explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2714: Cold Complaints

2022-12-21T22:33:18Z

172.70.35.70:

That study sounds like something that would win an Ig Nobel Prize. But the 2002 prize in medicine went to "Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:37, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Also common cold cannot really be cured, just wait and see. http://www.picturequotes.com/proper-treatment-will-cure-a-cold-in-seven-days-but-left-to-itself-a-cold-will-hang-on-for-a-week-quote-272191 [[User:Vdm|Vdm]] ([[User talk:Vdm|talk]]) 20:49, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Are we sure that's the actual explanation? I thought the panels we see of the telemedicine are fibs to explain why Harry is acting this way. As in, he's pretending a medical professional told him to act like this. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.13|172.69.68.13]] 21:59, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Can the citation be moved to a ref tag instead of just Being There? on a related note, why is the 58 bolded? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.76|172.71.166.76]] 22:32, 21 December 2022 (UTC) [[NonUser:Bumpf|Bumpf]] ([[NonUser talk:Bumpf|shh]])

2635: Superintelligent AIs

2022-06-21T14:51:49Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ grumble grumble

{{comic
| number = 2635
| date = June 20, 2022
| title = Superintelligent AIs
| image = superintelligent_ais.png
| titletext = Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they should, they didn't stop to think if they could.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AI RESEARCHERS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Artificial intelligence}} (AI) is a [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

Superintelligent AI, especially under a proposed "singularity" situation, is commonly theorized to be a brand new kind of intelligence that would be impossible to predict through human perception. [[Randall]], however, proposes a counterargument: that superintelligent AI would be programmed by humans with nerdy fixations, and thus the AI would turn out much like those nerdy humans. Perhaps it is [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] who have created these three AIs and now they are stunned that their AIs just continue their discussion of the problems with AI, though maybe on a higher level (three tracks in the trolley problem...).

*{{w|AI box}}
*{{w|Turing test}}
*{{w|Trolley problem}}

The AIs in this comic are depicted as floating energy beings, similar to [[1450: AI-Box Experiment]], although these looks somewhat different.

The title text is a reference to the movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'' (a childhood favorite of Randall's). In the movie a character criticizes the creation of modern dinosaurs as a product of mad science, where the scientists are so eager to prove they CAN they don't stop to ask if they SHOULD. Randall inverts the quote, claiming the AI programmers have invested too much time in the ethics of creating AI rather than studying whether or not they can actually pull it off.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing and looking up and away from each other. Right above them and slightly above them to the left and right there are three small white lumps floating in the air, representing three superintelligent AIs. There are small rounded lines emanating from each lump, larger close to the lumps and shorter further out. Three to four sets of lines around each lump, forming part of a circle. From the top of each there are four straight lines indicating voices that comes from each if the lumps. The central lump above them seems to speak first, then the left and then the right:]
:Central AI: What you don't understand is that Turing intended his test as an illustration of the...
:Left AI: But suppose the AI in the the box told the human that...
:Right AI: In my scenario, the runaway trolley has ''three'' tracks...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In retrospect, given that the superintelligent AIs were all created by AI researchers, what happened shouldn't have been a surprise.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]

Talk:610: Sheeple

2022-06-01T02:18:13Z

172.70.35.70:

So, I'm a high schooler. I recently found out most people my age don't care about outside politics and stuff like that. On the other hand, I always think that they do. But now I'm actually starting to believe this. I mean, what do people care about, then?

Which one is Paul Ryan?[[Special:Contributions/138.162.140.55|138.162.140.55]] 00:44, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

tsk tsk tsk... somebody has been watching too much of the msnbc propaganda... [[User:Douglasadams472|Douglasadams472]] 20:56, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Probably the one with the briefcase full of money. :P [[User:Hogtree Octovish|Hogtree Octovish]] ([[User talk:Hogtree Octovish|talk]]) 09:25, 16 February 2013 (UTC)
:Beret guy?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 09:11, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

I find another possible humor in tile text: Ironically, Rand fans would find the concept of a collective rather revolting. A convention is in essence a gathering of everyone who has an interest in a subject, and is thus an "average of averages" (to quote Rand herself) on the respective subject. Fans who take Rand's philosophy as intended would probably find amassing themselves with others in a social hodge-podge of people without much function, mindless discussion, and re-iterating the ideas of someone else, to be against Rand's theory of Objectivism... Unless their Libertarians, of course. [[User:Jinx|Jinx]] 20:31, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

I wonder if this was the same train that blew the Taggart tunnel... [[User: Nemo|Nemo]] 14:46, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

There is a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Be different: conform.

-- Fortune

"If we're going to wear uniforms, let's all wear something different"; Tommy Chong [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 15:40, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

another smbc parallel (smbc coming later) in [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-05-23 this comic] --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 02:18, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2268: Further Research is Needed

2022-05-26T03:15:27Z

172.70.35.70:

First! —[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.145|172.69.63.145]] 14:56, February 14, 2020
:Please sign your comments. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 23:59, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

I got two things to say:
* What the heck is the "Woodward Hoffman textbook on organic chemistry"? I can't find it anywhere online.
*I think it's a reference to [https://archive.org/stream/WoodwardAndHoffmannTheConservationOfOrbitalSymmetryAcademicPressVerlagChemie1970/Woodward%20and%20Hoffmann%20The%20Conservation%20of%20Orbital%20Symmetry%20%28Academic%20Press%2C%20Verlag%20Chemie%2C%201970%29_djvu.txt]Conservation of Orbital Symmetry (1971)], whose chapter "Violations" starts with "There are none!" Unfortunately, the "Conclusions" chapter doesn't fully fit the criteria. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.196|162.158.63.196]] 17:23, 15 February 2020 (UTC)
* ''[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-579 In the event of an unsuccessful Action 10-Israfil-B, no further <s>action</s> research will be necessary.]''
[[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 23:59, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Paper title: "Constructive proof of P=NP". Conclusion: "No further research is needed" ... because anyone who read this paper can get so rich they won't need to do any research for rest of life, spent on nice tropical island. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:58, 15 February 2020 (UTC)
: ... other paper with similar property: "Experimental disapproval of second thermodynamic law" -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:01, 15 February 2020 (UTC)
:: Sorry, but when experimental disproofs (we really hope one comes by soon) appear, entire research streams into how to optimise the disapproval begins. "No further research required" apply far more to constructive disproofs for theory (i.e. like maths) rather than for the empirical sciences. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.119.67|162.158.119.67]] 19:22, 18 February 2020 (UTC)
::: You missed the joke being that "no further research is needed" was applied to the researcher - that is, that the researcher doesn't need to do any research - instead of on the field/topic. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:33, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

Can someone make a category called "Research" or "Research Papers"? Other comics with this topic include: [[2012: Thorough Analysis]], [[2025: Peer Review]], [[2215: Faculty:Student Ratio]], [[1594: Human Subjects]] and [[1574: Trouble for Science]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.83|172.69.33.83]] 00:59, 15 February 2020 (UTC)
:Done. Is easy. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:08, 15 February 2020 (UTC)
::I thought a similar one already existed, since there have been quite a few comics talking about scientific study papers. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 01:03, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Here is a list of a bunch of papers that could have done this (but for some it might not have been known at the time): https://mathoverflow.net/questions/347540/what-are-examples-of-collections-of-papers-which-close-a-field [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 02:16, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

Regarding topics that might reach a conclusion: The first subset that comes to mind is religious matters (e.g. "God works in mysterious ways -- let's not think about this too much.") The second subset that comes to mind is game theory regarding games that have been solved. (e.g. there's not much left to be said about tic-tac-toe.)

: Further research is needed to see why humans continue to play tic-tac-toe when it's so widely known how to avoid losing. And into how anyone ever wins. And why on earth Google has an online version, with 3 different difficulty levels. Seriously though, there is actual research into how to have the best chance of beating a player who isn't very good (meaning someone who is bad enough to lose occasionally), which involves not only game theory, but also psychology about what mistakes an opponent is most likely to make. Finally, there are newer, more complex, variants, such as playing on a 4x4 grid or in 3D, and new ones can always be developed so that the field is never closed.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.162|172.68.47.162]] 00:08, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
::Okay, what about a game of Nim? any variant that doesn't change the game so far as to be unrecognizable can easily be solved with backwards recursion. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.34|172.68.211.34]] 06:01, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
:::3 players. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 15:05, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
:::Further research needed is into why Wikipedia editors keep missing the sentence "When played as a misère game, Nim strategy is different only when the normal play move would leave only heaps of size one. In that case, the correct move is to leave an odd number of heaps of size one (in normal play, the correct move would be to leave an even number of such heaps)" and posting lengthy comments on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Nim#Is_it_just_me? the Wikipedia Nim talk page] about the strategy (for normal play) resulting in losing in a misère game.

Leaving this explanation "incomplete" would be perfectly meta. Please don't ever remove that incomplete tag [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.142|162.158.134.142]] 16:46, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
: I think it would have been even better to have the explanation say: "We believe this resolves all remaining questions on this comic. No further explanation is needed." and leave it at that. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 08:59, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

How about a subject where rather than further research not being needed to answer questions, further research is undesirable, as further investigating some matter could potentially trigger catastrophic results, such as allowing the invention of technology that would do great harm if available, ranging from being usable in crimes that can't be traced or stopped, or somehow destroying the world, or that further looking into some matter is likely to somehow drive the researcher insane?--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.21|162.158.74.21]] 06:42, 17 February 2020 (UTC)
: You are only considering ideas that might run afoul of the ethics committee if it ran. Those are old hat. It is far more interesting and fruitful to point out that we have some examples of the diametrically opposite situation. e.g. the safety and efficiency of vaccines are so great that papers ought to end with "We should not wait for further research in order to recommend that vaccines be mandated." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.119.67|162.158.119.67]] 19:27, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

If further research really isn't needed on the topic (although obviously papers get things wrong and results need to be reproduced as a check, so let's say this is that), then the next funding can go to someone else's research, and ''that'' is Good For Science. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.92|162.158.155.92]] 12:15, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

I'm imagining a book titled "There are a finite number of primes", chapter 3 "Proof" reads "This page intentionally left blank" :-) --[[User:OliReading|OliReading]] ([[User talk:OliReading|talk]]) 18:04, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

there is a joke about cold fusion in there somewhere.--[[User:Artemis1101|Artemis1101]] ([[User talk:Artemis1101|talk]]) 15:55, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

There's a [https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b00184 very good paper] published around a month before this comic which says something very close: "...we do not see any justification for such efforts, and we believe that researchers should focus their energy on other research directions." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.180|162.158.106.180]] 23:31, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
: Correction: just about exactly a month, funny enough! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.180|162.158.106.180]] 23:32, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

The comic's description alleges that the paper here claims to thoroughly explore all there is to its topic, but the last line only speaks of remaining questions that were supposed to be solved therein (which even leaves open whether this paper is the first one to assail those remaining questions).
Thus, if only one question, or a few related ones, had been left, one paper could indeed conclusively answer the last questions to a topic, especially if it only finishes what others have started.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.185|172.70.250.185]] 00:36, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

smbc may 18, 2021: [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/science-2 Further research is pointless because this paper is the last fucking word. My command of the facts is comprehensive and new information is irrelevant because the theory is austere crystalline perfection.] --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 03:15, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2624: Voyager Wires

2022-05-25T23:02:36Z

172.70.35.70:

This is fun - assuming a pair of 14ga wires were run the 14.5 billion mile distance from Earth to Voyager 1, the mass of copper would be on the order of 1012 kg, or ~5 times the mass of copper ever mined out of the earth. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 17:18, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
:Wow, that's a lot of copper! I wonder how they've been communicating with the probes up until now? :) [[User:Danny E. Corchado|Danny E. Corchado]] ([[User talk:Danny E. Corchado|talk]]) 20:46, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

At current prices for copper, this spool would cost ~9.6 trillion dollars. Surprisingly, that's only about a third of the US national debt. --[[User:KrazyKat|KrazyKat]] ([[User talk:KrazyKat|talk]]) 17:29, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

The problem of the Earth spinning could be solved by putting the contact at one of the poles; it will have to be on a swivel joint to prevent it from twisting. But there's also the Earth revolving around the Sun, which requires the cable length to cycle up and down by 186 million miles every year. I guess we could use a big version of dog leash holders. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:44, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Days before this comic was published, NASA reported issues with Voyager 1, reporting that "the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don’t reflect what’s actually happening onboard"
[https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/engineers-investigating-nasas-voyager-1-telemetry-data]

If they used wires and it was due to budget constraints, why not reel the Voyager probes back in and recycle the wire? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 19:24, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Quick calc+google - world copper reserves are estimated at 870 million tonnes, Voyager 1 is 14,471,238,963 miles from Earth (Voyager 2 a bit closer, 12 x 10^9 miles)... a lot of unit conversions and simple arithmetics later... World copper reserves would be enough for a cable with about 4 mm^2 cross-section (2,3 mm diameter) for one of them or 2.3 mm^2 cross-section (1,7 mm diameter) cables to both. Someone check the math please, it's been a long day... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.139|172.68.110.139]] 19:31, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

This is a comic worth a What-If-article. Even with zero friction extraction systems and enough available copper, there is the problem of the speed you need to send out new wire. Voyager is moving at ca. 17 km/s and Earth moves at about 30. So when Earth and Voyager move in opposite directions you have to produce *a lot* of wire per second in order to keep up with that (not exactly 47 km/s because Voyager is moving away from the ecliptic. [[User:Kimmerin|Kimmerin]] ([[User talk:Kimmerin|talk]]) 19:53, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
:Yes, definitely worth a What If! Randall, if you read this, please write a What If article on this! [[User:Danny E. Corchado|Danny E. Corchado]] ([[User talk:Danny E. Corchado|talk]]) 20:47, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
::Maybe this is a sly advertisement for an existing article in the forthcoming book! :) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.105|172.70.34.105]] 21:24, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Voyager 1 and 2 communicate with each other, or with Earth? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 20:27, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
:The comic clearly shows the wire going all the way from a Voyager to Earth. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:00, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

The explanation mentions the wire going through the Sun when we're on opposite sides of the Sun. But the Voyagers aren't traveling in the ecliptic plane, so it will probably miss the Sun. Although it still might be close enough that the heat will melt it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:00, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Is the whole joke of the "Alternate explanation" that they went overboard with the [citation needed]s? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:00, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Theoretically speaking, if the copper spool were to be anchored at the North or South Pole, it would avoid issues of wraparound. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 23:02, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

2623: Goofs

2022-05-25T13:33:10Z

172.70.35.70: /* Goofs */ semifinal is a sports thing,,, i think

{{comic
| number = 2623
| date = May 23, 2022
| title = Goofs
| image = goofs.png
| titletext = The film is set in 2018, but when Commander Bremberly chases the hologram through Times Square, there's a billboard for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Depending on the date, that billboard would have been advertising either Infinity War or this movie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a IN THE EVENT OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN REALITY AND FICTION REALITY IS WRONG - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
IMDb is the {{w|Internet Movie Database}}, a website that contains detailed, user-contributed information about movies and TV shows. One of the sections in many entries is "[[#Goofs|Goofs]]". This may list bloopers, inconsistencies, implausible actions, anachronisms, etc. in the movie. While some people find enjoyment in searching for these errors, to others, the entries listed can often be overly pedantic and missing the point{{Citation needed}} (a problem that can often afflict sites that rely on users to provide their content). The comic makes fun of this with several goofs that simply point out differences between something in the movie and reality; but since the movie is fiction (in this case, a science fiction film that includes a space detective, a cybernetic dog, blimp drones, and a hologram kissing scene), one can say that these "goofs" might simply be more differences between the movie world and our own.

In the first goof, a named street doesn't actually exist in the city in which the movie is set. Unless the address is important to the plot (Manhattan has a number of streets with well-known characters - for example, the main theatre district is on Broadway, Fifth Avenue is a major shopping district, and Wall Street is known for large financial institutions), screenwriters can and do make up street names. It might actually be expedient to 'rename' a setting in many cases, to avoid issues such as fans showing up at said street and harassing the residents.

In the second example, they point out that there's no harpoon store at the location where the characters obtain a harpoon in the movie, and the nearest actual harpoon store doesn't have a display window. Movies take liberties with details like this for plot expediency, and is not considered a goof. Manhattan does not appear to have ''any'' notable harpoon stores, with or without the kind of frontage described.

In the third example, the background of a scene is of an apartment in Downtown Vancouver (a cheap and popular filming location that frequently stands in for other cities). The goof points out that the real-life apartment does not belong to the character who supposedly lives in it. Fictional movie characters do not exist in reality,{{Citation needed}} and many scenes are set in fictional locations that are completely separate from their real-life filming locations. As such, this is only a "goof" if the scene is taken entirely literally.

The title text describes an actual anachronism. The film is set in 2018, but there's a billboard for the movie ''{{w|Avengers: Age of Ultron}}'', which came out in 2015, while the next Avengers film, ''{{w|Avengers: Infinity War}}'', came out in 2018. Assuming the movie was filmed before 2018, the filmmakers wouldn't have known what films would be current at the time it would be released, and certainly not the artwork they'd be using to promote them. They could have chosen to set it during the time of initial filming, but again, unless the specific date is significant to the plot, it's common to set (or rather, assume) a film takes place about the same time it's released. Generic advertisements for fictional (or {{w|Last Action Hero|parody}}) films might be put over egregiously obvious existing material, physically or in post-production editing, as might references to major brands – perhaps replaced by those agreed with from {{w|product placement}} partners.

The title text also mentions the possibility of a self-reference – the billboard could be for this film itself since it's being released at the same time it's set. This assertion that {{w|Blazing Saddles|in-universe self-reference}} is plausible for a movie production is likely another example of the goof's writer failing to understand the basic "premise of fiction". Most movies do not exist within the fictional world they portray,{{Citation needed}} and many audiences would find self-reference to be a far greater obstacle to suspending disbelief than an ad for the wrong Avengers movie.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An excerpt from an Internet Movie Database web page showing a list of goofs from a film. Each item has some small illegible text below it, which on the real IMDb would say something like "7 of 72 found this interesting | Share this". The first and third items have a faint yellow-tinted background. The third item is only partially visible at the bottom of the "screen".]
:[Heading:]
:<big> Goofs (78) </big>
:[List:]
:The space detective's office is on Chestnut Ave, but Lower Manhattan has no street by that name. Agent Glennifer pursues the cybernetic dog onto what is clearly Ludlow Street.
:The agents destroy the blimp drones in Union Square with harpoons from a store display rack. The nearest harpoon store is several blocks away and has no outdoor displays.
:The apartment in the background of the hologram kissing scene actually exists in downtown Vancouver. We called the owners, who confirmed they had no residents named [...]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Sometimes the IMDB "Goofs" section really seems to struggle with the whole premise of fiction.

