitler (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1609
| date = November 27, 2015
| title = Food Combinations
| image = food_combinations.png
| titletext = If anyone tries this on you, the best reply is a deadpan "Oh yeah, that's a common potato chip flavor in Canada."
}}

==Explanation==
This is another comic with one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Fun fact|fun facts]].

[http://www.rd.com/funny/21-weird-food-combinations-and-obsessions/ Unusual food combinations] are often counter-intuitive and can vary wildly by individual taste. Real-world examples of unusual food pairings, such as [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/dining/making-a-meal-out-of-peanut-butter-and-pickles.html pickles and peanut butter], French fries in chocolate shake, or even the comfort-food pairing of {{w|chicken and waffles}}, pair sweet, sour, or salty foods with a food or condiment from a different group. In many "normal" food pairings, though, the cross-over between sweet, savory and salty foods also exists, such as ketchup, a very sweet condiment being regularly applied to hamburgers and French fries, both savory and salty foods.

In this comic, Randall lists twelve somewhat random food items. Below these [[Megan]] says a line to [[Ponytail]] and [[Cueball]] where she claims that two items of food from the list above (pick any) would be a great combination. Some of these are obviously great together (and much depends on personal taste) but many combination will definitely not be enjoyed by ''most'' people living for instance in the US (where Randall is situated). Say ketchup and ice cream or hot chocolate and avocado. But no matter which two Megan chooses the response from Cueball (or anyone else) would be the same - he can see what she means with this combination.

Randall suggests, in the caption below, that by using the right tone of voice, you can put any pair of these food items together as an "actually really good" food combination, and no one will challenge you on it. This can either be because they have likely heard, or tried other unexpected combinations that are highly recommended or liked. But it could also just be because they are polite, or did not really think about what you said due to your tone of voice. Cueball's agreement could also be due to some social pressure in this situation, the same reason he will drink beer even though he does not enjoy the taste, as in [[1534: Beer]]. Or maybe they are like {{w|Joey Tribbiani|Joey}} from {{w|Friends}} who love any combination of food, as long as it is something he think is good by itself - see [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSFgDZJVYbo this clip].

The title text extends the joke by recommending countering such a bizarre proposal with an assertion that the random pairing announced is an actual potato chip flavor popular in Canada. This plays on the fact that in different countries and regions, cultural tastes can vary wildly. For instance, [http://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/americans-taste-canadian-ketchup-all-dressed-chips ketchup flavored potato chips] are quite popular in Canada, but are almost never offered in US markets. {{w|Loblaws}} and {{w|Lay's}} have run potato chips flavor competition in Canada in 2013-15 with flavors such as Maple Moose, Bacon Poutine, Jalapeño Mac N' Cheese, Cowboy BBQ Beans. Similar strange combinations of potato chips are run, either temporarily or permanently, in other countries including the [http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2013/04/british-crisps/ United Kingdom]. In addition, some parts of Canada are used as experimental markets to test new flavors of potato chips.

===Table of traditional pairings===
*There are 12 items and they can be combined in a total of 66 different ways.
**The 66 fields above the blue fields are the same as those below - of course it does not matter which order you put them in.
*As of writing this 24 of these 66 has been made green (aka being tasty) (36,4%).
**But this has much to do with individual taste.
**Since the comic is made in the US, it should mainly be combinations that are common in the US.
**Also remember that even though you personally may not like avocado or relish (etc.), all food items on on the list are something that many people enjoy eating.
**They are thus NOT disgusting!
**Do not take personal taste into account when changing the list below!

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Traditional pairings found in the list of combinations
!
! Ice Cream
! Ham
! Relish
! Pancakes
! Ketchup
! Cheese
! Eggs
! Cupcakes
! Sour Cream
! Hot Chocolate
! Avocado
! Skittles
|-
| {{w|Ice Cream}}
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
|-
| {{w|Ham}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Relish}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Pancakes}}
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
|-
| {{w|Ketchup}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Cheese}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Egg (food)|Eggs}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Cupcakes}}
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
|-
| {{w|Sour Cream}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Hot Chocolate}}
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Avocado}}
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
|-
| {{w|Skittles (confectionery)|Skittles}}
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#8CFF74;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#FF748C;"|
| style="background-color:#748cff;"|
|}

==Transcript==
:[Megan is talking with Ponytail and Cueball, who has his hand to his chin. Above them in 4x3 black boxes different kind of food is written in white text].

:{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"| Ice cream
|style="background-color:black;"| Ham
|style="background-color:black;"| Relish
|-
|style="background-color:black;"| Pancakes
|style="background-color:black;"| Ketchup
|style="background-color:black;"| Cheese
|-
|style="background-color:black;"| Eggs
|style="background-color:black;"| Cupcakes
|style="background-color:black;"| Sour cream
|-
|style="background-color:black;"| Hot chocolate
|style="background-color:black;"| Avocado
|style="background-color:black;"| Skittles
|}

:Megan: You know what's actually really good?
:Megan: ____ and ____.
:Megan: food and food

:Cueball: Huh. I Guess I can see it.

:[Caption below the panel.]
:Fun fact: if you say "you know what's actually really good?" in the right tone of voice, you can name any two individually-good foods here and no one will challenge you one it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fun fact]]
[[Category:Food]]

2647: Capri Suns

2022-07-18T16:56:08Z

172.70.230.109:

{{comic
| number = 2647
| date = July 18, 2022
| title = Capri Suns
| image = capri_suns.png
| titletext = [As security is dragging me away] "Come on, at least I didn't make the mistake in the other direction!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CAPRI SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
IV bags kinda look like Capri Suns. Drinking IV bags like a Capri Sun is not something a doctor usually does{{citation needed}}, because they are full of saline solution and not juice. Saline solution is a salty liquid that is safe for human injection, and is the basis of quite a few vaccines, as well as the eye drops used to make your contact lenses slightly less annoying.

