explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2789: Making Plans

2023-06-15T08:54:01Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2789
| date = June 14, 2023
| title = Making Plans
| image = making_plans_2x.png
| imagesize = 217x396px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Oh no, I haven't checked in with Yvonne in YEARS.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ABBIE, ABRAHAM, and an AARDVARK named AARON. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about biases created from {{w|alphabetical order}}. According to Wikipedia, "The practice in certain fields of ordering citations in bibliographies by the surnames of their authors has been found to create bias in favor of authors with surnames which appear earlier in the alphabet, while this effect does not appear in fields in which bibliographies are ordered chronologically."[https://decisionslab.unl.edu/pubs/stevens_duque_2018_SM.pdf]. Similar effects have also been identified with the ordering of candidates on ballot papers[https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/ballot-order-effects]. In essence, humans tend to favor whatever is at the top of any given list or data set, or may only assess the first few options until they reach one that is 'good enough', this never evaluating those further down the list; this is one reason why randomness is important in any scientifically rigorous trial.

In the comic, [[Cueball]] is telling [[Megan]] about some of his upcoming plans; namely, that his plans for that night are to attend pub trivia with Annie and Beth. He then continues telling that his is going to a movie with Alex tomorrow. He also invited two more friends, Andrew and Amy, but they did not reply. By this point, there is a clear pattern: Cueball only contacts friends based on the alphabetical order of their names, instead of sorting by something more logical, such as the most recently contacted, as the caption suggests. And also not all his friends with names beginning with A and B are interested in going out with him, and are not even replying.

The title text continues the joke, implying that Cueball rarely makes it to the bottom of the alphabetical list; as such, he has not spoken to his friend Yvonne in a very long time. (It can be assumed that she has lost interest in Cueball since he is not contacting her. But she could of course have kept contact by calling him!)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Megan.]
:Cueball: Tonight is pub trivia with Annie and Beth.
:Cueball: And tomorrow Alex and I are seeing a movie. I also invited Andrew and Amy but I haven't heard back.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm realizing I should really switch to sorting my phone contacts by most recent.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]

2782: Wikipedia Article Titles

2023-05-29T14:09:35Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2782
| date = May 29, 2023
| title = Wikipedia Article Titles
| image = wikipedia_article_titles_2x.png
| imagesize = 402x439px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I would never stoop to vandalism, but I'm not above discreetly deleting the occasional 'this article contains excessive amounts of detail' tag.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MERYL STREEP'S SECOND SEAGULL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Meryl Streep is a famous and often acclaimed actor, for whom there is definitely {{w|Meryl Streep|a Wikipedia page}}. It may be that Randall has no interest in reading this page, on finding a link to it. But certainly he appears to have less interest than he would have of reading more about the seagull, which also exists; albeit as an automatic redirect to {{w|Gull}}, as "seagull" is a commonly used misnomer verging on a tautology. Both these pages are located at up at the "slow end" of the line indicating how quickly his interest would be grabbed, one unlabelled 'unit' apart, though we don't know how many real things might appear outside this page (top or bottom).

Two more units down from the seagull, he hypothesises the article title "Meryl Streep (Seagull)", which would seem to be significantly more likely to succeed as {{w|clickbait}}. A further three units beyond, is a page which clearly describes an "incident", which hints heavily at something more than merely a trivial participation in the {{w|The Seagull|Anton Chekhov play}}, otherwise deserving of a wikipedia page/section-redirection of its own.

Perhaps this is an incident in which a seagull notably caused Meryl Streep problems. ''Or'' a time when Meryl Streep notably caused problems for a seagull. Or perhaps both of these, or other variations, in multiple incidents as the final imagined wikipedia page is a {{w|Disambiguation (disambiguation)|'disambiguation page'}} of this (a further four units 'quicker' to be clicked upon) which is only necessary when there are multiple possible articles of sufficiently similar name which may need to be described seperately.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Hypothetical Wikipedia article titles
:ranked by how quickly I would click on them

:[An arrow indicates that downwards is "more quickly"]
:Meryl Streep
:Seagull
:Meryl Streep (seagull)
:Meryl Streep seagull incident
:Meryl Streep seagull incident (disambiguation)

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2776: Crystal Ball

2023-05-16T14:28:16Z

172.70.86.31:

I AM A STUPID TROLL[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.55|162.158.203.55]] 01:05, 16 May 2023 (UTC)!!!!!!!!!! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.175.82|172.71.175.82]] 22:15, 15 May 2023 (UTC)Andrew Ens
Don't troll the wiki

I added an explanation of spherical aberration and the tendency of light to distort around spherical objects, as well as the idea of how fisheye lenses use this principle to do their thing. [[User:Darkwolf0218|Darkwolf0218]] ([[User talk:Darkwolf0218|talk]]) 01:01, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

I can't seem to find the citation toolbar while editing on mobile. So dropping this here for a reference to ball lenses on fiber optic cables. {{Cite web}} https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/understanding-ball-lenses/ [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:37, 16 May 2023 (UTC)
:We ''very rarely'' use Cites on this site. Just add a link (in alternate-word form to flow with the sentence, ideally).
:I've never really used toolbar stuff (simple enough to tap in {s, }s, [s and ]s, as well as any <s and >s needed for HTML, etc), and it's simple to (eventually, perhaps checking via Preview that it's not ''totally'' messed up on the first go or two) work out what others did to add references and copy the style of the right kinds of them.
:So if you want to mention a link to [https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/understanding-ball-lenses/ ball lenses], just do something like this. (PS., use the full <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> when signing Talk contributions, I fixed yours without using the {{template|unsigned}} 'reminder'..) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 14:28, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2774: Taxiing