==Goofs==
* There is no entry for a film featuring an agent called Glennifer or a commander named Bremberly on IMDB. Randall is clearly failing to do basic research.
* On the real IMDb, each item in the Goofs section would be listed under a category such as "Errors in geography" (which might apply to the three goofs listed in the main cartoon) or "Anachronisms" (which might apply to the goof in the title text). However, no such category is displayed here.
* On real Goofs pages, the information below each entry includes a public feedback listing (X of Y found this interesting) and a link entitled "Share this". In the comic, only unintelligible squiggles are included in their place, which really breaks the immersion of the purported "webpage". Of course, on a real IMDb page, all of the text would also be in the Verdana font, not Randall's handwriting.
* The comic features two entries with a yellow background, which is impossible. On IMDb, entries alternate between having white and gray backgrounds and only turn yellow when the mouse hovers over them.
* On IMDb, the number of goofs is located in a navigation box between the header and the goofs list. In the comic, the number is placed in the header, and there is no navigation box at all.
* A similar Goofs section exists in the [[explain xkcd]] wiki's page for this comic, [[2623: Goofs]], but it fails even more evidently to recreate the look of IMDb's Goofs page. Additionally, the last entry is recursive, which is clearly unprofessional.
* The penultimate entry is also recursive leading to a form of pairwise recursion and formal structure subject to analysis not typically associated with goofs sections in their generalized forms.{{Citation needed}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

2623: Goofs

2022-05-23T21:19:06Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */

213: Ghostbusters Marathon

2022-05-21T00:11:50Z

172.70.35.70: Undo revision 272335 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 213
| date = January 22, 2007
| title = Ghostbusters Marathon
| image = ghostbusters marathon.png
| titletext = If you walk out that door you'll be crossing the Rubicon with me, and that's one stream I'm not ready to cross.
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|Ghostbusters}}'' is a 1984 supernatural comedy film that spawned a sequel, a reboot, and two {{w|The Real Ghostbusters|animated television series}} (the {{w|Extreme Ghostbusters|latter}} of which lasted less than a season, didn't feature the same cast of titular Ghostbusters, and therefore is probably being pointedly ignored). The box, a "Muon Containment Trap," is a device used in the film to capture ghosts. It is connected to a footswitch by a cable. The man trying to leave is about to be pulled into the box and held there indefinitely (against his will, of course).

The title text refers to Julius Caesar's crossing of the {{w|Rubicon#History|Rubicon}}, a river (or very large stream) that marked the border between Roman Italy and an area of land Caesar was the appointed governor of. At the end of his term, the Roman Senate ordered him to disband his army and return to Italy. Instead, he brought his forces past the border, an act of treason and rebellion against the Republic, instigating the Roman Civil War. The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" now means making a move with gigantic consequences that cannot be undone. In the film ''Ghostbusters'', the protagonists use "proton packs" that fire "streams" of energy. The inventor of the device warns that these streams should not be crossed against each other, as doing so "would be bad." Just how bad? "Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light." Important safety tip.

:Final quote taken from the 1984 movie ''{{w|Ghostbusters}}''.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a friend are in a room. Cueball is standing up. There is litter around them.]
:Cueball: Okay, that's all the Ghostbusters marathon I can handle. Later!
:Friend: You can't leave! We just started the animated series!

:Cueball: I've had my fill. I'm going home.
:Friend: I can't let you do that.

:[Cueball walks along a cord and past a box. The friend clicks a switch.]
:''Click''

:[Cueball is bathed in some kind of aura emitted by the box.]

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

96: Mail

2022-05-21T00:10:04Z

172.70.35.70: Undo revision 272333 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 96
| date = May 1, 2006
| title = Mail
| image = mail.png
| titletext = I'm on the USPS no fly list
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]]'s interlocutor is working their way through a list of increasingly impractical or impossible suggestions for things to send through postal mail. The pay-off is that they have already somehow sent a package of time through the mail, and this is taking a while to arrive, presumably because the amount of time it will take to reach the recipient is equal to the amount of time being sent. By the time it reaches Cueball, the time will have passed, and therefore not be of much use.

The reference to a 'package of time' could refer to {{w|Chronon|quantizing time}} ("discrete packets of time") - a theory that time is not continuous as particles in the {{w|quantum mechanics}}. It could be one of the big mistakes in modern science, but feels as if there's more to it, in the world of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

A no-fly list is a list of people who are not allowed to use commercial airlines for travel. In the United States, it is maintained by the {{w|Terrorist Screening Center}}. According to the title text, the person sending strange objects through mail is on a no-fly list for the {{w|United States Postal Service}} (USPS). While the USPS has a list of items banned from being shipped in the mail, which includes most consumer electronics with lithium batteries, it does not have such a list for people. This could suggest that this person has attempted to send so many strange items that USPS will no longer accept mail from him, or it could imply that they attempted, at one point, to send themselves via air mail, and have been banned from doing so again.

This comic might be related to {{w|W. Reginald Bray}}, an Englishman from the turn of the 20th century, who was famous for [https://books.google.com/books?id=a0lxQwAACAAJ&dq=%22The+Englishman+Who+Posted+Himself+And+Other+Curious+Objects%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT7aCB5eTMAhUlzoMKHQJPBkYQ6AEIHTAA mailing unusual objects] (including himself) to experiment with the postal system.

A list of the things:

*''A running chainsaw'': While a chainsaw may be mailed with appropriate precautions, a running chainsaw would be very dangerous to mail, assuming there was a constant power source.{{Citation needed}}

*''A baby's first word'': This is a sound, and thus cannot be mailed. It could be recorded, and the recording mailed.

*''A blank stare'': This is abstract, and the closest to mailing it would be a picture.

*''A dizzying height'': Like the above, this is abstract. However, someone could conceivably package and mail a telescoping ladder, such that it would allow the recipient to reach a dizzying height.

*''Pi'': This is a mathematical term close to 3.141592653589793238462643383..., but it is infinitely precise and thus cannot be mailed to the full extent of its precision. However, with a compass and ruler, someone could draw a graph that would represent a line of length pi.

*''Time'': This is completely abstract and cannot be mailed.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to someone through a phone.]
:Phone: Do you think I could mail a running chainsaw to someone?
:Cueball: I doubt it
:Phone: What about a baby's first word?
:Cueball: Look, your obsession with sending strange things through the mail is getting out of hand.

:Phone: Can you mail a blank stare?
:Phone: A dizzying height?
:Phone: Pi?
:Cueball: ...

:Phone: Well, did you at least get that package of time I sent you?
:Cueball: I... you... no, I didn't.
:Phone: Well, there was a lot of it, so it will probably take a while

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]

1293: Job Interview

2022-03-24T21:40:36Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ the most recent comic also involves a job interview. The funny part is I wasn't even coming to this explanation to fix that... I was already here. Spooky?

{{comic
| number = 1293
| date = November 20, 2013
| title = Job Interview
| image = job_interview.png
| titletext = When you talk about the job experience you'll give me, why do you pronounce 'job' with a long 'o'?
}}

==Explanation==
Following on from [[1032: Networking|his attempts at networking]], [[Beret Guy]], the oddball of the xkcd cast, conducts an interview for a programmer position at his mysteriously successful company.

Much like most of Beret Guy's interactions with people, Beret Guy is cheerful and upbeat, yet indicates that he has at best a scrambled understanding of how people in this situation normally act. Because of this, the job interview becomes increasingly bizarre, starting with Beret Guy's assertion that the company headquarters is a "real building [he] found", implying that the building's reality might be in question. In addition, "finding" the building may imply that he does not own or rent it, but simply found it empty and moved in. He says his company makes phone accessories, but then adds, "like apps and stickers," two wildly different products in terms of both production and profitability. He is strangely vague about both the position ("someone to write on our computers") and the salary ("a bunch of paychecks"). Then he mentions ghosts, which is either a powerful disincentive from joining the company, yet another sign that Beret Guy is mentally unsound, or both.

The strip finishes with Beret Guy plugging a cord into an electrical outlet clumsily labeled "Soup," which then, implausibly, actually starts dispensing soup. Most electrical outlets do not function like this.{{Citation needed}} However, this is a typical behaviour of Beret Guy - see a similar example in: [[1395: Power Cord]].

The title text makes reference to the biblical story of {{w|Job (biblical figure)|Job}} (pronounced with a long O to rhyme with globe), who was put through many horrendous ordeals to test his faith in God. This suggests that the interviewee will be taking on not a "job experience" but rather a "Job experience" (i.e. the job will be a horrendous ordeal). Alternatively, it's a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4ayBHTES0 Homestarrunner reference].

Other job interviews were portrayed in [[125: Marketing Interview]], [[1088: Five Years]], [[1094: Interview]], [[1545: Strengths and Weaknesses]], and [[2597: Salary Negotiation]].

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy walks in, followed by a...'prospective hire'.]
:Beret Guy: Welcome to our company! We're headquartered here, in this real building I found!

:[Both people sit down at a table. The 'hire' has a tray with food and a beverage. Beret Guy has a bowl. In the adjacent wall, there is a power outlet with a paper label taped to it marked "Soup". A small roll of wire sits next to Beret Guy's chair.]
:'Hire': What do you.. ''do''?
:Beret Guy: We make stuff for phones! Like apps and stickers.

:[Beret Guy grabs the roll of wire.]
:Beret Guy: We want to hire you to write on our computers. We can offer you a bunch of paychecks! There are ghosts here.

:[Beret Guy unrolls the wire and plugs it into the wall.]
:'Hire': ...Are you sure this is a company?
:Beret Guy: I hope so!

:[Soup streams out of the plugged-in wire into Beret Guy's bowl.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Job interviews]]
[[Category:Food]]

2595: Advanced Techniques

2022-03-19T17:11:23Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2595
| date = March 18, 2022
| title = Advanced Techniques
| image = advanced_techniques.png
| titletext = A blow from Emmy's Cutlass of Variations will transport the dragon to a corresponding symmetric position in the Noetherworld.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AN EULISH CLAUSS- Please slay this dragon when editing this page. Do NOT travel to the Noetherworld.}}

[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a class. She outlines a process by which a mathematical result is achieved through what sounds suspiciously like witchcraft. The caption describes this scenario as being "All advanced math techniques."

This comic plays on mathematical terms which have other meanings, using them in different contexts from the ones intended for the terms.

The title text contains two puns and a reference. The phrase "{{w|Cutlass}} of Variations" is a pun on the mathematical technique called "{{w|Calculus of variations}}". The word "Noetherworld" is a pun on "{{w|underworld|netherworld}}". The reference is to the mathematician {{w|Emmy Noether}}, who was a giant in the field of Abstract Algebra. Furthermore, so-called {{w|Noether's Theorem}} is used in the Calculus of Variations.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Miss Lenhart is using a stick to point at a whiteboard with a drawing of a dragon, an archer, and rows of text on it, while facing, presumably, a crowd of students.]
:Miss Lenhart: To solve this equation, we invoke Gauss's operator to transform it into a dragon.
:Miss Lenhart: Then we slay the dragon with Hilbert's Arrow, and transform its corpse back into the solution.
:Voice off-screen: Just to be clear, this is a metaphor, right?
:Miss Lenhart: Does this '''look''' like English class?!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:All advanced math techniques

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Math]]

2586: Greek Letters

2022-03-14T06:46:35Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2586
| date = February 25, 2022
| title = Greek Letters
| image = greek_letters.png
| titletext = If you ever see someone using a capital xi in an equation, just observe them quietly to learn as much as you can before they return to their home planet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by '''''O R B S''''' PRO®- Missing explanations for some letters. The text for each letter should be in the explanation with an attempt at explaining it. This has not been included and many of the letters have no explanation of the given text, only for what they actually are used for. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Mathematics uses lots of Greek letters, typically using {{w|Greek_letters_used_in_mathematics,_science,_and_engineering|the same letter consistently}} to represent a particular constant or type of variable. This comic gives a (non-)explanation of what they typically mean, see [[#Greek letters|below]].

In the title text the joke about capital Xi from the main comic is continued. In the main comic those using Ξ (capital xi) greets us as Earth mathematicians, indicating they are not from Earth, but have come here to learn what we know of math. In the title text the idea that any one using Ξ must be aliens is made clear. So if you ever meet someone using this letter while doing math, then learn as much as you can by quietly observing them, before they return to their home planet. Either learn from their possible advanced math (that allowed them to construct a way to get from one star system to another), or learn about them as the aliens species they represent.

Previously [[Randall]] made a similar comic, [[2520: Symbols]], about math symbols.

===Greek letters===

* '''π (lowercase pi): This math is either very simple or impossible.''' — Typically used to refer to the constant ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter (approximately 3.14). In a common school curriculum, this constant first shows up in introductory geometry classes, which would be considered "simple" by advanced mathematicians. But often, pi can show up seemingly randomly in advanced equations that have nothing to do with a circle at first glance, such as in infinite series. And because pi is transcendental, it can sometimes be difficult to work with pi in those situations. The comic may also be a reference to the impossibility of squaring the circle.
* An alternate explanation is that the comic refers to how the symbol can sometimes be used as a variable where the 'p' sound might make sense, such as in the prime-counting function where it stands for "prime" or the Buckingham π theorem where it stands for "parameter." These uses can be confusing to students who have only ever seen a lowercase pi used for the circle constant. This has pushed college courses to use it less and less frequently for anything other than the circle constant, so that now you are only likely to see π as something else in higher math. (More confusing still is the variant lowercase pi ϖ sometimes used for angular frequency instead of the more common (and very similar-looking) lowercase omega ω.)

* '''Δ (capital delta): Something has changed.''' — Typically prefixes a variable to refer to a macroscopic change in or finite difference of that variable. For instance, Δ'''v''' may be the finite change in velocity '''v''' over some finite time span, while Δ[''f''](''x'') represents the forward difference of ''f'' at ''x'', defined as Δ[''f''](''x'') = ''f''(''x''+1) - ''f''(''x'').

* '''δ (lowercase delta): Something has changed and it's a mathematician's fault.''' — Used in calculus. In many areas of maths we study systems by introducing small changes (perturbations) in input variables and observing how the system changes. The perturbations introduced are often written down as ''x'' → ''x'' + ''δx'' for some variable ''x'' we're perturbing, where ''δx'' is the change we've introduced. These are often applied in physics (perturbation theory, principle of least action, Noether's theorem,…). Since this change was purposefully introduced by the mathematician instead of occurring naturally, it is therefore their fault.

* '''θ (lowercase theta): Circles!''' — Used in trigonometry. Typically used to refer to an angle, and is notably used in the polar coordinate system. The text refers to its close relationship with circles, on which the polar coordinate system is based. In European handwriting, the variant form ϑ is commonly used with the same meaning.

* '''φ (lowercase phi): ''ORBS''''' — Typically used to refer to another angle other than one referred to by theta. It's used in spherical coordinates, and the text refers to how spheres, or orbs, are important in spherical coordinates. Lowercase phi has two forms in modern typography which are confused by this website's default font. In the comic, it has a complete circle with a vertical line passing through it, which is what Knuth called "phi." The alternate form, ϕ, is what Knuth called "variant phi" and can be written in a single stroke. Most fonts reverse the way these symbols are rendered. There is no difference in meaning between the symbols. Additionally, "O R B S" is written with spaces between each letter, possibly a reference to the linguistic phenomena of surreal memes and their tendency to add spaces between letters of "surreal-sounding" words like "orbs".

* '''ϵ (lowercase epsilon): Not important, don't worry about it.''' — Typically used to refer to a very small quantity. ϵ may be an error term in a statistical model (which is usually small if the model is useful), a remainder term in an approximation (same), or an arbitrarily small quantity in analysis. Although a total cumulative change of "ϵ" is negligible, in analysis, ϵ is most often applied in a context of an infinitesimal change occurring with infinite frequency. The study of ratios of quantities that approach zero gives rise to infinitesimal calculus. Also used for a sequence of transfinite numbers that are unreachable from ω by finite application of addition, multiplication, and exponentiation. This Greek lowercase letter has two common modern variants, ϵ and ε. ϵ is called the "lunate epsilon" and may be more common in the U.S. A stylized version (∈) is used as the mathematical symbol for "is an element of." ε is what Knuth called the "variant epsilon" and is never used for the "element of" symbol but otherwise has identical meaning. Because epsilon represents an arbitrarily small quantity, there's no reason for anyone to worry about it from a practical standpoint. Also used in set theory to show a number is part of a set, e.g. X ϵ Y (x is part of set Y).

* '''υ,ν (lowercase upsilon and nu): Is that a v or a u? Or...oh no, it's one of ''those''.''' — Common in college level physics and engineering equations. ν commonly represents wavenumber in physics as well as a wide variety of other variables, often with names starting in N (e.g. neutron) or V (e.g. viscosity). Lowercase upsilon is rarely used, probably to avoid confusion. The symbols look remarkably similar to Latin u and v, to the point that they are nearly indistinguishable in some fonts; Randall has complained about this before in [[2351: Standard Model Changes]].

* '''μ (lowercase mu): This math is cool but it's not about anything that you will ever see or touch, so whatever.''' — Used broadly in the abstract mathematical fields of category theory and measure theory. Also used in statistics for mean (average). Physicists use Latin letters for the indices of the 3-vectors of classical physics and Greek indices, including μ, for the 4-vectors of special relativity. This leads to μ being ubiquitous in a field which is very far from everyday experience (where speeds approach the speed of light). It is also employed in statistics for the population mean, which is a quantity that the statistician never actually knows and frequently wants to estimate. Equations requiring a μ are thus impossible to apply directly. However, μ is used in physics for the coefficient of friction in the Coulomb model, typically used to approximate resistive forces between dry solids of different material sliding past each other. A very common use of μ in science and engineering is as the symbol of the SI prefix ''micro-'' for a millionth. Unicode has officially added a point for μ as the "micro sign," distinct from its usual codepoint as the lowercase Greek letter mu.

* '''Σ (capital sigma): Thank you for purchasing ''Addition Pro''®!''' — Typically used as a symbol for the sum of a series of numbers. The comic is making fun of summation, pointing out that it's essentially a complicated, "pro" version of simple addition. The capital sigma is often used as the icon for the all-important "sum" button in spreadsheet software. However, the sigma operator is often necessary for explicitly defining infinite sums, avoiding ambiguous notation like an ellipsis (...).

* '''Π (capital pi): ...and the ''Multiplication''® expansion pack!''' — Typically used as a symbol for the product of a sequence of numbers. The joke is the same as for summation. Here, it is advertised as an "expansion pack," a term used for a piece of software that cannot stand alone but adds features to some existing software. Any paid spreadsheet or database program should already have the ability to perform products. The ® symbol indicates that ''Multiplication'' is a registered trademark somewhere, which is unlikely, as the term is not unique. However, common words are registered as parts of longer trademarks rather often.

* '''ζ (lowercase zeta): This math will only lead to more math.''' — Frequently used for the {{w|Riemann zeta function}} in analytic number theory, a function of complex numbers which is challenging even to define and which is the focus of a famously unsolved problem in highly advanced mathematics. Zeta is used much less often in other contexts, such as the ζ-potential in colloidal chemistry, and even there it is likely to just lead to more math. It is also used for another sequence of transfinite numbers, which will also lead to more math.

* '''β (lowercase beta): There are just too many coefficients.''' — This could be a reference to the typical usage of beta to represent coefficients of independent variables in the {{w|Ordinary_least_squares#Linear_model|ordinary least squares regression model}}. Regression can potentially have a large number of independent variables, hence potentially many different betas (differentiated by subscript, or compacted into matrix notation) would be used, while there is only ever a single zeroth-order coefficient α in these models. Alternatively, the comic might suggest whatever source this equation is from has run out of Latin letters to use as symbols, and is now going through the Greek letters.

* '''α (lowercase alpha): Oh boy, now ''this'' is math about something real. This is math that could ''kill'' someone.''' — As the first Greek letter, α is used for a tremendous variety of purposes in math. For example, it is used to represent the probability of a Type-I error (false positive) occurring in a hypothesis test. It could also possibly refer to the {{w|fine-structure constant}} which shows up in high energy physics, atomic physics, quantum electrodynamics, and at least [[1047|one other xkcd comic]]. Alpha could also refer to {{w|angular acceleration}}, and a rapidly-rotating system is capable of killing people in a number of [[123|interesting ways]]. Another dangerous meaning for α comes from ionising α-radiation: while it can be easily blocked by even a sheet of paper, it has been {{W|Alexander Litvinenko#Poisoning and death|used for assassinations}} through ingestion.