The title text is pointing out that drinking whatever was in the bag like a Capri Sun is better than a Capri Sun being mistaken as a saline IV drip, as this would like seriously endanger, if not kill, the recipient.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Created by SOMEONE WHO IS NOT A DOCTOR - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
(A cueball is standing in a labcout is drinking out of an IV drip bag, surrounded by doctors)
"You know, Capri Suns ARE good, but they're REALLY salty"

The comic is subtitled "I think the hospital may be realizing I'm not a doctor"
{{comic discussion}}

2647: Capri Suns

2022-07-18T16:54:32Z

172.70.230.109:

{{comic
| number = 2647
| date = July 18, 2022
| title = Capri Suns
| image = capri_suns.png
| titletext = [As security is dragging me away] "Come on, at least I didn't make the mistake in the other direction!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CAPRI SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
IV bags kinda look like Capri Suns. Drinking IV bags like a Capri Sun is not something a doctor usually does{{citation needed}}, because they are full of saline solution and not juice. Saline solution is a salty liquid that is safe for human injection, and is the basis of quite a few vaccines, as well as the eye drops used to make your contact lenses slightly less annoying.

The title text is pointing out that drinking whatever was in the bag like a Capri Sun is better than a Capri Sun being mistaken as a saline IV drip, as this would like seriously endanger, if not kill, the recipient.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
(A cueball is standing in a labcout is drinking out of an IV drip bag, surrounded by doctors)
"You know, Capri Suns ARE good, but they're REALLY salty"

The comic is subtitled "I think the hospital may be realizing I'm not a doctor"
{{comic discussion}}

2644: fMRI Billboard

2022-07-13T20:15:45Z

172.70.230.109: added link to website where people can find studies to participate in

{{comic
| number = 2644
| date = July 11, 2022
| title = fMRI Billboard
| image = fmri_billboard.png
| titletext = [other side] If the first word of an instruction you're given starts with the same letter as your crush's name, for that step imagine the experimenter is your crush.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by YOUR SCARIEST MEMORY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Functional magnetic resonance imaging}}, or fMRI, is a method of {{w|4DCT|four-dimensional computed tomography}} able to record animated multi-layered images of brain activity by detecting blood flow changes apparent from magnetic differences between oxygenated and deoxygenated {{w|hemoglobin}}. Scientists use fMRI to try to detect deception and false memories,[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763419301873] plan brain surgery,[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158217303133] and understand the relationship between brain structures and cognition,[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763419300879] among many other investigations. Volunteer research subjects [https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ participate in such studies] by lying inside large toroidal scanners while conducting tasks with projected images, sounds, etc.

This comic shows a billboard erected by a neuroscience department in an attempt at sabotaging a rival department's volunteer subject compliance with their fMRI study instructions, by suggesting behaviors which would likely produce unexpected results, such as recalling a frightening memory after seeing similar stimulus slides, or imagining the lab technician is a romantic interest when reading words that begin with the same letter as their name. This is funny because academic department rivalries do not usually lead to sabotage,{{citation needed}} and in the rare cases when they do, it's usually clandestine instead of so absurdly blatant.

Following such suggestions or even inadvertently remembering them during an fMRI could very well interfere with its results. fMRI experiments are often criticized because they have low {{w|statistical power}} and can easily be confounded by experiment subject error in following instructions, among many other variables. In a famous 2009 study, a dead fish was shown to have apparent evidence of brain activity when scanned with ordinary fMRI techniques.[http://prefrontal.org/files/posters/Bennett-Salmon-2009.pdf] In 2015, discovery of a statistical error invalidated at least 40,000 fMRI studies.[https://www.sciencealert.com/a-bug-in-fmri-software-could-invalidate-decades-of-brain-research-scientists-discover] Subsequently in 2017, many more fMRI results were further discredited due to poor software parameter selection.[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5487467]

The title text indicates that the sabotaging instructions are printed on both sides of the billboard, suggesting that it might have been erected on the grounds of the targeted rival department. Alternately, the instructions on the other side may be intended to disrupt research in the other institution.

==Transcript==
:[A large, building-sized billboard rises over what appears to be a college campus. The sign is supported by two sturdy planks disappearing behind one of two long one story buildings lying next to each other. The board is higher than the buildings and almost as long as the one it stands behind. That building seems to have a flat roof where the other has a peaked roof. It could, though, be a matter of perspective, and that both buildings have the same kind of peaked roof. There are several windows visible in both buildings and a door in the middle of the one with the billboard. There is a forest behind the buildings. In front of the main building there is a path with a round area just outside the door. The path goes past the next building, with yet another round area between the buildings. These round areas are where two paths crosses. Megan is standing outside the door, Cueball walks towards the round area between the buildings, Ponytail sits on the grass between the two paths going away from the buildings, she sits near a tree. Closer to the tree and also closer to the buildings another Ponytail like girl is standing together with Hairbun. The sign reads:]
: ⚠ Student fMRI study volunteers ⚠
: Remember, when you're in the scanner, if you see a slide that's similar to one they already showed you, think as hard as you can about your scariest memory.

:[Caption below panel:]
:A rival neuroscience department keeps trying to sabotage our experiments.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Biology]]