* '''Ω (capital omega): Oooh, ''some'' mathematician thinks their function is cool and important.''' — The last letter of the Greek alphabet and thus often seen as momentous (the end, the final word, death). The capital letter has been used as the symbol for a {{w|Omega_function|variety of mathematical functions}}, the {{w|first uncountable ordinal}}, and {{w|Absolute Infinity}}. It is commonly used in physics and electrical engineering as the symbol for {{w|ohms}}, a unit for electrical resistance. Capital omega has produced a fascination in common culture, perhaps due to God reportedly describing himself as "the alpha and the omega" in the Book of Revelation or due to its highly distinctive shape. It is often used to represent something of grave or transcendent significance. So using it to name your function (instead of a conventional symbol like ''f'' or ''g'') may mean you think the function is particularly important.

* '''ω (lowercase omega): A lot of work went into these equations and you are going to die here among them.''' — Used for the {{w|Transfinite_number|least transfinite ordinal number}}, the order type of the natural numbers under '<'. The line about dying here among the transfinite equations may be in reference to the "eternity" of the infinite set it represents. It is also used in physics and electrical engineering for angular frequency, equal to 2π times the frequency, and thus it is ubiquitous in equations dealing with all sorts of wave phenomena. '''ω''' is also used for the angular velocity of a rotating system, defined by '''v''' = '''r'''×'''ω'''.

* '''σ (lowercase sigma): Some poor soul is trying to apply this math to real life and it's not working.''' — In statistics, σ commonly refers to the population standard deviation of a distribution. Many simplified statistical equations substitute the population standard deviation σ for the sample standard deviation s for simplicity, even when this is not justifiable. A common example is using the normal distribution to model the mean of several identically-normally-distributed variables instead of the T distribution. The variant ς is used at the end of Greek words (called the "final sigma") but is rarely used in math or science.

* '''ξ (lowercase xi): Either this is terrifying mathematics or there was a hair on the scanned page.''' — Randall comments that this looks like a strand of curly hair. Xi is used in the {{w|Riemann Xi function}} and sometimes as a variable or function symbol in higher math. It is famously difficult to write in a way that is consistent and clearly distinct from other symbols.

* '''γ (lowercase gamma): ''Zoom'' pew pew pew [space noises] ''zoooom!''''' — Lowercase gamma is used for the {{w|Lorentz factor}}, an important variable in special relativity calculations. Its use implies that you are dealing with speeds approaching the speed of light and therefore with spaceships or other moving objects not confined to Earth. γ-rays are also the highest energy photons, so a space opera might have ships flying near the speed of light firing gamma-ray weapons that go PEW PEW. γ is also used as the symbol for the Euler-Mascheroni constant and occasionally as a variable or function name.

* '''ρ (lowercase rho): Unfortunately, the test vehicle suffered an unexpected wing separation event.''' — Used in statistics to measure association between variables. Lowercase rho often represents volumetric mass density, such as the density of air that a wing might be travelling through. The density of a fluid is directly proportional to the Reynold's number which dictates the sort of physics used to model motion through the fluid. Flying a plane in conditions with a Reynold's number well outside of what it was designed for could have catastrophic consequences. A variant symbol ϱ with the same meaning is common in European handwriting.

* '''Ξ (capital xi): Greetings! We hope to learn a great deal by exchanging knowledge with your Earth mathematicians.''' — Probably the least used Greek letter in math and physics despite being easy to write and to recognize. According to the comic, anyone using this letter is likely a being from another planet. It does see very occasional use, such as in the Riemann xi function or as the symbol for a class of heavy baryons in particle physics. It resembles, but is not to be confused with a "hamburger button" or a triple equals sign ≡. Coincidentally, it also resembles the simplified Hanzi (Chinese) character for the [https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_(Mandarin)/Numbers number 3]. Randall thinks it most closely resembles alien writing.

* '''ψ (lowercase psi): You have entered the domain of King Triton, ruler of the waves.''' — Both capital and lowercase psi are shaped like tridents. In classical mythology, {{w|Triton}} is one of the gods of the sea, alongside his father Poseidon, and tridents are commonly associated with sea gods. In quantum mechanics, either psi is used to represent the wave function of a particle, leading to a pun. (Psi is also used in mathematics to represent the sum of the inverse of the Fibonacci numbers, the division polynomials, and the supergolden ratio, and other purposes.)

==Transcript==
:[A list with 21 explanations of different Greek letters. To the left the letter (on in one case two letters) are shown, and then the explanation is written to the right in one or two lines (and in one case on three lines). Above these explanations there is a header in a slightly larger font:]
:<big>What Greek letters mean in equations</big>
:π This math is either very simple or impossible.
:Δ Something has changed.
:δ Something has changed and it's a mathematician's fault.
:θ Circles!
:Φ '''''O R B S'''''
:ϵ Not important, don't worry about it.
:υ,ν Is that a v or a u? Or...oh no, it's one of ''those''.
:μ This math is cool but it's not about anything that you will ever see or touch, so whatever.
:Σ Thank you for purchasing ''Addition Pro''®!
:Π ...and the ''Multiplication''® expansion pack!
:ζ This math will only lead to more math.
:β There are just too many coefficients.
:α Oh boy, now ''this'' is math about something real. This is math that could ''kill'' someone.
:Ω Oooh, ''some'' mathematician thinks their function is cool and important.
:ω A lot of work went into these equations and you are going to die here among them.
:σ Some poor soul is trying to apply this math to real life and it's not working.
:ξ Either this is terrifying mathematics or there was a hair on the scanned page.
:γ ''Zoom'' pew pew pew [space noises] ''zoooom!''
:ρ Unfortunately, the test vehicle suffered an unexpected wing separation event.
:Ξ Greetings! We hope to learn a great deal by exchanging knowledge with your Earth mathematicians.
:ψ You have entered the domain of King Triton, ruler of the waves.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Aliens]]

2566: Decorative Constants

2022-03-03T21:45:50Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ added link

{{comic
| number = 2566
| date = January 10, 2022
| title = Decorative Constants
| image = decorative_constants.png
| titletext = Arguably, the '1/2' in the drag equation is purely decorative, since drag coefficients are already unitless and could just as easily be half as big. Some derivations give more justification for the extra 1/2 than others, but one textbook just calls it 'a traditional tribute to Euler and Bernoulli.'
}}
*This was the first comic that came out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DECORATIVE BOT - What is the formula 4-15 representing when removing the two decorative constants? - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is another one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Tips|Tips]], this time a Math Tip.

Randall gives an example of a complex looking equation labeled 4-15:
:T = 𝔻m0(rout − rin)μ̅
But since 𝔻 and μ̅ are "decorative", the equation can be reduced to
:T = m0(rout − rin)
Here T is the net rate, m0 the unit mass and (rout − rin) the flow balance.

The decorative symbols can be interpreted as constants 𝔻 = μ̅ = 1, in which case the implied operations of multiplication and exponentiation make sense. The 𝔻 is double-struck ("blackboard bold", thus in the comic only the vertical line is double). Mathematicians, who are always searching for more symbols{{citation needed}}, have taken to distinguishing things represented by the same letter by using different fonts, such as 𝑑, 𝐝, 𝒅, 𝐷, 𝐃, 𝑫, 𝒹, 𝒟, 𝖉, 𝕯, ∂, 𝕕, and 𝔻. The double-struck font is easier to write on a blackboard than a proper bold letter and often represents a set, such as ℝ for the set of real numbers or ℂ for the set of complex numbers. 𝔻 can represent the unit disk in the complex plane, the set of decimal fractions, or the set of split-complex numbers.

μ is the Greek lowercase mu and has many uses in mathematics and science. Here it has a bar, μ̅, which could indicate a number of things, including the complex conjugate. Intriguingly, μ is the symbol in statistics for the population mean, and the overbar represents the sample mean, so this could represent a random variable which is the average of a sample of means μi of different populations in some larger ensemble of populations.

Using a special version both of D and μ to even further spice up the formula all leads up to the math tip:
:'''If one of your equations ever looks too simple, try adding some purely decorative constants.'''

Other examples of well known equations that are profound but look simple include
:''E'' = ''mc''2 ({{w|Special Relativity}}),
:''PV'' = ''nRT'' (the {{w|Ideal Gas Law}}),
:''F'' = ''ma'' ({{w|Newton's Second Law}}),
:''V'' = ''IR'' ({{w|Ohm's Law}}), and
:''Gμν'' + Λ ''gμν'' = ''κTμν'' ({{w|Einstein field equations}}), and
:''eπi+1'' = ''0'' ({{w|Euler's Identity}}).

Of these, only the Einstein field equations have been spiced up with decorative indices (which actually hide a system of ten nonlinear partial differential equations).

In the title text Randall mentions the {{w|Drag equation}}, which is attributed to {{w|Lord Rayleigh}}. In {{w|fluid dynamics}}, the drag equation is a formula used to calculate the force of drag experienced by an object due to movement through a fully enclosing fluid. The equation is ''F''d = ½''ρu''2''c''d''A''. Here ''F''d is the drag force, ρ the mass density of the fluid, u the relative flow velocity, ''c''d the {{w|drag coefficient}} and A is the area.

Randall jokes that the factor of ½ in the equation is meaningless and purely decorative, since the drag coefficients, ''c''d, are already unitless and could just as easily be half as big thus leaving out the ½ in front of the equation. The ½ is thus just an example of a "decorative constant." The usual reason for including the factor of ½ is that it is part of the formula for kinetic energy that appears in the derivation of the drag equation, i.e. ½''ρu''2. However, modern treatments are so condensed that this factor of ½ is often smuggled in with no explanation.

Since we can choose the constants to be whatever we want, it could be possible to absorb the ½ into the drag coefficient ''c''d, but that does not mean it is unmotivated, since it comes from the kinetic energy. Still, Randall quotes Frank White's ''[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi-_77Foqn1AhV3QvEDHSMfAYkQFnoECAQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2FFluid-Mechanics-Frank-White%2Fdp%2F007119911X&usg=AOvVaw0kLp3oaqh9HaFMV2jLL973 Fluid Mechanics''] textbook, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wGweAQAAIAAJ&q=traditional%20tribute&redir_esc=y which two times] calls it "a traditional tribute to Euler and Bernoulli." According to White, the factor of ½ rather comes from the calculation of the projected area of the object being dragged. Randall has brought up this point before, in his book, "[[How To]]"

The line from White probably refers to renowned mathematicians {{w|Leonhard Euler}} and {{w|Daniel Bernoulli}}. Euler who is held to be one of the greatest mathematicians in history worked directly with Daniel and was a friend of the {{w|Bernoulli family}}, that produced eight mathematically gifted academics.

Daniel Bernoulli is known for modifying the definition of ''vis viva'' (what we now call kinetic energy) from ''mv''2 to ½''mv''2, as motivated by the derivation from the impulse equation. In 1741, he wrote
:[Define ''vis viva''] esse ½ ''mvv'' = ∫''pdx''.
That is, "define ''vis viva'' to be ½ ''mv''2 = ∫''p''d''x''," where ''p'' is the force (from ''pressione'') and d''x'' is the differential of position (infinitesimal displacement). Today, this equation says that the kinetic energy imparted to an object at rest equals the work done on it.

In the drag equation ½ ρu2 represents the dynamic pressure due to the kinetic energy of the fluid, and hence the 1/2 makes sense to keep in the equation, and could thus easily be argued not to represent a decorative constant.

The title text is pretty much word-for-word a repeat from Randall's book ''[[How To]]''. In Chapter 11: ''How to Play Football'', he misuses the drag equation, and mentions this fact in more depth, in a footnote.

==Transcript==
:[A small panel only with text. Written as an excerpt from a mathematical text book. Begins with a number for an equation, then follows the equation written in larger letters and symbols. And below are explanations of each term in the equation. The μ has a bar over the top and the D has a double vertical line.]
:Eq. 4-15
:<big>T = 𝔻m0(rout - rin)μ̅</big>
:T: Net rate
:m0: Unit mass
:(rout-rin): Flow balance 
:𝔻, μ̅: Decorative

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Math tip: If one of your equations ever looks too simple, try adding some purely decorative constants.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2582: Data Trap

2022-02-18T00:28:21Z

172.70.35.70:

Created a barebones explanation — please expand & clarify :) [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 06:40, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
:I'm sure we could get into black holes (hairy or otherwise) and entropy and/or information-entropy.
:But the feeling I get is that Data begets data (by analysis of the original data) and then the data that is the analysis plus the original data begs to in turn be meta-analysed. Which then gives an additional clump of data... Trapping everyone in a potential N-meta-analysis loop.
:(For those wondering how the entropy of this system works, it's the additional state info of the successive analysers, like the sunlight shone onto the biosphere, that prevents the system going 'stale' and degrading to successively shorter summaries that add nothing. You get to comment upon the prior analysis's choice of trend metric, etc...)

:Well, that's my take, but I wouldn't know how to authoritatively - and succinctly - put that into the explanation. I could be entirely wrong, as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 09:34, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

::You're on to something - it's about information vs data. Cueball wants to analyse the data to get hold of information that's buried somewhere in it. Usually, in terms of bits, that information is only a tiny fraction compared to the volume of data. Think of gigabytes of data giving rise to an insightful scientific publication that's only a few tens of kilobytes long. Megan seems to think that this is just a few more kB of "data" to be added to the pile, without realising that we've just gone from a jumble of confused bits to actual understanding. Of course, in doing his analysis, Cueball has added some information of his own, to wit an explanation of how he did the analysis and (implicitly) why he chose that tack. Which would make the new pile of data ripe for meta-analysis as you say.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.105|162.158.233.105]] 10:27, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

Megan is NOT "Thinking Cueball implies he wants to get rid of some of the data . . . ."! I have NO idea where that implication lies. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 10:16, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

Done properly, analysis actually reduces the amount of information (not data) that you need to consider--that's the whole point. Rather than trying to comprehend thousands or millions of numbers, you can (for instance) reduce it to an average, or a correlation, or some other single number. Megan is missing the whole point of analyzing data. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 12:49, 17 February 2022 (UTC)
:I think the comic is deliberately ignoring the fact that once you analyze the data, you don't have to think much about the original data. So this reduced information is added to the original information, and data just accumulates without bound. And even when you do stop considering the original data, it's not usually discarded, you keep it in case someone wants to verify your analysis, you want to analyze it in different ways, or combine it with new raw data. Excess data could actually have been a problem in the old days when it was stored on paper -- electronic storage his mitigated this; a single PC can now hold data than one would have needed warehouses in the past. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:15, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

I fleshed out the explanation, adding explanation for the reason for data analysis and the apparent data equilibrium that's being implied. Thanks also to [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] for adding some more clarification in that new section. [[User:KirbyDude25|KirbyDude25]] ([[User talk:KirbyDude25|talk]]) 13:40, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

Pretty sure this comic is another example of literalist perversion of the title. There are many things called Data Traps, but they tend to fall into two categories: Collection of data (digital, physical, benign, etc) where data is being accumulated for retrieval/use, and "gotcha's", ie possible mistakes in collecting, handling, or processing of data). The comic seems to be a play on the intersection of the two [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.62|108.162.246.62]] 19:56, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

Similar to https://xkcd.com/2086/ imo.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 00:28, 18 February 2022 (UTC)

2581: Health Stats

2022-02-16T23:06:24Z

172.70.35.70: hand?

{{comic
| number = 2581
| date = February 14, 2022
| title = Health Stats
| image = health_stats.png
| titletext = You will live on forever in our hearts, pushing a little extra blood toward our left hands now and then to give them a squeeze.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an IMPLODING RIGHT "HAND" - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] has bought a new smartwatch with a health tracker. For instance, it can apparently monitor the volume of blood currently in his left hand (specifically the one the watch is being worn on the wrist of), indicating this number in milliliters (ml). While he studies this new information, the volume of blood changes constantly, with his pulse or due to the positioning of his hand (above/below his heart, held up or down; he changes the hand's position from panel to panel) or, more likely, just measurement inaccuracies normal for consumer devices. He tells this to someone off-panel, who replies to all his comments.

At first, Cueball just assumes the small change is normal, but when the changes of two measurements in a row both increase, this freaks him out as he [[605: Extrapolating|extrapolates these two data points]] into the future. If this rather selective trend continues, his hand may explode from its ever-increasing volume of blood. Either this, or Cueball noticed that the variation in the first three data points was ±0.025, but the variation suddenly surpassing this level by a factor of 10 becomes alarming. As a consequence of him freaking out his pulse also begins to rise, likely increasing his blood pressure, which could cause another rise in the volume of blood in his hand. And the pulse increase in itself, only makes him even more scared, causing a positive feedback loop.

The total difference between the maximum (22.09 ml) and minimum volume (21.81 ml) of blood in his hand is only 0.28 ml compared to an average of 21.9 ml, so less than 1.5% difference. This must be assumed to be a normal fluctuation from heartbeat to heartbeat and/or with change of posture. For that matter, Cueball has no idea what a normal volume of blood in his left hand would be, as indicated by his comment in the first panel that he's "not sure how to interpret" the initial measurement. However, he seems to have assumed that 21.83 ml was a normal measurement simply since it was the first one he saw (see {{w|Confirmation_bias#Preference_for_early_information|preference for early information}}).

Just before he freaks out, his off-panel friend begins to tell him to stop looking at the watch all the time. He is interrupted mid-sentence by Cueball starting to freak out. This final outbreak causes his off-screen companion to tease him by saying that "We will treasure your memory", thus joking that Cueball will soon die from the blood loss when his hand explodes.

The title text continues with this teasing where the friend jokes that after his demise he will live on forever in his friends' hearts. From there he will thus also be responsible for pushing a bit more blood into his friends' left hands, now and again, so they can feel this as a squeeze to remind them of how they lost their friend to a left-handed blood explosion.

This is likely meant to parody the tendency of people to monitor minute details of their own health without having a clear idea of what the data means. This is arguably much more common today with health devices readily available, which can give the average person data about their own body, but often don't offer useful context. Cueball is apparently sufficiently fixated on data that apparent changes to any metric causes him to panic. He doesn't know what the blood volume of his hand means for his health, or even whether it's a useful metric, yet he obsesses over perceived trends in the data. The irony is that his very focus causes a more important metric (his pulse rate) to elevate. This may be intended to suggest that excessive fixation on one's own health can cause elevated anxiety. Ironically, this anxiety can potentially be more harmful that the things that the person is anxious about.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is looking down and to the right at his bent arm, where a small device is radiating as shown with several small lines. Above him the message from the device is shown in a frame, that is divided in two by a line. The top part has one line of text, with a x at the end for closing the message. And below in the second half are two lines of text. Cueball is speaking to someone off-panel, who replies from a starburst at the panel's edge.]
:Box title bar: New health stat!
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 21.83 mL
:Cueball: Oh. Cool. Not sure how to interpret that, but good to know, I guess.
:Off-panel voice: I guess!

:[Same setting but Cueball has turned to the left, still looking at his device on his bend arm. The message on the device is now only showing the message part, so it is no longer divided into two parts.]
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 21.81 mL
:Cueball: Huh, it's going down. I guess that happens.
:Off-panel voice: Mhm.

:[In a frame-less panel, Cueball now has both arms bent with his hands close together in front of him. He has once again turned toward the right, and is still looking at the device.]
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 21.86 mL
:Cueball: Oh weird, now it's going up higher than before.
:Off-panel voice: Maybe you shouldn't look at-

:[Cueball now holds his arm with the device outstretched towards the right, with his other arm bent in front of him a finger raised.]
:Box: Left hand blood volume: 22.09 mL
:Cueball: It's going '''''way''''' up! '''''Is my hand exploding?!'''''
:Cueball: And now my pulse is rising! '''''Aaaaa!!!!'''''
:Off-panel voice: So sorry. We will treasure your memory.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]

Talk:2562: Formatting Meeting

2021-12-31T16:59:51Z

172.70.35.70:

I downloaded and ran theusaf's bot from its website to make this page. Not sure how to give page creation permission to [[User:Baffo32RunningTheusafBOT]]. When you run the bot you notice that Theusaf's username is "the usa f". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.45|172.70.110.45]] 16:02, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

shouldn't it be ISO, not iso? actually, the whole title text is lowercase-d when I feel like it shouldn't be [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 16:59, 31 December 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

2560: Confounding Variables

2021-12-28T20:16:42Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2560
| date = December 27, 2021
| title = Confounding Variables
| image = confounding_variables.png
| titletext = You can find a perfect correlation if you just control for the residual.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an UNKNOWABLE FALSITY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a course which apparently covers at least an overview of statistics.

In statistics, a ''confounding variable'' is a third variable that's related to the independent variable, and also causally related to the dependent variable. An example is that you see a correlation between sunburn rates and ice cream consumption; the confounding variable is temperature: high temperatures cause people go out in the sun and get burned more, and also eat more ice cream.

One way to control for a confounding variable by restricting your data-set to samples with the same value of the confounding variable. But if you do this too much, your choice of that "same value" can produce results that don't generalize. Common examples of this in medical testing are using subjects of the same sex or race -- the results may only be valid for that sex/race, not for all people.

There can also often be multiple confounding variables. It may be difficult to control for all of them without narrowing down your data-set so much that it's not useful. So you have to choose which variables to control for, and this choice biases your results.

In the final panel, Miss Lenhart suggests a sweet spot in the middle, where both confounding variables and your control impact the end result, thus making you "doubly wrong". "Doubly wrong" result would simultaneously display wrong correlations (not enough of controlled variables) and be too narrow to be useful (too many controlled variables), thus the 'worst of both worlds'.

Finally she admits that no matter what you do the results will be misleading, so statistics are useless. This would seem to be an unexpected declaration from someone supposedly trying to actually teach Statistics, and expecting her students to continue the course. Though there is a possibility that she is not there to purely educate this subject, but is instead running a course with a {{w|MythBusters|different type of remit}} and it just happens that this week concluded with this particular targeted critique.

In the title text, the ''residual'' refers to the difference between any particular data point and the graph that's supposed to describe the overall relationship. The collection of all residuals is used to determine how well the line fits the data. If you control for this by including a variable that perfectly matches the discrepancies between the predicted and actual outcomes, you would have a perfectly-fitting model: however, it is nigh impossible (especially in the social and behavioral sciences) to find a "final variable" that perfectly provides all the "missing pieces" of the prediction model.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is holding a pointer and pointing at a board with the a large heading with some unreadable text beneath it. Below this there are two graphs with scattered points. In the top graph the points are almost on a straight increasing line. In the bottom the data points seem to be more random. Mrs Lenhart covers most of the right side of the board, but there is more unreadable text to the right of her.]
:Miss Lenhart: If you don't control for confounding variables, they'll mask the real effect and mislead you.
:Heading: Statistics

:[Miss Lenhart is holding the pointer down in one hand while she holds a finger in the air with the other hand. The board is no longer shown.]
:Miss Lenhart: But if you control for too ''many'' variables, your choices will shape the data and you'll mislead yourself.

:[Miss Lenhart is holding both arms down, still with the pointer in her hand.]
:Miss Lenhart: Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot where you do both, making you doubly wrong.
:Miss Lenhart: Stats are a farce and truth is unknowable. See you next week!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2558: Rapid Test Results

2021-12-22T19:53:26Z

172.70.35.70:

As a Brit, I had to go away look up College Ruled, which I thought might be more exotic than it actually turns out to be, but a nice set on the whole. Someone is doubtless on top of the Explanation editing already (despite being unusually early, on the clock, as published!) so I'll let them have the fun. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.71|172.70.90.71]] 16:59, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
:As a fellow Brit, I share your pain at these revolting colonials mangling our mother tongue. Why not just call it "narrow ruled" like us? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 19:23, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
::As an American, I can say that the reason that medium (or "college") ruled paper is not known as "narrow ruled" is because they are two different things. College ruled paper had lines spaced 9/32" (~7.1 mm) apart. Narrow ruled paper has those lines only 1/4" (6.35 mm) apart. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 19:53, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

2556: Turing Complete

2021-12-21T21:41:57Z

172.70.35.70: Better explanation of the "nation-state" bit

{{comic
| number = 2556
| date = December 17, 2021
| title = Turing Complete
| image = turing_complete.png
| titletext = Thanks to the ForcedEntry exploit, your company's entire tech stack can now be hosted out of a PDF you texted to someone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NATION-STATE THAT CAN RUN DOOM, CRYSIS, GRAND THEFT AUTO AND YOUR COMPANY'S CORPORATE ETHICS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|Turing machine}} is a theoretical computer that has an infinite tape of symbols. It can read and change the symbols on the tape as it moves up and down this tape according to a set of instructions (program).

This very simple machine can be shown to do every computational task that what we think of as a "computer" can do, given the right program and enough time. Something that is {{w|Turing complete}} is able to act as a Turing machine, though generally physical examples are limited to having a finite tape,{{citation needed}} and this means it is also able to do basically every computational task.

Many pieces of hardware and software are supposed to be Turing complete (even Excel, as previously pointed out in [[2453: Excel Lambda]]). Some other things turn out to be Turing complete, even if they weren't designed for it (for instance, the tabletop game [https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/its-possible-to-build-a-turing-machine-within-magic-the-gathering/ Magic: The Gathering] or, at least within xkcd meta-reality, [[505: A Bunch of Rocks|rocks in a desert]]). Whatever [[Ponytail]] has been referring to is not shown, but it seems to be an anecdote about how something seemingly too simple and/or specialised to exhibit such a computational equivalence has been discovered to actually be that capable. Ponytail may refer to the recent articles about the background of the NSO zero click exploit for iPhones, e.g. [https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/nso-zero-click-exploit-turing-complete-cpu-in-image-file/ this].

{{w|Mario}} is the lead character in a long running series of video games including {{w|Donkey Kong}}, {{w|Super Mario Bros}} and {{w|Mario Kart}}. Running video games, [https://hackaday.com/tag/does-it-run-doom/ such as Doom], is one common way of demonstrating the ability to run arbitrary programs on devices that were not intended as general purpose computers. With complex processors being installed in more and more devices, it's plausible that someone could get a dishwasher to play Mario.

However, another reason to make a device run arbitrary code is to {{w|Arbitrary code execution|breach security.}} If the owner of a system assumes that it can only do one specific thing, like operate a dishwasher, they may not take precautions against hacking. But if the system is actually Turing-complete, a hacker could potentially make it do something else, like become part of a {{w|botnet}}. Therefore, "this is actually Turing-complete" could be the prelude to a complicated hacking attempt. Sophisticated hacking attacks are often the work of hackers that have the support of a government, or {{w|nation-state}}.

The {{w|FORCEDENTRY|ForcedEntry}} exploit is a way that was developed to allow {{w|PDF}} files to force malware onto various devices. PDF files are normally used to present documents. The exploit uses a PDF's ability to do logic operations on pixels to implement [https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html a simple virtual CPU] within one of the PDF renderer's decompression functions. Constructing a CPU in this way is similar to how a hardware CPU is made of individual logic gates. ForcedEntry was publicized a few days before this comic came out.

In the title-text it is suggested that this mechanism can be used for what might be more legal and practical purposes, although this might be up to some interpretation depending upon who has the right (and permission) to do what.

A {{w|Solution stack|tech stack}} is one shorthand way of describing the way an integrated grouping of communicating software packages provides everything from the deepest data handling (even as low-level as an operating system itself) to the user interface. All of these will normally be on a computer (or possibly many of them, whether locally or distributed worldwide) and if a sufficiently functional surrogate system is capable of emulating this (computing what the original computer(s) would do) then it can be considered to effectively ''be'' the same stack of technology and duplicate or replace the originals.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail has raised her hand, palm up, as she addresses Cueball.]
:Ponytail:...Now, it turns out this is actually Turing-Complete...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:This phrase either means someone spent six months getting their dishwasher to play Mario or you're under attack by a nation-state.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:2555: Notifications

2021-12-16T20:01:31Z

172.70.35.70:

I wrote that the time in the title text does not seem to have any special meaning, the only thing a quick google search gave me was the bible verse "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." which is irrelevant to the comic as far as I can tell. Is there something I missed? -- [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk]]) 08:52, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
:I assume it has something to do with time zones, but not sure.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.123|162.158.222.123]] 09:40, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
::Yes for sure, it is late in the recipients time zone. And thus the program asks if the notification is so important at this later hour. On the internet you are often in communication with someone in another time zone. Has updated explaination.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:17, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Is it just a weird coincidence that today’s smbc is also about how to stop a tedious conversation? {{unsigned ip|198.41.238.107}}
:It sure is funny. The [https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php SMBC] comic from 2021-12-15, [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/econs Econs], was about paying someone to stop with a boring discussion. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

I got to thinking about the difference from saying "I perceive that you have mistaken me for someone who cares", or very often "someone who gives a (vulgar word)". I suppose the difference is that talking about Notifications means "Not just now" or "That's enough for now", but you could just say that. It doesn't forbid continuing the subject later. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 11:15, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Are you sure Cueball is sending notification to White Hat? When I saw this comic I thought that White Hat wants to say it annoys him when someone ignores others notifications settings and, voilà, Cueball just does it the same moment. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 12:58, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
:Well, if White Hat is complaining about anything like that (we never even get a hint what) it should be more about those who sets to ignore notifications (what Cueball does) or else it is about those who set about to ignore others' "ignore-notifications" settings but then he turns out not to be that kind of annoying person, as he actually respects that situation.
:Whether Cueball knows what is about to be (re)complained about, from hearing this tiraid multiple times, I don't know. Or maybe it was mentioned as the pre-"...another thing" spouting of opinion, and thus quickly inspired him to act upon the suggestion.
:It doesn't really matter. Whatever Randall might have conceived as being said before/after the short slice of Whitehat's rant, he gives no direct clue so it's likely to just be a generic stream of opinionated verbosity, making Cueball even more clever and inspired to have discovered this 'life hack' to cut it short. A bit like telling Sheldon that something is a "non-optional social convention".
:...incidentally, one of John Finnemore's radio sketches in his 'Souvenir Programme' series (if you can, look it up (the whole series!) to listen to - I'm sure xkcders would be prime candidates to enjoy, or at least be able to appreciate, the (over?)intelligent humour) was basically if the Russian Revolution were being organised via email, with one character's involvement being (mostly!) a bog-standard Out Of Office reply. Best listened to, although if you can't you can definitely find a script-transcript site or two with the right Google-Fu. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 13:46, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

I don't think it's necessarily "past their bedtime"; that's an oversimplification. I think it's implying "they need to go home, prepare for bed, and hopefully get a full night's sleep by the time they have to get up in the morning." It might easily be that they're fifteen minutes from home and want to go to sleep by 11:00 PM. It also might not be their "normal" bedtime; they specifically have "a thing" early tomorrow, an important event which presumably isn't a normal occurrence.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 20:01, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1916: Temperature Preferences

2021-12-10T19:52:37Z

172.70.35.70:

As someone who lives near San Fransisco, but has lived in multiple other climates, I can say, San Fransisco can be pretty cold during summer months (compared to normal summers), but is still moderate. If you truely hate heat though, avoid mid-September till November as that is our hottest time of year, since there is not as much fog then. Once November hits it pretty suddenly gets cold again though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.187|172.68.189.187]] 06:08, 15 November 2017 (UTC)Rowan

This graph doesn't make any sense. In my experience, people who live in places with hot summers hate heat, and people who live in places with cold winters hate coldness. Everyone I've ever spoken from Perth basically constantly complains about the heat! Shouldn't the whole thing be flipped? [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 08:46, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:I just now realized that it says "where ''to'' live," not "where you live." I take back this silly comment ^_^; My bad [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 09:00, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Why is there dirt in the middle of the picture? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:06, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:It appears to be a faded-out image, probably some reference pic that Randall was using while drawing. Something similar appeared in [[1561: Water Phase Diagram#Original version|1561]], and was later removed. [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 11:32, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Coming from Denmark I'm really dissapointed that he left out our capital, and the largest city in Scandinavia, Copenhagen, when he has both Oslo, Stockholm and .... Reykjavik... :-D But guess it should be placed near Oslo... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:54, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:Within the mid-United States, Randall ignored Chicago entirely and highlighted Minneapolis. Since I'm originally from Minnesota, I appreciate that a LOT. (Chicago can keep their wind, those blowhards; if you want a humid summer, find a Minnesota lake for your vacation! Then enjoy the ice fishing in winter, too.) '''--BigMal''' // [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.184|108.162.216.184]] 15:16, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
::Denver isn't on here. We have over 230 temperate days per year; We get big snow sometimes, then it melts away within a day or two. I think it belongs somewhere directly below Paris? I wonder how we'd be positioned relative to Portland...
::There's no way Randall has spent any significant time near Lubbock Texas; It should be shown farther up & to the right, maybe a lot farther.
::[[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.59|172.68.58.59]] 02:46, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
:::The point isn't where Randall has spent time (imagine someone spending enough time in ALL these places to get a good feel for what the summers AND winters are generally lke??!?!?). This graph was made entirely from hard data. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:46, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
:I'm disappointed he left out Hamburg, Germany (and instead included Berlin). Average high over the year in Hamburg is 13.2°C (highest average is 22.1°C and 22.2°C in July and August, respectively), average low over the year is 6.2°C (lowest average is -1.4°C in January). So, if you like mild winters as much as you like mild summers, you should live in Hamburg. --[[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 09:52, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

So I've added a table with one entry for you all to put in data. I don't know where to find humidex info but the average low temperatures should be easy enough to find on e.g. Wikipedia. --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 10:10, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:I think I've sorted all the disambiguations out apart from Richmond. My instinct is to say it's Richmond, Virginia but now I've seen how many Richmonds there are I'm not so sure...--[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 12:07, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
The convention that I've always stuck to, is that the mention of a place without qualifiers always refers to the oldest place with that name (where there are more than one location). Therefore, Richmond (with no qualifier) must refer to the place in North Yorkshire. If Richmond in the US was meant, the text would have referred to it as "Richmond, VA" or some such. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 12:53, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

I think that "Altay" is more likely to be {{w|Altay City|Altay City, China}}, not {{w|Altai City|Altai City, Mongolia}}. The Wikipedia-preferred spellings are one piece of evidence, but more convincing is the position of "Altay" right '''above''' (i.e. winters warmer than) "Regina". If this is {{w|Regina, Saskatchewan}}, then its temperature profile (per Wikipedia) is very similar to the Chinese city.
* Jan average: Regina, −20.1 to −9.3°C, and Altay, −21 to −9.4°C (versus Altai, −24.8 to −10.4°C)... pretty close all around, but Altai is a little colder.
* Jul average: Regina, 11.9 to 25.8°C, and Altay, 15.1 to 28.2°C (versus Altai, 8.0 to 19.7°C)... Altay is warmer than Regina, whereas Altai is quite a bit colder.
* Annual average: Regina, −3.2 to 9.3°C, and Altay, −1.4 to 10.7°C (versus Altai, −7.98 to 5.03°C)... Altai is again noticeably colder.
(Oops, edit conflict with [[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]]. Before their edit—which points to Altay City, China—the table said it was unclear which was meant.)
-- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 12:18, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:Yeah, sorry, I changed my mind, I can't remember why now... --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 13:28, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

So, the table lists temperatures for these cities from some unknown source(s), that may not be the same source(s) Randall used. I think the more interesting table would bte the table of X/y coordinates for each city from the comic. No? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 15:01, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
: I disagree - we can see where they are on the comic, so that's not very interesting at all. This table puts some hard figures on the co-ordinates. (In most explanations when we 'estimate' co-ordinates, it's because there are no hard figures). By the way, the source I'm using for my figures is weatherbase.com as suggested in the transcript. I can't speak what others are using but maybe we should make this clearer. --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 16:05, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:: The point isn't to be interesting, the point is to accurately capture the comic. As I've seen mentioned a couple of times, there are blind people who use readers on ExplainXKCD to follow this comic. As far as I gather, the presence of the transcript is largely if not exclusively for them. And for this comic right now, it seems to read as "There's a bunch of cities over here, and a bunch over in that clump". Seems like a table with rough co-ordinates is extremely called for. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:46, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

Chicago? Bottom right corner.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.12|162.158.106.12]] 15:37, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
: Chicago averages around 12 days of 90+ and none over 100 per year (similar to New York) does not rank as being all that hot on a world scale [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 18:47, 15 November 2017 (UTC).
: Wherever Chicago should go (and it's definitely in the lower right quadrant), it's weird that Randall didn't put it there. It's the USA's third-largest city and by far the biggest metropolitan area in the Midwest. How did Minneapolis make the cut if Chicago didn't? (No offense, Minnesotans.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 23:33, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
:: As far as I know, Montreal is one of the top ten largest cities in North America, and it's not on there, either. He probably focused on cities particularly known for one extreme or the other, the bottom right is both, which might be why that glob is half empty.[[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:58, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

Added hottest month Humidex values for all cities that have temperature and dew point data, using equation from the Wikipedia page on Humidex.

My jimmies are really rustled by Randall using the puny american McMurdo station (record low of mere -51 centigrade) instead of the glorious russian Vostok station (record low -89 "steel shatters" centigrade).

------
As a resident of Oregon, I vote for Portland being Portland, OR. It is not only larger than Portland, Maine; it also more closely fits the mild climate that Randall seems to place it in on the graph. An early settler wrote two letters back east: The first, "Come live with me, there ain't no winter here", the second six months later "Nevermind, there ain't no summer either" [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 21:44, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

I'm not convinced by the Humidex numbers (or possibly the calculation) for London. It has the third highest value of 49.3, which according to the Wikipedia entry for Humidex, is "Dangerous; heat stroke quite possible". London can occasionally have some unpleasantly hot days in the summer, but generally (as the diagram implies) it's rarely too hot or too cold. --[[User:TimO|TimO]] ([[User talk:TimO|talk]]) 10:26, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
:You're right - I think someone got their numbers out of sync when they were typing them in, there were several in the wrong place. Fixed now --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 13:38, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

Is the Humidex right for Rio? It shows 48, but meaning it should have been one of the furthest to the right. But that's not where it was drawn.
:I don't know whether or not that's correct, but it could be: That is a known problem with Humidex (note: it was invented in Canada and has not been adopted in many southern countries where heat and humidity is much larger). See: [http://ptaff.ca/humidex/?lang=en_CA an argument about wind chill and Humidex]. That value seems to be correct, as calculated by [http://www.physlink.com/Reference/Weather.cfm this site]. However, maybe there's multiple different equations to compute Humidex? [[User:Jeudi Violist|Jeudi Violist]] ([[User talk:Jeudi Violist|talk]]) 22:05, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
Hey, could the thing be edited? I don't like how, for example, DC is blank in the chart, so if it is not too much of a hassle, could it be edited so DC is classified as where it is closest to being (maybe with an indicator or something like "not in area"? I don't know.) I feel like that would be useful to give people an IDEA of where it is. Thanks!

== Temperatures ==

For the low/high temperatures, should it be the average temperature of the coldest/hottest months or the average low/high of the coldest/hottest months?
The two are not the same, and you can get both from weatherbase.com.
Some of the data is already messed up. I highly doubt that Raleigh is the hottest place on earth. AFAIK, people live there, but I don't think anyone could survive between 50C and 70C all year round...
--[[User:Dkasza|Dkasza]] ([[User talk:Dkasza|talk]]) 03:31, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
:Hi Dkasza, thanks for the comment. I think the point of the original comic is to compare how hot it typically gets in summer - so the average high for the hottest month - with how cold it gets in winter - so the average low for the coldest month. That's what I went with - I think the average temperature for the hottest month isn't the best because it doesn't tell you ''how hot it gets'' (and similarly for cold). As for Raleigh, I think the data you mention must have been changed because it looks reasonable now - perhaps someone originally but the Fahrenheit values in by mistake? I've entered most of the data myself, but feel free to correct any errors! --[[User:AnotherAnonymous|AnotherAnonymous]] ([[User talk:AnotherAnonymous|talk]]) 14:39, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

== Intuitiveness ==
Comparing relative placements on the map with cities I've been to or lived in: All the ones I see on the chart make a very good fit for how I've known them. It's very well drawn. St. Louis and DC are definitely pinpoint accurate. Same goes for Toronto, Istanbul, Santa Fe, New York, & Tehran.

Chart didn't include Cleveland, Ohio, so I'll tell you it falls right between Toronto and Sioux Falls in the lower middle range. I pretty much agree with 172 about Denver; I'd place it about where Geneva is, though I've never been to Geneva.

As for equable climates of the upper left, keeping to moderate temperatures year-round, I have heard that a lot about Aruba and Kampala. I personally knew a colleague from Kampala who verified that: on the equator and elevation 1,190 m (3,900 ft), charted perhaps above Addis Ababa and left of Nairobi. Aruba I've heard is equable year-round, thanks to ocean breezes off the Caribbean. My parents have been there, but I haven't; it probably keeps company with Kampala. Kuala Lumpur would keep company in the upper right with Jakarta and Singapore. Messina (my ancestral province) keeps company in the upper middle space between Santiago and Athens. Palermo would be closer to Santiago. Diggin how intuitive it is from the chart, without even looking at the data tables below. [[User:Johanna-Hypatia|Johanna-Hypatia]] ([[User talk:Johanna-Hypatia|talk]]) 23:49, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

A few surprises here... My expectation would have put L.A. in the same spot as Miami, suprised this puts the summers at about the same as Ottawa and Toronto (L.A. being the only one of those I haven't visited). Also, have always figured Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to be the same, weather-wise (so, would be the exact same spot on this chart), weird to see Ottawa and Toronto that separate, which makes it more frustrating that Montreal isn't present (surprising in and of itself, as last I knew Montreal is one of the top ten largest cities in North America). One reason I would approve Montreal's absence is that its position would have wandered over the past 10 years. This summer and last winter would definitely be a bunch left and up from 10 years ago. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:58, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

== The picture is fixed! ==

The dust/smudge/whatever [https://www.xkcd.com/1916/ has been removed already]. Can someone update that? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.94|162.158.165.94]] 16:23, 22 November 2017 (UTC)
: I never saw this smudge! I saw references to it, but never saw it, either here or on XKCD itself. And I would have read this within a day or two of when it was first published. Usually when the original changes, this description includes a link to the original... I'm really curious to see this! LOL! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 07:33, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

2547: Siren

2021-11-27T22:32:14Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2547
| date = November 26, 2021
| title = Siren
| image = siren.png
| titletext = Directions from CITY OF TROY to ITHACA / Total time: 10y 54d 14h 25m / Warning: Route crosses an international border / route includes capture by the goddess Calypso / route includes a ferry
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ODYSSEUS’S BROKEN GPS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Odysseus}} is the hero of the Greek epic ''{{w|Odyssey}}'' by {{w|Homer}}. This is a poem that relates the journey of Odysseus back home to his homeland from the newly defeated Troy, and how he inadvertently angered Poseidon thus causing the journey to take 10 years.

In the story, now widely translated and adapted for modern audiences, {{w|Circe}} warns Odysseus of the {{w|siren (mythology)|Sirens}}, who sing beautiful songs that lure sailors towards their shores, just to doom the boats to sink upon the jagged rocks surrounding their islands.

This comic reframes the advice as if Odysseus was being told to ignore the incorrect instructions of a {{w|Satellite navigation device|GPS-linked routefinder}}, rather than the Sirens. Errors, omissions or out-of-date information in the databases used by such devices famously have sent drivers down roads they might never have even tried to use (guided by printed maps, road-signs or even past experience) without the alluring voice of the 'infallible' dashboard device leading them through too-narrow lanes, into rivers or even hundreds of miles completely out of their way - perhaps to a destination similarly-named to their intended one. GPSs did not exist during the time the poem was written,{{citation needed}} so this could not be the case here.

A navigation system giving wrong directions can happen, for example, due to outdated or incomplete map data. Sometimes users can file an error report with the provider of the navigation system and hope that they fix the problem in a software update. This is what Circe already did multiple times. However, the error was not fixed, so she has to resort to telling Odysseus to ignore the route.

The title text shows what the route description could have looked like, had Odysseus indeed used a modern navigation system. It includes the start and destination of the route, the estimated duration and warnings about special circumstances of the journey.

Normally, the sea voyage from the City of Troy to Ithaca should take much less than ten years. For Odysseus it took so long because of the many obstacles he had to face, so the navigation system would have some sort of clairvoyance function built in.

"Route crosses an international border" and "Route includes a ferry" are standard warnings included in a route description. The former alludes to the facts that Odysseus's voyage took him to many lands and kingdoms while the latter may allude to the fact that in Book XI of the Odyssey, Odysseus visits Hades, which is traditionally reached by a ferry across the river Styx, piloted by {{w|Charon(mythology)|Charon}} the ferryman. "Route includes capture by the goddess {{w|Calypso (mythology)|Calypso}}" is not normally something that a navigation system would warn about or could know about,{{Citation needed}} but this indeed happened to Odysseus in Homer's tale; he was kept on her island Ogygia for seven years.

"Route includes a ferry" may hint at the other time [[461: Google Maps|Randall tried to follow GPS directions]].

==Transcript==
:[Circe is speaking to Odysseus.]
:Circe: Remember, Odysseus:
:Circe: As you pass the rocks you will hear a woman calling out to you, urging you to stray from your path, but plug your ears and hold your course, for her beguiling lies will draw you to a watery grave.
:Circe: I don't know ''why'' they can't just fix it. I keep filing error reports.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Circe was actually just telling Odysseus to ignore his GPS.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2541: Occam

2021-11-13T16:44:57Z

172.70.35.70:

The minimalist nature of the cartoon seems appropriate to the subject.
I think keeping the explanation simple would also be appropriate.
My attempt was:

Combines {{w| Occam's razor}} with the {{w| barber paradox}}.
The title text refers to {{w| Murphy's law}}.

Which promptly was greatly expanded. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.131|162.158.106.131]] 20:28, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

:Aye, sorry about that. I also thought I was minimalist (except for the different Incomplete-BOT-thing submitted, probably) and consciously overwrote you by my own 'from scratch' one after I got the inevitable edit-conflict. I might not have done, but I believe your explanation would have suffered later hyperverbiation by others, anyway, but mine covered at least one extra issue (the continuity of the razor throughout it all) that could postpone this. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.57|172.70.162.57]] 20:36, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

::No worries. "Simplify, simplify, simplify!" - Thoreau
::"Why didn't he just say Simplify" - One of the panelists on Says You [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.131|162.158.106.131]] 20:46, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

Shouldn't the name of the comic be "Razor", since that's the common concept? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:50, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

The highest likelihood (and funnier line) is that Peter (referring to The Peter Principle) grabs the razor.{{unsigned}}

Benford may have something to say about the number of injuries he subsequently observes needing treatment, on any given day... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.12|172.70.86.12]] 04:55, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

This comic really reminds me of [[1505: Ontological Argument]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 16:44, 13 November 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

Talk:2541: Occam

2021-11-13T16:44:26Z

172.70.35.70:

The minimalist nature of the cartoon seems appropriate to the subject.
I think keeping the explanation simple would also be appropriate.
My attempt was:

Combines {{w| Occam's razor}} with the {{w| barber paradox}}.
The title text refers to {{w| Murphy's law}}.

Which promptly was greatly expanded. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.131|162.158.106.131]] 20:28, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

:Aye, sorry about that. I also thought I was minimalist (except for the different Incomplete-BOT-thing submitted, probably) and consciously overwrote you by my own 'from scratch' one after I got the inevitable edit-conflict. I might not have done, but I believe your explanation would have suffered later hyperverbiation by others, anyway, but mine covered at least one extra issue (the continuity of the razor throughout it all) that could postpone this. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.57|172.70.162.57]] 20:36, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

::No worries. "Simplify, simplify, simplify!" - Thoreau
::"Why didn't he just say Simplify" - One of the panelists on Says You [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.131|162.158.106.131]] 20:46, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

Shouldn't the name of the comic be "Razor", since that's the common concept? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:50, 12 November 2021 (UTC)

The highest likelihood (and funnier line) is that Peter (referring to The Peter Principle) grabs the razor.{{unsigned}}

Benford may have something to say about the number of injuries he subsequently observes needing treatment, on any given day... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.12|172.70.86.12]] 04:55, 13 November 2021 (UTC)

This comic really reminds me of [[1505 _Ontological Argument]][[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 16:44, 13 November 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

2538: Snack

2021-11-06T00:33:19Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2538
| date = November 5, 2021
| title = Snack
| image = snack.png
| titletext = Although grad students, suddenly reminded that food exists, tend to just grab and devour both without further discussion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the APPLE COOKIE REVIEW BOARD- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Psychologists have a great interest in the study of altruism, and whether it truly exists. Undergraduate psychology students therefore, having spent too much time studying rather than interacting with people {{Citation needed}}, might start to believe that when they are shown altruism, they are unknowing participants in a psychological study. Therefore, Randall proposes that if you want to freak out a psychology student, then you should behave altruistically towards them.

The title text jokes that graduate students have so much work to do that they don't ponder the implications of altruism, but rather devour the food and return to their work.

The IRB that Cueball mentions is the {{w|Institutional Review Board}}, which is a committee (for example, at a university) which must approve research on human subjects in advance to protect them from harm.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
: [Ponytail, with a cookie in one hand and an apple in the other, approaches an alarmed Cueball.]
: Ponytail: Hey, do you want a cookie? Or an apple?
: Cueball: '''''Who are you!? Did the IRB approve this!? Is everyone here an actor!?'''''

: [Caption under the panel:]
: The best prank you can play on psych majors is just to offer them a snack.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Food]]

2529: Unsolved Math Problems

2021-10-16T13:28:29Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2529
| date = October 15, 2021
| title = Unsolved Math Problems
| image = unsolved_math_problems.png
| titletext = After decades of studying the curve and the procedure that generates it, the consensus explanation is "it's just like that."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an Euler Field Gödel-Escher-Kurt-Halsey Strange "Curve" Walking Pseudo-Randomly On a Toroid. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Math has many problems that remain unsolved. Some problems are easy to understand, but impossible to form a proof for, such as the {{w|Collatz conjecture}}. Others are unsolved because they require an extremely high level of knowledge just to recognize the parts, so there are few people who can work on them and even they have trouble.

In mathematics, a concrete problem is one that is very obviously connected to a real world process while an abstract problem is one which seems unconnected to actual problems. In modern math many problems tend to be very abstract requiring complicated notation to adequately state the problem in the first place like many of the millennium problems. On the other hand many unsolved problems are very concrete, for example there are very many problems related to packing objects into spaces which are very difficult to solve. Finally cursed problems are problems that have strange, seemingly random behavior such as, for example the collatz conjecture or the distribution of primes.

In the first panel, Ponytail describes a weird abstract problem. Her description seems to be a meaningless jumble of terms that are either mathematical or just ''sound'' mathematical. And the mathematical terms are from disparate branches of mathematics: group theory, topology, calculus. It's full of what seem to be [[Malamanteau|malamanteaus]]: "quasimonoid" combines the prefix "quasi" (meaning "partially" or "seemingly") and "monoid" (an object from category theory); "Gödel-Klein" combines {{w|Kurt Gödel}}, a 20th-century mathematician who studied logic and philophy (he's most well known for {{w|Gödel's incompleteness theorems}}) and {{w|Felix Klein}}, a 19th century mathematician who studied group theory and geometry, who probably never collaborated; "sondheim calculus" refers to {{w|Stephen Sondheim}}, one of the most successful composers and lyricists of American musical theatre -- the producer of his musical "Into the Woods" once [[https://www.indiewire.com/2015/01/watch-singing-sondheim-is-like-calculus-in-into-the-woods-behind-the-scenes-video-exclusive-189507/ remarked]] that “Singing Stephen Sondheim is like calculus for singers and actors.”; and "conjection" may combine conjecture and conjunction, or be a joke on pros and cons plus projection. Finally she asks whether the problem statement is ill-formed; considering that it's mostly gibberish, this may be true.

In the second panel, Cueball describes a concrete {{w|random walk}} problem, and then mentions that this somehow has applications in three unrelated fields. This is actually not uncommon. The Wikipedia article says "random walks have applications to engineering and many scientific fields including ecology, psychology, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and sociology."

In the final panel, Megan is looking at a strange curve that seems to have no consistent pattern. At the bottom it's mostly straight, with a few little wobbles. In the middle it looks like a wild, high-frequency wave that suddenly bursts and then dies down. And the top is a spiral that looks like a question mark or a Western-style {{w|Crosier}}. She wonders if this could even be mathematical. Considering the weird shapes that come from plotting some mathematical processes (e.g. the {{w|Mandelbrot set}}), it could well be.

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

The Three Types Of Unsolved Math Problem

:First: Weirdly Abstract
:[Ponytail stands in front of an equation]
:Is the Euler Field Manifold Hypergroup Isomorphic to a Gödel-Klein Meta-Algebreic ε<0 Quasimonoid Conjection under Sondheim Calculus?
:Or is the question ill-formed?
:⬙ℝंℤ/Eℵ₅ The Z is raised and underneath it is a double-ended arrow bent at a right angle. One points toward the R the other toward the Z. The ₅ is double-struck like the ℝ and ℤ

:Second: Weirdly Concrete
:[Cueball stands in front of a grid with 6 columns and 7 rows]
:If I walk randomly on a grid, never visiting any square twice, placing a marble every ''N'' steps, on average how many marbles will be in the longest line after N*K steps?
:Somehow the answer is important in like three unrelated fields.
:[The path starts in the 3rd row and 3rd column, a small circle indicates the start. It takes the path: North, East, North, East (a black dot representing the 1st marble is placed here, so N=4), South, East, South, South (2nd marble), West, South, West, North (3rd marble), West, South, South, South (4th Marble), West, North, West, West (this goes offgrid to the West. There is no visible line or marble outside the grid). The 1st, 3rd, and 4th marbles are colinear and there is a dotted line connecting them. The line's slope is 3.]

:Third: Cursed
:[Megan stands next to a curve]
:What in god's name is going on with this curve?
:Is it even math?
:[The curve starts at the bottom of the screen, rises straight upward, begins to wobble left and right a little. It lists to the left and the left-right motion increases, then decreases. It begins a large counter-clockwise arc, spiraling inwards twice, then ends]

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

Talk:1889: xkcd Phone 6

2021-10-12T21:19:11Z

172.70.35.70:

Hold on how can a phone use facial recognition if it doesn't store your face on the device? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 21:19, 12 October 2021 (UTC)

For 'Never Needs Sharpening' I thought it was an implication that the screen that goes past the edge is sharp, but does not need the user to sharpen it. A sharp screen that extends past the edge is, naturally, an extremely inconvenient feature. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.28|141.101.76.28]] 21:10, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

I tried to access http://xkcd.com/MDCCCLXXXIX but I got a "CDIV NOT FOVND" error.[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 14:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

1876 is the year of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent US174465 "Improvement in telegraphy" and the "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." transmission.--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 15:31, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Maybe "SPF 30" refers to how easily the phone becomes sunburned, rather than to how much protection the phone provides to you. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.16|162.158.63.16]] 15:40, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

"... the phone cannot be ... inserted ... [in]to something else." Is it wrong that I know a website that disproves this? [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]])

"Never Needs Sharpening," while applicable to pencils, is more likely a reference to those crappy knives often hocked in infomercials. See the TvTropes entry of the same name: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeverNeedsSharpening [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.222|172.68.133.222]] 16:38, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

The promotional material for [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1809 xkcd Phone 5] said they refused to skip numbers!--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 17:18, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Did anyone else notice that the title text contradicts with one of the main design features of the phone? Having a front camera in the middle of the screen specifically for video calling, then claiming that the phone never transmits images of the user's face (or even restricting the phone's software/hardware such that it cannot transmit images of the user's face) is somewhat of a contradiction. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.61|162.158.154.61]] 17:20, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

"We didn't start this war" reminiscent of War for the Planet of the Apes tagline? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.238|108.162.215.238]] 17:25, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

I thought it might have been a small reference to "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel? See also comics 1775 and 1794.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 11:17, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

The "camera in the middle of the screen" is (hopefully) not too far away: [http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/08/apple_files_patent_for_camera_hidden_behind_display] [http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112501121/sony-patents-technology-to-put-camera-and-sensors-behind-smartphone-display/] [[User:Sysin|Sysin]] ([[User talk:Sysin|talk]]) 19:21, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

;{{w|ordinal indicator#Masculine|º}} or {{w|superior letter|o}} or {{w|degree symbol|°}} or {{w|ring (diacritic)|˚}}?

Which one is it at the end of the trademarked (and registered to be so), copyrighted tagline?

(Currently it's transcribed as {{w|ordinal indicator#Masculine|º}}.)

--[[User:Das-g|Das-g]] ([[User talk:Das-g|talk]]) 20:09, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure it's the {{w|degree symbol|degree symbol °}} because the letter before is a C for copyright or Celsius. Open the original 2x picture and you can see there is no underline like here: º. Thanks for this question. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:35, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

;What's the future?
iPhone 8 followed by 9 then 10 and 11? And the <s>phablet</s> iPhone X followed by XI and XII? That X is pronounced ''ten''. And what number will the next xkcd phone use (besides the 7)? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:12, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

: The iPhone X is not a Phablet. It is "smaller" than the iPhone 8 Plus (see https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/) and only slightly larger than the iPhone 8. And they're calling it the iPhone X (ten) because it is a step forward. Presumably the next phone will be the 11, unless they choose to go with a digit after the X, following OSX's approach. --[[User:Rand|Rand]] ([[User talk:Rand|talk]]) 22:18, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
::Phablet was wrong, but that's what I've found at the first documentations. But for sure the next phone will not be 11, probably again two products, maybe then 9 and XL... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:39, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
: I'm wondering if the iphone is meant to be the Iphone "Ex" or "Ten" - a la OSX (which should be OS Ten, not Oh Es Ex) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.55|162.158.154.55]] 07:27, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

;Citation needed
Is this template still that funny that it's worth to mention it more often then the existing numbers of Google Chrome versions? I say this isn't funny anymore for a long time{{Citation needed}}. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:31, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

;Non-consecutive numbers joke

The ''joke'' in the title text is that Apple just jumped from iPhone 8 to iPhone 10.

The joke needs to be explained somewhere in the text. Dgbrt reverted my edit in such a way that ''the joke is no longer explained''.

Please fix.--[[User:Rand|Rand]] ([[User talk:Rand|talk]]) 22:13, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

: In case anyone doubts the joke: If I type "why did a" into Google, it autofills to "why did apple skip iphone 9". A lot of people are asking this question. Randall, meanwhile, is making fun of Apple for skipping iPhone 9. --[[User:Rand|Rand]] ([[User talk:Rand|talk]]) 22:24, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

:Here's somebody else making a similar joke at Apple's expense: http://ew.com/news/2017/09/12/in-memoriam-iphone-9/--[[User:Rand|Rand]] ([[User talk:Rand|talk]]) 22:26, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

OMG, iPhone 8 and iPhone X were released at the same time. There is no current phone existing which follows iPhone 8 and there may be a iPhone 9 in the future. The X is pronounced ''ten'' but that phone is not the successor of the iPhone 8. Until now Microsoft is the one company who omitted the version number 9. To claim this on Apple we still have to wait for the next phone.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:13, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

: No, in order to ''know with certainty'' that Apple skipped a version number (as opposed to releasing a ten followed by a nine) we would need to wait for the next phone. In order to joke about it... well, half the internet is already making that joke: https://www.bustle.com/p/iphone-9-memes-jokes-pay-homage-to-the-forgotten-generation-2343796. And yes, Randall Munroe is also making that joke.--[[User:Rand|Rand]] ([[User talk:Rand|talk]]) 23:20, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
::Of course people are joking. But it's still only Microsoft omitting the 9. Randall jokes about this by presenting the xkcd phone VIII, and many other names, for the same major features. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:30, 13 September 2017 (UTC)
::: They're joking about ''skipping the iPhone 9''. Randall refers to ''nonconsecutive'' version numbers: that is, version numbers that skip. There's no ambiguity here. The graceful thing for you to do here would be to undo your revision, improving the language if necessary. If you're not willing to, I'll let others handle the edit warring / making the consensus clear.--[[User:Rand|Rand]] ([[User talk:Rand|talk]]) 00:08, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

The best I could find for what "26" is referencing in the context of version skipping is Linux kernel 2.6, which was the last in the old versioning scheme of "evens stable, odds development" before they moved to version 3.0 which used a different scheme. If you search in the context of phones the current Android API version for 8.0 Oreo is 26, but there was no version skip there. Both theories are weak, so does anyone have another idea? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.35|173.245.51.35]] 14:12, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

26 could refer to the number of letters in the alphabet. The 26th letter is "Z," which seems appropriate given that the previous "number" shown is "X," as if to suggest that "Y" was skipped in a sense, or that the numbering system suddenly decided to jump to the last number in a sequence for no reason. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.40|162.158.78.40]] 19:39, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

: This explanation makes the most sense. iPhone X pronounced "ten" could be followed by Y, then Z. Twisting this, it becomes iPhone 26 pronounced "zee". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.201|162.158.74.201]] 12:52, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Shroud of turin style facial transfer means you'd have to press the phone against your face until somehow an impression of your face was registered, in the same way as an imprint of oils(?) from a face is left on the turin shroud. This is more amusing, and ridiculous, than the current explanation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 05:13, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

The war of nonconsecutive numbering goes back to 1999 at least, as Slackware jumped from Version 4.0 to 7.0 because other distros had been iterating version numbers quicker, and Patrick Volkerding wanted to catch up: http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=general#0 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.76|162.158.34.76]] 12:48, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
:Agree that this was most certainly a reference to slack. While it may be true that no one is doing consecutive versions anymore, the wording couldn't possibly feel more like a jab at slack (who's wording couldn't possibly be more obviously a jab at the other distros) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.58|108.162.237.58]] 21:00, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

isn't "dishwasher safe" another waterproofing joke? one of the the reasons that Apple gave for removing all the ports (apart from "because we hate you") was to allow the phones to be sealed and therefore properly waterproof. the whole 1m/30mins thing is put into the shade by 50 degrees for 3 hours, no? --[[User:Misterstick|Misterstick]] ([[User talk:Misterstick|talk]]) 13:12, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

'''High thread count CPU '''

There is a therm called "CPU-Threads", which is the number of parallel processes in the CPU.
(e.g. 4-Core + hyper-threading (x2) = 8 CPU-Threads)
--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.136|172.68.51.136]] 18:45, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

I am amazed that people here missed the most obvious joke in this. It's no about matresses , it's about advertising the number of cores in a smartphone (dual core, quad core and even recently 16 core?). A high thread count CPU is not actually any faster, nor really better at parallelization if a task already uses all resources. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.224|108.162.210.224]] 05:22, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
--

'''Pre-seasoned '''

Is also used for Steaks (and some other ingredients) sold already seasoned. (Bot is less compliant with solar heating) --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.136|172.68.51.136]] 18:49, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

'''Extra screen'''

There are already phones with a small rectangular extra screen, although on the top instead of the bottom. e.g. LG V10, LG X screen. It is used for additional buttons and always-on notifications there. I think the first Samsung phones with edged screen also used this as a second screen with addition controls. A Screen on the bottom wouldnt be much worse.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.205|162.158.89.205]] 09:33, 18 September 2017 (UTC)
: I second this interpretation. There is a play on words with "extra screen" meaning either "an additional screen" or "more screen" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.18|172.68.65.18]] 14:33, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Talk:218: Nintendo Surgeon

2021-10-11T23:32:48Z

172.70.35.70:

Was the NES really "notorious for glitching games upon start-up"? I always thought it was usually after the game cartridges had been around long enough to have attracted enough dust and dirt on the contacts to prevent proper electrical connection. Since the NES cartridges were basically a circuit board in a plastic case, with one end exposed for the edge connectors, dirty contacts could effectively add resistance to the circuits. Blowing on the contacts would displace the dirt. It would be possible to use rubbing alcohol or something similar, but many 10-year-olds would not have alcohol handy, plus the alcohol could leave a residue attracting more dirt in the future. [[User:Tryc|Tryc]] ([[User talk:Tryc|talk]]) 15:10, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Wasn't just the NES, it was all cartridge-based systems, like the N64 and the GameBoy (I still do this with my eight-year old Advance SP). The nostalgic memories are kicking in now...{{unsigned ip|121.222.232.156}}

I put tiny blobs of solder on each of the terminals and that would make it work. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 05:49, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I once had to do this to my Pokémon Sapphire. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.101|108.162.218.101]] 03:38, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Let's make this three decades soon, people ;) [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 15:44, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

is 137 in reference to the fine structure constant 1/137 thingy or just random numbers? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 23:32, 11 October 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

218: Nintendo Surgeon

2021-10-11T23:32:09Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number =218
| date =February 2, 2007
| title =Nintendo Surgeon
| image =nintendo_surgeon.png
| titletext =Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}}, released in North America in 1985, helped revitalize the video-game industry after the {{w|North American video game crash of 1983|video-game crash}} of 1983, with such games as the ''{{w|Super Mario Bros.}}'' series, ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda (game)|The Legend of Zelda}},'' the ''{{w|Mega Man}}'' series, ''{{w|Castlevania}},'' and ''{{w|Metroid (game)|Metroid}}'' helping it stand alone as what is still considered by many people today, the greatest video-game console of all time.

However, it was notorious for glitching games upon start-up, due in no small part to the unusual shape of the game console, which required one to open the door, push the game cartridge inside, push down to lock it in place, and push the power button. The console was deliberately designed this way so that it wouldn't look like a regular video-game console (and wouldn't be associated with the still-fresh stigma of the video-game crash only two years previous), but it caused no end of pain for people wanting to play the games. It would work fine for about two years, but after that "cartridge tilt" would become a problem as either the game's or the console's electric contacts could become misaligned.

A ubiquitous fix for this problem among gamers was to take the cartridge out, blow into it, and put it back inside, all to clean out any dust inside the cartridge that would make "cartridge tilt" worse and occur more frequently. This was not a recommended solution by Nintendo of America, and didn't always work, but it worked frequently enough to enter gamer culture, and even today, people who had the NES as children remember having to do that.

The NES was 22 years old as of the date this comic was written. Someone who was 10 years old when they got their Nintendo for Christmas could ''very well'' be old enough in 2007 to have attained their doctorate degree, and so this comic hearkens back to the aforementioned cartridge fix by suggesting that a heart surgeon might try that on a real-life heart patient. And like the introduction states, that ''is'' a scary thought.

The title text is one of many xkcd references to the terrifying ''[[velociraptor|Velociraptor]]'' predator from the dinosaur movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}.''

==Transcript==
:Scary Thought #137: The NES came out over two decades ago. Those kids are all grown-ups now.
:[Two surgeons are in an operating room, leaning over a patient.]
:First Surgeon: He's going into cardiac arrest. Stand by for defibrillation.
:Second Surgeon: Wait. First let's try taking out the heart, blowing into the ventricles, and putting it back in.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

218: Nintendo Surgeon

2021-10-11T23:31:40Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number =218
| date =February 2, 2007
| title =Nintendo Surgeon
| image =nintendo_surgeon.png
| titletext =Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}}, released in North America in 1985, helped revitalize the video-game industry after the {{w|North American video game crash of 1983|video-game crash}} of 1983, with such games as the ''{{w|Super Mario Bros.}}'' series, ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda (game)|The Legend of Zelda}},'' the ''{{w|Mega Man}}'' series, ''{{w|Castlevania}},'' and ''{{w|Metroid (game)|Metroid}}'' helping it stand alone as what is still considered by many people today, the greatest video-game console of all time.

However, it was notorious for glitching games upon start-up, due in no small part to the unusual shape of the game console, which required one to open the door, push the game cartridge inside, push down to lock it in place, and push the power button. The console was deliberately designed this way so that it wouldn't look like a regular video-game console (and wouldn't be associated with the still-fresh stigma of the video-game crash only two years previous), but it caused no end of pain for people wanting to play the games. It would work fine for about two years, but after that "cartridge tilt" would become a problem as either the game's or the console's electric contacts could become misaligned.

A ubiquitous fix for this problem among gamers was to take the cartridge out, blow into it, and put it back inside, all to clean out any dust inside the cartridge that would make "cartridge tilt" worse and occur more frequently. This was not a recommended solution by Nintendo of America, and didn't always work, but it worked frequently enough to enter gamer culture, and even today, people who had the NES as children remember having to do that.

The NES was 22 years old as of the date this comic was written. Someone who was 10 years old when they got their Nintendo for Christmas could ''very well'' be old enough in 2007 to have attained their doctorate degree, and so this comic hearkens back to the aforementioned cartridge fix by suggesting that a heart surgeon might try that on a real-life heart patient. And like the introduction states, that ''is'' a scary thought.

The title text is one of many xkcd references to the terrifying ''[[Category:Velociraptor|Velociraptor]]'' predator from the dinosaur movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}.''

==Transcript==
:Scary Thought #137: The NES came out over two decades ago. Those kids are all grown-ups now.
:[Two surgeons are in an operating room, leaning over a patient.]
:First Surgeon: He's going into cardiac arrest. Stand by for defibrillation.
:Second Surgeon: Wait. First let's try taking out the heart, blowing into the ventricles, and putting it back in.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

Talk:2520: Symbols

2021-10-08T03:59:15Z

172.70.35.70: eV -> Anatoli Bugorski?

Great work by whomever did this, but is it possible R_e is something else? I agree that the numerical aspect makes it seem like a fluid mechanics problem, but I've never seen the Reynolds number with a subscripted e... only a regular size e, such that it is Re, not R_e. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.93|108.162.237.93]] 20:36, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
: R sub e (not Re) is Effective Reproduction Number. This is related to infection rates. I'm pretty sure it's R sub e, not Re given that infection rates are very much on his mind right now.
:: It would be out of place relative to all the other entries, though, which are all physics related. IMO it's more likely this was an error.
: Earth's radius is abbreviated "R sub e" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.4|162.158.107.4]] 21:30, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
: Could be the remainder of a series (i.e. the error when using the first terms of the series as an approximation). Determining upper bounds on this error is usually very tedious.
: R sub e is tire effective rolling radius (or effective radius)--a radius based on the distance traveled by one rotation of a pneumatic tire. Re is similar to the unloaded radius (for radial tires) and normally larger than the loaded radius (distance from axle to ground).
: My first thought was that this referred to the "real part" operator, although that's typically represented by a plain Re (no subscript).

Re seems to be related to number theory, like in those papers where's they tediously prove that there are infinities of different sizes.

Extra vote for number theory theory, I've seen R_e most when referring to Real part of a function, which does often bring in tedious calculations

Re is almost definitely not meant to have any electronic structure meaning here. The subscript alpha in R_alpha is indexing over x,y,z (cartesian coordinates) as a transition dipole moment term.

T to the fourth power looks like blackbody radiation, any ideas what specifically that formula represents? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.22|162.158.203.22]] 20:40, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
:There's an equation for what reflects off a spherical object that is a quartic equation (although I'd expect concave reflectors, not convex ones, to risk skin-burn. Or, more likely something to do with UV (non-)absorbtion or generation, but I imagine someone knows ''exactly'' what it is, without someone like me just guessing wildly. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.82|141.101.99.82]] 21:05, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
This wiki does not seem to have a consistent formatting structure for lists

The ''NA'' could also soon become NAN (not a number) thus being only a step away from the dangerous arthmeric error. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.43|162.158.88.43]] 21:38, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

'''Bold Title'''
:Content starting with a tab

*'''Bold title''' content continues on same line

*Regular title
Content on a new line, but not starting with a tab

As well as tables and mixes of these formats. Maybe someone should pick one and apply it to all the explanations. I just noticed it because of the inconsistencies as people are quickly throwing something together for this new comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.4|162.158.107.4]] 21:02, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

I read the penultimate line as "Mg" and was trying to imagine a meaning for "megagrams per kilogram". Sloppy Greek letter there, Randall. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:17, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
::I find this criticism very unreasonable. Randall's "m" is written very differently, there are plenty of examples of it in this very cartoon to avoid confusion, and micrograms are far more commonly used than megagrams. I had no problem whatsoever recognizing the letter mu, and I don't see how this could be a problem for anyone already familiar with that letter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.85|162.158.90.85]] 11:11, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Why are partial derivatives considered graduate-level? They're typically covered in first level undergraduate science courses, along with gradients and such. [[User:FPSCanarussia|FPSCanarussia]] ([[User talk:FPSCanarussia|talk]]) 03:34, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

The reference to "micrometer" links to the Wikipedia page for the measuring device, but it should link to the page for the unit of length: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrometre [[User:Professor Frink|Professor Frink]] ([[User talk:Professor Frink|talk]]) 15:58, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Adding to “Micrometer/Micrometre” above: this “any” is not really correct:
:Of course, micrometers are used as a measurement of distance in other contexts, but any distance-measuring device capable of accurately measuring micrometer distances would also be expensive.
The “Micrometers” as seen in the Wikipedia article can measure distances of some micrometers accurately, but are not really expensive. Probably even cheaper than any equipment which can ''not'' measure distances. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.239|162.158.88.239]] 18:19, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

In certain circles (or, perhaps, between them as they roll), the typical Reynolds number is {{w|Reynolds Technology|just three digits}}... ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.95|162.158.159.95]] 20:04, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

"When radiative transfer is large enough to be the most important form of heat interchange, it is normally also large enough to sear the skin with thermal or ultraviolet burns." Radiative transfer is the dominant heat transfer from a (idle) human body in a 20C room. There is no risk of seared skin in this situation. As an aside if people understood the role of radiative heat transfer we'd have more comfortable and cheaper HVAC systems (and more underfloor heating).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.91|172.70.34.91]] 20:08, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

I cannot recall ever using Avogadro's constant in a stochiometric calculation. You do everything in mole or gram mole. NA implicitly cancels and never even appears.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.91|172.70.34.91]] 20:08, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

mSV (millisievert) is also likely to show up in other internet debates as well, usually related to Chernobyl, Fukushima, Three Mile Island, or [other such nuclear accidents|https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/brief-history-nuclear-accidents-worldwide]
Also likely to show up in any discussion on nuclear energy to alleviate global warming, especially given modern reactor designs to reduce such incidents.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 20:15, 27 September 2021 (UTC)

d⁄dx is not the symbol for a single variable derivative, but the symbol for a total derivative. Partial derivatives and total derivatives happen to be equal when the function depends on only one variable, but in general both partial and total derivatives are used in multivariate calculus [[Special:Contributions/198.41.231.172|198.41.231.172]] 05:56, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

I know arguments on the Internet often aren't logical, but the mSV really wouldn't make any sense in the context of arguing about 5G as that is non-ionizing radiation. [[User:Ullallulloo|Ullallulloo]] ([[User talk:Ullallulloo|talk]]) 14:37, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

eV may more specifically be a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 03:59, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2521: Toothpaste

2021-09-28T05:46:58Z

172.70.35.70:

The editing done so far looks fairly good. Hopefully not too many reversions, or it might be like moving the deckchairs back to their original locations on the Titanic! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 05:46, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

2521: Toothpaste

2021-09-28T05:41:05Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ Because it read wrongly, to suggest toothpaste ''in general'' might not be unanimously promoted... ;)

{{comic
| number = 2521
| date = September 27, 2021
| title = Toothpaste
| image = toothpaste.png
| titletext = "9 out of 10 dentists have banned me from their offices."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a THE 10th DENTIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Here, we see more of [[Megan]]'s "wordplay". Unlike in [[2352: Synonym Date]] and [[2245: Edible Arrangements]], she's not trying to make her friend uncomfortable -- it just happens anyway.

Putting toothpaste back in its tube is often used as an analogy for something irreversible, such as how you can't undo speaking. Megan rejects this assertion and says that you actually ''can'' put toothpaste back in its tube. She still believes that the analogy holds, and therefore she ''can'' unsay something - which she attempts to do to her description of returned toothpaste when Cueball is disgusted by it.

Toothpaste is normally loaded into the tube from the back, before it is crimped shut. However, it should ''technically'' be possible to push an extruded amount of paste back in from the front by wrapping one's lips around the whole front of the tube and blowing, provided the paste still covers the hole. This positive pressure can reinflate the tube the same way one blows up a balloon. However, blowing the toothpaste back into the tube would be highly unsanitary, and as the main purpose of toothpaste is to clean teeth, the end result is both counterproductive and disgusting.

It is common advertising practice to state that a good proportion of relevent experts (typically something like the significant but plausible 8 or 9 out of every 10) support your product or service, such as dentists who recommend your brand of toothpaste - though hopefully only once such a claim is fulfilled. The titletext may be echoing this, but in the context of ''dis''satisfaction with Megan's approach. It may actually say more about any dental establishment that does ''not'' disapprove of what she apparently is not just theorising about doing.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Cueball: I can't believe she said that.
:Cueball: She apologized, but you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
:Megan: Sure you can; it's easy. You just put your mouth over the opening.
:Cueball: Well, ''that's'' the worst thing you've ever said.
:Megan: Sorry, I can take it back. It's just like-
:Cueball: NO!

:Title text: 9 out of 10 dentists have banned me from their offices.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1069: Alphabet

2021-09-16T14:07:16Z

172.70.35.70:

That would ''probably'' work anyways. I hear women love it when you play hard to get like that. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:38, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Is it not also relevant that the "ea" in heart and beat are pronounced differently, an example of the irregularity of English orthography. {{unsigned ip|91.89.211.18}}
:In "rearrange" (used in the comic) the letters "ea" comprise two syllables, and the schwa is more stressed than in "realize", which is barely audible when pronounced at all (although it might depend on regional accents).
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.89|108.162.237.89]] 02:26, 2 December 2016 (UTC)
:...and also in learn, bread, break, beard, bear, create, reality, realize, sergeant. So, 11 different pronunciations. Did I miss any? ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 22:11, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
::In what way are the pairs beat/beard and learn/bread pronounced differently? [[Special:Contributions/161.49.249.254|161.49.249.254]] 21:18, 5 August 2013 (UTC)
:::Beat/beard seems the same. Mistake. [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/learn?s=t Learn] has the same vowel as "surge", and [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bread?s=t bread] is pronounced with the short "e"-sound, as in "best". –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 22:15, 6 August 2013 (UTC)
::::Those vowels all sound different to me. It all depends on your accent. [[User:Tarkov|Tarkov]] ([[User talk:Tarkov|talk]]) 09:03, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

/hɑɹt/
/biːt/
/lɝn/
/bɹɛd/
/bɹeɪk/
/bɪɹd/
/bɛɚ/
/kɹiːˈeɪt/
/riˈæləti/
I couldn't find realize and sergeant. You can see it isn't just the vowels that are different. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 01:34, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

*beat/beard /biːt/ vs /bɪɹd/ or /bɪəd/
*learn/bread /lɜɹn/ vs /bɹɛd/. The difference between ''learn'' and ''bread'' is similar to the difference between ''stir'' /stɜɹ/ and ''stare'' /stɛɹ/, which are not homophones.
*realize /ˈɹiːəlaɪz/
*sergeant /ˈsɑːɹdʒənt/
[[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 13:34, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

It's a nice touch that Cueball's second sentence entirely omits the vowel 'u' thus forgetting "about 'U' in a heartbeat"[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.82|162.158.202.82]] 14:05, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
:almost def a coincidence but still cool. also see jan misali's spelling reform videos. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 14:07, 16 September 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

2514: Lab Equipment

2021-09-12T20:58:14Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2514
| date = September 10, 2021
| title = Lab Equipment
| image = lab_equipment.png
| titletext = I've been working on chocolate bar annealing techniques to try to produce the perfect laser s'more. Maybe don't mention that on the grant application though.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NEODYMIUM-DOPED MARSHMALLOW S'MORE- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic claims that in every science lab, there exist some piece of equipment that sticks around less for being useful, and more because the scientists and technicians just think the device is really cool.

The comic presents a laboratory containing equipment for analysis of substances. While giving a tour [[Ponytail]] shows a spectrometer — a device that examines light emitted from or passed through samples to fingerprint emission or absorption lines in the mix of light. Next she shows the "Nd:YAG" lasers. It is unknown if the multiple lasers are for redundancy or if they have different specifications and are for different tests. "Nd:YAG" stands for {{w|Nd:YAG_laser|neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet}}; it is a lasing medium commonly used in lasers. Lastly she shows off a decommissioned laser not used in experiments, but rather for toasting marshmallows. Misuse of expensive, high-end equipment for heating junk food can lead to important breakthroughs. For example, the microwave oven was invented when {{w|Percy Spencer|someone working on microwave radar}} accidentally melted a candy bar.

Contrariwise, laser etching and cutting is commonly available in hackerspaces or makerspaces, and toasted marshmallows can be made with high-definition shapes and textures, although a normal laser cutter may introduce toxic compounds to the food. Food products have also been fed through 3d printers in place of plastic filament, and the printer will heat and plot them into arbitrarily shaped volumes. Engineering research labs will also have some of these tools, but for chemical labs they could be a rare delight.

The title-text probably relates to the critical heating required for proper {{w|Chocolate#Tempering|tempering}} of chocolate, as arbitrarily (re)melted chocolate loses various qualities of {{w|mouthfeel}} from the crystalline sugary structures that manufacturers engineer into them. In this case it is described as {{w|Annealing (materials science)|annealing}}, which is more commonly a heat-treatment technique more used to influence the nature of the crystals in metals for structural reasons. This is done when jewelry is molded from molten metal, but more likely Randall means a use of annealing in scientific research that no editors to this article have been aware of and added yet.

Annealing is also used in {{w|Annealing_(glass)|glass production}}. As is {{w|Tempered glass|tempering}}, to create safety glass that is stronger and yet breaks into 'nicer' fragments when it does fail.

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

:[Ponytail and Cueball are talking to each other. They are standing between two tables with equipment scattered on them, including lens-stands and eye-protection. Ponytail is pointing away from Cueball towards an unidentified off-panel location.]

:Ponytail: The spectrometer is over here, the Nd:YAG lasers are over here,
:Ponytail: and in the corner is a laser that turned out not to be useful for us, but we keep it because it's fun to toast marshmallows with it.

:[Caption below the panel]
:Every lab in every field has some piece of equipment like this.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:2513: Saturn Hexagon

2021-09-09T04:16:57Z

172.70.35.70:

Interesting, I wrote a basic description since the page was blank, and apparently, within the time I was writing someone else posted an explanation so mine wasn't saved. It's interesting that that's how the site deals with things like that. In this case, the explanation the other guy wrote is better so it's fine, but what if you wrote something super long and detailed and it vanished because someone else was editing at the same time? It didn't appear in the version history so it's not like I could go back and retrieve the text. Again, it doesn't matter here but it's interesting to think about. [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 02:23, 9 September 2021 (UTC)
:Sorry --[[User:FrankHightower|the other guy]] 2:27, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

So soccer balls appear in the very tiny ({{w|Fullerenes}}) and the very large, as noted here. I wonder if there is a relation, or if the chemists and astronomers are referencing the same group of sports-enthusiast mathematicians. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 03:20, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Just to note (in case anyone wonders why one particular edit, in passing) that the only SI length unit is the metre (and, yes, with the French-inspired '-re' ending in all 'English' nations ''except'' the US, who don't even want to use it so can't complain (/jk!)). Millimetres, centimetres, kilometres, etc are only present in the broader 'decimalised' metric system using the SI-prefixes. Just as the litre (ditto on spelling!) is not SI, but also is not SI-unit in size, being 1000 of the SI-derived baseline 'cubic centimetres' (each also being 1 millilitre), rather than anything as logical as being 1 whole cubic decimetre or awkward as a "milli-(cubic metre)". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 04:16, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2510: Modern Tools

2021-09-07T16:33:51Z

172.70.35.70:

Note that this is the second time Randall tried to tell bash and zsh apart. (First time was in [[1678]].) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.83|162.158.88.83]] 05:44, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:Great memory. Has added it to this first attempt at an explanation. Do not know enough about these files, environment etc. so I hope someone will improve. Rare I come here and there is nothing added to the explanation yet. Only your coment showed me I was not here first. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:48, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
You can generate makefiles today with a number of causal language models. I wonder what other approaches there are. [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 10:02, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Is randall literally just making jokes for himself and nobody else at this point? Even if someone knows what this all means, I doubt it many of them find it funny. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.125|172.70.130.125]] 10:09, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
: How does the joke land with you? I tell jokes like Randall's a lot to process how my life was destroyed by AI, and I found the comic as funny as I find my own jokes, but big and public. It seems nice that people are learning about and talking about these things. [[User:Baffo32|Baffo32]] ([[User talk:Baffo32|talk]]) 10:12, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
: @172.70.130.125: YMMV. I can say that I find it funny. Certainly amusing, and thought-provoking. And then after a few moments contemplating... *POW*. ...the idea of actually doing this also starts to appeal to me (as a pipe-dream, perhaps). But I am just a single datum-point, and you are another. Maybe neither of us are entirely representative of the usual audience.
: And, even if nobody found it funny, except Randall, he can post anything he wants (within ethical and legal bounds, etc), even if it's just AI-autogenerated rubbish. And then you can stop reading if your own fun-maximiser function decides it would be more beneficial to its goals. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 10:44, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
^^ r/totallynotrobots up in here
: For myself and other Software Enginnering/System Administrator friends, we all think it's very funny. Randall is not expected to make his comics accessible to all audiences, and when he targets an audience it can be reasonably assumed that that specific demographic will like the content.

Modern tools… require modern problem? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:33, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

The best part is that pretty much this have actually happened in real world: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/No%2C_We_Need_a_Neural_Network. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.10.205|172.68.10.205]] 10:46, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:Marvellous! "The pig go", indeed! That was 2006? {{w|Darwinian poetry}} was in 2003, it would have been nice to have linked the two, somehow, while having a handy idle supercluster going spare... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.93|141.101.98.93]] 11:42, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

I believe part of the humor is that creating a Python (development) environment from scratch can literally be typing two or three commands on a command line, or clicking on a few links for the mouse-dependent. Building and training an AI to repair one specific Python environment is overkill, like buying a car to get from one room to another of a building. One selling point of Python is how simple it is to set up and work in. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 10:54, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:I usually install most optional dependencies that my package manager suggests. I bet I already have a Python IDE lying around somewhere without knowing it. Well, I have Intellij Idea, I bet that could be used for Python as well, with a plugin if needed. I definitely know that I once got a working Qt IDE at one point without intending to. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 11:13, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Does anyone else think that this was prompted by the recent announcement of {{w|Github Copilot}}? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:20, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

I'd assume this is somehow related to GPT-3 and codex. Also note that openai and scientist in general love python, so it isn't unlikely that the AI in the title text was told to fix its own python environment. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.231|172.69.68.231]] 21:23, 3 September 2021 (UTC)

Is there some reason why the title on this explainxkcd page is capitalized differently from the page on xkcd? [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 02:59, 4 September 2021 (UTC)

----
Non-comic note (that I'm not sure would help to add to prior Community Portal reports as it never seemed to get noticed when I did it before): I'm getting Cloudflare errors (520: fully blaming the site host) and even 'plain text' site error responses (503? ...may not be) a number of times while interacting with this page, today. Also had a "failed to contact CAPTCHA" on the first attempt to submit one edit, though that ''must'' be a different glitch so probably coincidental (my own link jittering wouldn't give me Cloudfare/server-responses as above) and Not Your Problem™. I don't know if others are getting this, but the last time I had such a flurry of momentary/refresh-overcomable errors was shortly before explainxkcd went ''completely'' off-air (month or two ago? No, longer than that...) - perhaps no similarity, just saying. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.146|162.158.158.146]] 11:18, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
:Error 520 Ray ID: 68880cdaadb0072a • 2021-09-02 16:17:44 UTC / Web server is returning an unknown error (<= Cloudflare) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 16:21, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
For the python environment, couldn't he just be talking about python virtual environments? What you normally do if you have a broken python virtual environment is to delete it and recreate it, so deleting itself would be a normal thing to do in this case. Recreating an environment is normally done in seconds, so finding out what was wrong normally isn't worth the time.

Is it possible that the title text may also be a subtle reference to the Ouroboros (the snake eating itself)?
While not an exact comparison, there seem to be parallels between a snake devouring its own tail, and a python AI deleting it's own code.

"the agent finds a way to disable itself as more efficient to meet its reward parameters" is this actually a thing? If true, really interesting and an example should be included, but I can't find anything to back it up. ''Please sign your comments.''

I think the Tester for the Makefile generator would just be checking the Makefile exists and make can execute it. The status of the make execution gets passed to the generator for it to get better at generating Makefiles. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 02:01, 3 September 2021 (UTC)
:It might take some metric as to how much/little broken the (initially garbage?) early productions are... One would be the first line number mentioned as an error, or the ratio of info vs error text displayed. Getting to the stage of ''mostly'' valid outputs means it has developed an output phase-space that has started to maxmin these kind of values in just the right way. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.65|172.70.134.65]] 03:30, 3 September 2021 (UTC)

Call me crazy, but... isn't there a tool that creates mostly valid Makefiles, and it is called configure? And thus he is using very new technology to accomplish the same task that we previously could? I thought that was a good chunk of that part of the joke... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.82|108.162.238.82]] 16:10, 3 September 2021 (UTC)
: Ah... I had (perhaps still have? ...but only because I'd enjoy the chaos) the opinion that this was a ''directionless'' generator of Makefiles. Rather than "I want a Makefile for <foo>, make it so", it's "Make me a Makefile that does random (valid) stuff when run"... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.115|141.101.107.115]] 19:22, 3 September 2021 (UTC)

2512: Revelation

2021-09-07T13:13:21Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2512
| date = September 6, 2021
| title = Revelation
| image = revelation.png
| titletext = And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, but then more heaven kept appearing to replace it, as if the scroll was infinite.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by NEWSCASTER JESUS. Please please please please PLEASE (with a cherry on top!)do NOT delete this tag too soon!!}}
A user with a profile picture of a man, who could be on an island, and is called John, posts the Bible text from [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%206%3A12&version=KJV Revelation 6:12] on a social media website. making it likely that the user wish to represent {{w|John of Patmos}}, or is indeed this biblical person for the sake of the comic.

A news channel social-media monitor understands this to be an actual natural disaster in progress and asks for permission to use the posted information in a broadcast.

They did thus either not recognize that this is just a person quoting the bible. Or if the joke is what would have happened if John had access to twitter in his own time (if he had been a real person), then his revelation might have received this response from that times press.

The joke is that often "breaking news" organizations may care very little about the veracity of story in itself, its victims or its survivors. They could be thinking only about the views and ad revenue that they think the coverage of the story will generate. As well as trying to ask for republishing permission, to cover modern legalities, there is also a typically bland statement of concern such that the Channel 9 News correspondent does not look entirely uncaring for John's family's safety.

The reply may seem underwhelming, given the Revelation-type nature of the scenario, but this early in the news cycle the reporter may not have enough facts from which to respond proportionally.

The title text modifies verse 14 from "And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." to instead reference the {{w|scrolling#Film_and_television|infinite scrolling}} of a {{w|News ticker}}. Thus this news story would just be one on an infinite scroll page of ever replacing news.

==Transcript==
:[A Twitter-like page is displayed with a post and a comment nested beneath it. The top poster's profile image is of a man with wild hair, standing on hill near a coast looking out over the ocean. The beach is visible below him. His name is revealed in the comment as John. The poster of the comment's profile image is of a man with flat hair. There is a logo "9 News" at the bottom right. Beneath both pictures are unreadable text. There are also four icons with unreadable text beneath both posts. A line divides the original post and the comment.]
:John: And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

:Channel 9 News: Hi John, incredible story, hope you and your family are safe. Can Channel 9 News share your account in broadcast and print?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Religion]]

2510: Modern Tools

2021-09-02T10:20:15Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ If you must raise the issue, we should perhaps reference the classic one.

{{comic
| number = 2510
| date = September 1, 2021
| title = Modern Tools
| image = modern_tools.png
| titletext = I tried to train an AI to repair my Python environment but it kept giving up and deleting itself.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MODERN TOOLS THAT HAS NOW DELETED THEMSELVES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] tells [[White Hat]] how he has trained a {{w|artificial neural network|neural net}} to generate mostly valid {{w|Make_(software)#Makefile|Makefiles}}.

This is the file type that the {{w|Make (software)|Make}} searches for. In software development, Make is a build automation tool that automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called Makefiles which specify how to derive the target program. (See [[2173: Trained a Neural Net]]).

Then Cueball continues to tell that he next will train it to distinguish between Bash and Zsh.

{{w|Bash (Unix shell)|Bash}} and {{w|Z_shell|Zsh}} are two {{w|Command-line_interface|command line interfaces}} for {{w|Unix-like}} OSes. The way to execute commands is almost identical, making detecting a script that contains a mixed syntax nearly impossible. This was previously referenced in [[1678: Recent Searches]].

A human-designed 'random Makefile'-maker might have been written with this explicit choice amongst the earlier decisions in the generation process, but an AI might be assumed to have started (many, many generations ago) with something close to utter nonsense and painstakingly reached the stage of (mostly!) valid files along the way. Some might say that the differentiation training would have been better added at another point in the lengthy process.

On top of that, the current (mostly valid) results may even be {{w|Polyglot (computing)|polyglot}} and/or {{w|Agnostic (data)|shell-agnostic}}. Dependant upon the {{w|Fitness function|fitness tests}} in use, many other {{w|List of command-line interpreters|$SHELL}}-choices and Makefile styles may have been coevolved as valid (if rarer) subgenus of outputs, such as a ''command.com''-based makefile.

In the caption it states that Cueball is using modern tools to make ancient technology, as opposed to other people who use ancient tools and UIs ({{w|User interface}}) to develop Modern Tools.

In the title text Randall states that he tried to train an AI ({{w|Artificial intelligence}}) to repair his {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}} environment. But the AI kept giving up and deleting itself. The joke partly relates to when it or is not appropriate to personify goal-driven processes. In the study of alignment of artificial intelligence, it is common to consider AIs finding ways to meet the tasks they are given that are highly unexpected, and then developing into an {{w|Instrumental_convergence#Paperclip_maximizer|apocalypse}}. A common unexpected solution encountered in research is that the agent finds a way to disable itself as more efficient to meet its reward parameters than anything else it discovers, and then learns to repeatedly do so. The AI might be so intelligent that it had developed critical 'personal' opinions that led it to be so intellectually appalled by the task, or else just found it impossible to fix the python environment and therefore justify its own existence, that it had no other recourse but to commit a form of suicide. [[Python]] has been a recurring subject as has [[:Category:Programming|Programming]] and [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting on an office chair at his desk typing on his laptop. White Hat is standing behind the desk looking at Cueball.]
:Cueball: Okay, I've got this neural net generating mostly valid makefiles.
:Cueball: Next I'm going to train it to distinguish between Bash and Zsh...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:People often use ancient tools and UIs to develop modern cutting-edge technology, but I do it the other way around.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

2509: Useful Geometry Formulas

2021-08-31T05:55:52Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2509
| date = August 30, 2021
| title = Useful Geometry Formulas
| image = useful_geometry_formulas.png
| titletext = Geometry textbooks always try to trick you by adding decorative stripes and dotted lines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an AREA OF A CIRCLE IN A SPHERE. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic showcases area formulae for four two-dimensional geometric shapes which each have extra dotted and/or solid lines making them look like illustrations for 3-dimensional objects as commonly found in geometry textbooks.

Clockwise from the top left, they are a circle (illustrating a sphere), a triangle combined with a half-ellipse (illustrating a cone), a convex 6-sided polygon with parallel sides and two right angle corners (illustrating a rectangular prism), and a rectangle with two half-elipses (illustrating a cylinder).

The joke is that the formulae are for the area of each two-dimensional shape as drawn, not for the surface area of the illustrated 3D object (as would be shown in the geometry textbook).

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

1061: EST

2021-08-27T14:10:09Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ !->.

{{comic
| number = 1061
| date = May 28, 2012
| title = EST
| image = est.png
| titletext = The month names are the same, except that the fourth month only has the name 'April' in even-numbered years, and is otherwise unnamed.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun of attempts to "fix" the calendar by making it simpler or more rational, which inevitably result in a system just as complicated. This is an example of the paradox in complexity theory that if you attempt to simplify a system of problems by creating a new system of evaluation for the problems you often have instead made the problem more complex than it was originally.

[[Randall]] advertises his idea for a "Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet". He combines {{w|calendar#Calendars in use|calendar}} definitions with {{w|Time zone|time zone}} definitions. The abbreviation '''EST''' in this comic stands for ''Earth Standard Time'' (hence the title), but it is in itself a joke on the American {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time}}. In the rest of the explanation EST refers to the comic's Earth Standard Time.

===Length of year===
Because there are approximately 365.2422 days in a {{w|solar year}}, various calendars use different means to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year and the seasons. The Julian Calendar, for example, has leap days every four years, giving it an average year length of 365.25 days. The most widely used system is the {{w|Gregorian Calendar|Gregorian Calendar}}, which also has leap days every four years, but skips leap days in years divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400, the latter additions come from Earth's {{w|axial precession}}. This gives it an average year length of 365.2425 days, which is very close to the length of a solar year (see detailed explanation in this video: ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82p-DYgGFjI Earth's motion around the Sun, not as simple as I thought]''.)
{{w|Calendar reform|Other calendars}} have been proposed, such not counting leap days and special "festival days" as a day of the week, in order to make every date fall on the same day of the week every year.

*At "24 hours 4 minutes", EST days are longer, though there are only 360 of them in the year. The extra 4 minutes over the course of 360 days adds up to one standard day, so Randall's EST calendar would at this point have a year that is 361 standard days long. The 24 hours plus 4 minutes length may be a reference to {{w|sidereal day}}, whose duration is 24 hours ''minus'' 4 minutes.

*Running the clock backwards for 4 hours after every full moon gives 8 additional hours at each full moon, twelve or thirteen times in a year. Because a thirteenth full moon will occur once every 2.7 solar years on average, this modification adds 4.1228 standard days to an EST year, bringing it to 365.1228 days.

*The doubling of the non-prime numbers of the first non-reversed hour after each solstice and equinox is a final, very complicated way to bring Randall's EST year in extremely close sync with the solar year. There are 17 prime numbers between 0 and 59 and 43 non-primes. There are 2 equinoxes and 2 solstices each year, so a total of 4x43 = 172 minutes will occur twice. This brings the average length of Randall's EST year to 365.2422 standard days, equal to the solar year to four decimal places.

===Claimed benefits===
Many of the claimed benefits for the calendar are highly dubious:
*While it is fairly ''simple'' to describe, EST is far from simple to understand or put in practice. Clocks in particular would have to regularly undertake very complicated processes like running backwards or duplicating non-prime minutes.
*EST does appear to be fairly ''clearly defined''.
*EST fails completely to be ''unambiguous''. Following each full moon, four hours occur three times, twice forward and once backward. Several minutes are also duplicated, making times during those periods ambiguous.
*The only way EST is ''free of historical baggage'' is that it breaks free of any sensible bits of historical baggage; it keeps such things as the 30-day month and 12-month year, but adopts a different (and variable) length of day that would make it wildly out of sync with the Earth's day-night cycle.
*EST is ''compatible with old units'', as far as seconds, minutes, and hours are concerned, though not for days, months, or years.
*EST is indeed very ''precisely synced with the solar cycle''. The joke is that this has nothing to do with the day/night cycle or the Earth's yearly orbital cycle; the {{w|solar cycle}} is a period of magnetic fluctuation within the sun, lasting 11 Earth years.
*EST is ''free of leap years'', though some EST years are 8 hours longer than others on account of having an extra full moon.
*A calendar ''amenable to date math'' makes it easy to find the length of time between two dates and times by having standardized periods of time. The complex variability of the length of EST years, days, and hours mean it is only ''intermittently'' amenable to date math, which is to say not at all.

===Other features===
The features of the calendar get increasingly bizarre as the description proceeds:

*The {{w|Epoch (reference date)|Epoch}} for EST is set by reference to the {{w|Julian calendar}}, which was superseded by the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

*The different zone for the United Kingdom is a reference to 1 yard being equal to 0.9144 meters, a pun on using {{w|imperial units}} instead of the {{w|metric system}}. This has been the joke before in [[526: Converting to Metric]] and is also mentioned in [[1643: Degrees]].

*Randall does not like {{w|Daylight saving time}} (DST) very much, as has been made clear in [[:Category:Daylight saving time|several comics]] both before and after this one. See Narnian time below.

*Narnian time is a reference to the fictitious world of {{w|Narnia (world)|Narnia}} in {{w|CS Lewis|CS Lewis'}} book {{w|The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}} and its sequels. In Narnia, time passes much more quickly than in the real world. You could be in Narnia for several days and only a few minutes would have passed in the real world. However, synchronizing this effect would be impossible because it is not a consistent rate; it fluctuates wildly based on the whims of drama and magic. This and the DST mentioned above should be seen as a pair. Because when a country goes into DST time may not pass, which is basically what happens (more or less) when a child enters into Narnia. Whereas in EST Narnian time is synchronized to normal time, which DST is but for the one hour difference in the real calendar. Using the weird Narnian time was used as the plot in the bottom left drawing in [[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]].

*The Gregorian calendar does not include the year "0"; after "1" BC the next year is "1" AD. Randall's invention fixes this according to correct Mathematics, only to reintroduce the problem immediately by arbitrarily omitting the year 1958. The year 1958 is significant because January 1, 1958 is the epoch (time zero) in {{w|International Atomic Time}} (TAI), which is part of the basis for {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} (UTC). (The main difference is that TAI doesn't add leap seconds.)

*According to the title text, the month of April would become unnamed on odd-numbered years. Although this may have no impact on the mathematics of timekeeping, it would impede ability to refer to the month in writing or conversation. Notably, {{w|April Fools' Day}} could be restricted to the even-numbered years, else observants would be exclaiming the word "Fools!" without the usual informative "April" prefix.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the frame:]
:xkcd presents
:<big>'''Earth Standard Time'''</big>
:(EST)
:'''A universal calendar for a universal planet'''
:EST is...
:Simple • Clearly defined • Unambiguous
:Free of historical baggage • Compatible with old units
:Precisely synced with the solar cycle • Free of leap years
:Intermittently amenable to date math

:[Inside the frame a list of the details concerning EST is shown:]
:Units
:Second: 1 S.I. second
:Minute: 60 seconds
:Hour: 60 minutes
:Day: 1444 minutes (24 hours 4 minutes)
:Month: 30 days
:Year: 12 months

:Rules
:For 4 hours after every full moon, run clocks backward.
:The non-prime-numbered minutes of the first full non-reversed hour after a solstice or equinox happen twice.

:[In two columns the "Epoch" is put into a contrasting juxtaposition to "Time Zones":]
:Epoch
:00:00:00 EST, January 1st, 1970 = 00:00:00 GMT, January 1st, 1970 (Julian Calendar)
:Time Zones
:The two EST time zones are ''EST'' and ''EST (United Kingdom)''. These are the same except that the UK second is 0.9144 standard seconds.

:[A few further statements:]
:Daylight saving: Countries may enter DST, but no time may pass there.
:Narnian Time: Synchronized✔
:Year Zero: EST ''does'' have a year 0. (However, there is no 1958.)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Chronicles of Narnia]]

Talk:2329: Universal Rating Scale

2021-08-19T14:11:59Z

172.70.35.70:

There are several things that UNC might stand for, but to me none of them suggests a rating scale. Open to suggestions, of course. [[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 00:10, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
: I think the most likely candidate from {{w|UNC|w:UNC}} is the numismatic code for an {{w|uncirculated coin}}. —[[User:Scs|Scs]] ([[User talk:Scs|talk]]) 00:49, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
: Unified National Coarse is the name of a scale (not a rating on it) for thread sizes (for screws, nuts, bolts, etc.)[[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.187|172.69.68.187]] 02:12, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
: What popped into my head when I saw UNC was the University of North Carolina. But that wouldn't be right, without other schools on the list. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 04:07, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

I don’t think A/AA/AAA are battery sizes, but rather [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating credit rating]. That is also consistent with their positions in the upper half of the scale.--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.235.142|172.69.235.142]] 00:37, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

A+ reminded me of {{w|European Union energy label}} ratings - but it is also in the credit rating list -- [[User:Bmwiedemann|Bmwiedemann]] ([[User talk:Bmwiedemann|talk]]) 01:31, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Does anyone know what "S" is a rating for? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.206|172.69.34.206]] 01:35, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
: Satisfactory, top marks on USA elementary school report cards (or at least it was in the 1980s) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.124|162.158.63.124]] 02:40, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

I think the faces are supposed to correspond to a face-based pain scale, which is supported by the fact that they occur at similar places to the pain scale and that the frowny face looks more like the frowny face from one of these charts than any traditional sad face emoji. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.250.44|172.69.250.44]] 02:45, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

This listed F
as standing for Fine under the coin grading scale. However, the coin grading scale runs from 0-70, and ordered Poor (P, or About Good, AG, depending on personal preference), Good (G), Very Good (VG), Fine (F), Very Fine (VF), Etremely Fine (XF), About Uncirculated (AU), and Uncirculated (UNC or MS, for Mint State, depending on personal preference). Because Fine is better than Good and Very Good on the coin grading scale, but F is worse than G and VG on Randall's Universal Rating Scale, F probably refers to the letter grade for schoolwork, rather than the coin grade of Fine, so I removed F from the coin grade section. The G might also stand for a movie rating, but whether it is a movie rating or a coin grade, it's position would remain the same, so it's a moot point which it is. [[User:NErDysprosium|NErDysprosium]] ([[User talk:NErDysprosium|talk]]) 05:48, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

I know some video games and fantasy stories contain things that have a letter rating, typically starting a few letters into the alphabet and increasing as it gets closer to A, often with an S above that, but sometimes another rating above S labeled "EX" for "extra". These scales sometimes have additional ratings with a + or - attached, or increasing by repeating the letter 2 or 3 times in a row before going up to the next letter. Thus the same system might have both "AAA" and "S", but normally unlike this chart the S would be higher. In some cases it might end up topping out with something like "SSS+". This sort of thing is particularly common in stories originating in Japan which involve some sort of other world that contain some sort of features similar to a video game with some sort of "Adventurer's Guild" which would often have such a system. In particular there are quite a lot of Japanese novels that are like this, many of which containing strange or unique twists on otherwise common formulaic settings. Some of these both have official English translations or were later adapted into manga or anime, or oddly enough in quite a few cases were a self published thing posted online as a hobbyist before later being picked up by a publisher and being somewhat changed and re-written as a proper book. Many also have people making and posting online fan translations of them.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.35|162.158.74.35]] 06:40, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

9 was possibly omitted, because 7 8 9 (seven ate nine) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.11|162.158.111.11]] 08:11, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

: I'd say you are making up your own jokes - however - :-) Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.71|162.158.154.71]] 14:06, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

: neglected again https://xkcd.com/1103/ [[User:Norgaladir|Norgaladir]] ([[User talk:Norgaladir|talk]]) 16:15, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

: I would point to ''[[Thing Explainer]]'' instead. The number after eight is not one of the ten hundred words people use the most. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.80|172.68.174.80]] 22:32, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Some comics seems like Randall makes them purely for this website, or in general to make people guess what each of the things mean. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:27, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

When I saw "Category 5" I thought he meant {{w|Category_5_cable}}... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.105|162.158.158.105]] 15:46, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

The explanation had A+ listed as a credit rating, but it's in the wrong spot to be the A+ credit rating, and likely refers to the A+ grade instead. Should I remove it from the credit rating section? Credit scores aren't exactly my area of expertise, unlike coins. [[User:NErDysprosium|NErDysprosium]] ([[User talk:NErDysprosium|talk]]) 16:23, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Can someone please explain what the "curve" in the title text is? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.211|141.101.69.211]] 17:17, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

: That's how in some school courses they "grade on a curve" where if no one can get a perfect score on a test, they change the score so the highest existing score is changed to 100, and all the other people who took the test also have the same amount added to their score (or at least that's the way I'm most familiar with, it might be possible to do so with a somewhat different method). Thus they can have an unreasonably difficult test without causing abnormally low scores that will cause tons of students to get failing grades.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.134|162.158.75.134]] 17:25, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

:The "curve" technically refers to a bell curve; that is adjusting the letter grades by organizing the students into bins based on that distribution (the ~68% of students nearest the average grade get a C, then the 14% just above that get a B and the top 2% get an A, and the same pattern going down for D and F). However most instructors who say they "grade on a curve" don't do that since grades rarely fit that curve, and this often unfairly punishes students who performed well but weren't the top score. EG if the scores are all between 90% and 100% correct then the student(s) who got 90% correct will receive an F. Most of my experience with "grading on a curve" has been that the instructor sets the highest score achieved to represent 100%, but I have also had professors who adjust the grading bands so most students get a B or better. The latter method avoids forcing a failing mark on students who just happened to get the lowest score, but unlike adjusting the 100% level down it provides no benefit to someone who did significantly worse than their peers.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.10|162.158.78.10]] 13:12, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

I rate this comic perfect 5/7. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.159|141.101.69.159]] 19:08, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

I thought that the F was a reference to "pay respects", indicating embarrassing failure

I thought that 9 was omitted because Windows skipped version 9 when doing their version releases (mostly due to the fact that there was Windows 95 and Windows 98 which began with 9).
: I thought the reason was that Windows 8 was widely disliked, so they wanted to distance the new version from it.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.112|108.162.216.112]] 19:05, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

Am I the only one who would like to see "Safe", "Neutralized", "Esoteric", "Thaumiel", "Euclid", and "Keter", added to this scale?

It seems cut off at the end.. Missing "Douce Point!".

I thought "tall" being just below 2 suggested that people who are close to 2m in height are considered tall people.

You know, the F grade oughta fit in between 5 and 6. At least on the American scale, any score below 60% is considered an F. A 'D' would be between 6 and 7, 'C' between 7 and 8, 'B' between 8 and 9, and an 'A' between 9 and 10.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.50.78|172.69.50.78]] 00:38, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

maybe add a link to comic 670 for the explanation of up to 11? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 14:11, 19 August 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

2503: Memo Spike Connector

2021-08-16T15:54:30Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ Linked the Cursed Connectors series

{{comic
| number = 2503
| date = August 16, 2021
| title = Memo Spike Connector
| image = memo spike connector.png
| titletext = Backward-compatible with many existing cables, and can connect directly to phones or tablets if you press them down hard enough.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUMAN. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the 3rd entry in the [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] series.

The comic depicts a large metal spike with a wire coming from the base. The spike stabs through two other wires, thus creating an electrical connection between the three. As the name suggests, the spike resembles a {{w|Spindle_(stationery)|memo spike}}, formally known as a spindle.

Spindles are used to temporarily hold paper by "spindling" or impaling the paper onto the spike (as depicted in the comic). They're most known for their use in restaurants as a way to hold orders for the kitchen staff.

The joke of the comic is while any number of non-destructive connection standards exist, a large spike can provide much of the same results: a conductive object that retains a connection of multiple wires in a way that allows electricity to pass through.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
''[A memo spike—a long spike that is often used to hold pieces of paper in place—is shown. There is a wire coming out of the base of the memo spike, and two wires are impaled upon it. Above is a title and below is a label.]''

Cursed Connectors #102

The Memo Spike

==Trivia==
The {{W|Vampire tap}} is an actual connector that pierces into a coaxial cable to create an 10BASE5 Ethernet connection.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Cursed Connectors]]

2503: Memo Spike Connector

2021-08-16T15:53:02Z

172.70.35.70: /* Explanation */ Added link

{{comic
| number = 2503
| date = August 16, 2021
| title = Memo Spike Connector
| image = memo spike connector.png
| titletext = Backward-compatible with many existing cables, and can connect directly to phones or tablets if you press them down hard enough.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUMAN. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the 3rd entry in the "Cursed Connectors" series.

The comic depicts a large metal spike with a wire coming from the base. The spike stabs through two other wires, thus creating an electrical connection between the three. As the name suggests, the spike resembles a {{w|Spindle_(stationery)|memo spike}}, formally known as a spindle.

Spindles are used to temporarily hold paper by "spindling" or impaling the paper onto the spike (as depicted in the comic). They're most known for their use in restaurants as a way to hold orders for the kitchen staff.

The joke of the comic is while any number of non-destructive connection standards exist, a large spike can provide much of the same results: a conductive object that retains a connection of multiple wires in a way that allows electricity to pass through.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
''[A memo spike—a long spike that is often used to hold pieces of paper in place—is shown. There is a wire coming out of the base of the memo spike, and two wires are impaled upon it. Above is a title and below is a label.]''

Cursed Connectors #102

The Memo Spike

==Trivia==
The {{W|Vampire tap}} is an actual connector that pierces into a coaxial cable to create an 10BASE5 Ethernet connection.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Cursed Connectors]]

2497: Logic Gates

2021-08-02T22:00:51Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2497
| date = August 2, 2021
| title = Logic Gates
| image = logic_gates.png
| titletext = In C, the multiocular O represents the bitwise norxondor gorgonax.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOTTOM. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

2495: Universal Seat Belt

2021-07-29T01:54:11Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2495
| date = July 28, 2021
| title = Universal Seat Belt
| image = universal_seat_belt.png
| titletext = The plug fits really snugly, so it should be safe in a crash.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a USB PORT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A sequel to [[2493: Dual USB-C]], this comic shows another of Randall's line of "Cursed Connectors." Randall presents the "Universal {{w|Seat belt}}", a pun on the Universal Serial Bus ({{w|USB}}) connector.

USB connectors are mostly designed for free and unrestricted insertion and removal. There may be a slight use of the internal and external bumps and dimples to provide a tactile indication of being engaged or disengaged, but there are usually no facilities to prevent a connector being easily pulled out of even a port being actively used - the OS can do no more than complain that a device has been removed without first ensuring proper logical unmapping of the resource (which in turn may have to await a current session of data transfer being completed or aborted) or warn that a "delayed write" has failed.

Car seat-buckles, on the other hand, have very definite requirements to not come loose ''unless'' intentionally and mechanically released, in order to keep the passenger safely anchored to the seat.

The title text claims that the seat belt is secure in the case of a crash. This is another pun, as seat belts protect passengers in a car crash while USB ports are rated to protect devices in the event of a computer malfunction ("crash").

One possible use for the USB data connector might be to give a certain degree of 'proof' that the belt is plugged in, although that functionality is fairly well covered by current anchor-point sensors that (combined with seat-occupancy sensors that may respond to the weight of a seated person) can trigger dashboard lights and possibly warning sounds in vehicles as necessary to prompt correct usage of restraining belts. That system does not usually need an electronic data connection between anchor and belt, an anchor-side switch should suffice, and it would still require a mechanical gripping/hooking method to make it of any use to be engaged in the first place.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
cursed connecters #65 the universal seatbelt

{{comic discussion}}

2494: Flawed Data

2021-07-27T04:31:31Z

172.70.35.70:

{{comic
| number = 2494
| date = July 27, 2021
| title = Flawed Data
| image = flawed_data.png
| titletext = We trained it to produce data that looked convincing, and we have to admit the results look convincing!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CONVINCING AI. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2488: Board Game Argument: Legacy

2021-07-13T21:40:55Z

172.70.35.70:

So there is a game wherein one can write "sudu bring me a samich" as part of the rules? Excellent! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.7|172.69.63.7]] 06:47, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

The game Cueball is handlig seems to be Boggle, the one Meghan is leaning on might be Wingspan. Can someone identify the others? If we can get a full table, we should add it to the article. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.37|162.158.89.37]] 07:48, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Here's a closeup of the games with added math:
[[File:2488-board-games.png]] - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:08, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

The one on top in front of Ponytail is Wits & Wagers. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.131|162.158.187.131]] 19:20, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

fun fact: this is a different table than the one used in another board-game themed comic, [[1566]].[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 21:40, 13 July 2021 (UTC)Bumpf