2023-05-15T16:13:30Z

172.70.86.31:

I don't understand why you would buy Detour signs, when you can often so easily pick them up for free from the side of a road... :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.32|172.70.86.32]] 20:35, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
:I don't understand why you'd take detour signs for free, when people can pay you to watch you steal flatbed trucks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.191|172.70.178.191]] 20:37, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

But would an airplane even fit on a truck? Or on a treadmill for that matter? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.47|172.71.182.47]] 21:11, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
: Depends on whether you want to take the plane complete with wings attached, and on how big the flatbed is, and for that matter on the size of the plane. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 04:16, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:: Depends on how far you want to take the aircraft. You could just move it to some other part of the airport. There are a few airports that cross national boundaries which could make a relocation more interesting. May be worth mentioning the aircraft tractors at Orly Airport. These had a ramp that the nosewheel rode on, a flatbed could be used the same way. Orly public relations claimed it used these tractors because of unusually large taxi distances at the airport, but it was probably because they were French.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.52|162.158.159.52]] 19:10, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:::Towbarless Tractors (not all with 'ramps', but may grip and raise the front wheel) are practical for a number of reasons. They dont need to be self-ballasted to be able to push/pull the nosewheel (the plane adds weight enough, to prevent the powerto the wheels just spinning them) and there's no need for a towbar-connector (complicating the dynamics of turns/reversing). Loads of slightly different designs of Pushbacks for airliners, despite some of the more usual common design features, like ultra-low profile (barely more than the necessary height of the wheels, perhaps) to facilitate getting entirely underneath the nose/fuselage of planes. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.126|141.101.98.126]] 20:42, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

On TV, you don't even need detour signs. Just hack their GPS for free. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 22:51, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

I would have expected Black Hat to be doing something like that, not Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.191|172.70.210.191]] 23:15, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

:That was my first thought, too. Or even Beret Guy. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.133|172.70.127.133]] 00:30, 11 May 2023 (UTC)Pat

:Black hat would be sending the airplane into a [[1484|recycling facility]] (see bottom lines of text), and Beret Guy would be raiding it for scones. Or turning it into scones. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.140|172.68.58.140]] 03:48, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

As a pilot, i would not follow these glowsticks onto a trailer due to safety restrictions on how far away the wheels should be. That's why airports are so big. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.44|172.64.238.44]] 06:36, 11 May 2023 (UTC)
:Sometimes, one could see an airplane on a flatbed truck. Some flatbed trucks (or rather trailers) are HUGE. However, presumably the plane had not taxied onto the trailer under pilot control and its own power, but had been lowered by a crane, which had a completely different set of "marshalls" -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.165|162.158.103.165]] 08:26, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

Weird. Almost back to back "Did you know you can just BUY...?" comics. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.11|172.69.71.11]] 08:36, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

Nothing to say about the comic itself, but I just wanted to express how funny this explanation is, between the proposed solution for the police car requirement and the description for the added image. I never knew we could add images in this way to make explanations clearer! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.69|162.158.233.69]] 12:17, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Is this a comment(ary) on the people online who say "I don't know why people pay so much for (xx) software when you can just buy a licence online for $15"? {{unsigned ip|172.70.90.252|11:25, 15 May 2023}}
:Probably more a general 'life hack' thing, rather than that example. Buying software online, physical for delivery or licence-only with download, is often subject to many deals that can outcompete the bricks'n'mortar stores, but that's true for just about anything. But "buy this <handy kitchen gadget> and you'll never have to buy pre-<whatevered> <foodstuff> ever again" seems to be more the kind of current vogue it's building off of. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 16:13, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

2774: Taxiing

2023-05-15T15:45:51Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */ grrr

{{comic
| number = 2774
| date = May 10, 2023
| title = Taxiing
| image = taxiing_2x.png
| imagesize = 399x431px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I don't understand why anyone would pay full price for a flatbed truck rental when you can buy 'DETOUR' signs online for like $10.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STOLEN WATERBED TRUCK - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[File:A Polish airman marshals a U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft March 13, 2014, at Lask Air Base, Poland 140313-F-BH566-088.jpg|thumb|400px| A marshaller marshalling, indicating the airplane should stop. Or possibly a {{w|Sith}}. (From Wikimedia Commons)]]
In this comic, [[Cueball]] is directing an airplane with marshalling wands onto a ramp that leads onto a trailer. The caption reveals he is not an actual aircraft marshal, but is trying to steal the airplane by misleading the real pilot. Randall, as Cueball, says the "glowing wand things" were bought cheaply on the internet, much cheaper than it would have been to buy the plane he is now stealing.

Stealing a very large plane this way does not work, for the simple reason that an {{w|Airbus A320}}'s main gear bogies are 7.6 meters apart; and those of a {{w|Boeing 737}} 5.7 meters. No trailer is that wide. Even transporting the fuselage alone (A320: 3.96 meters wide, B737: 3.76 meters) would need a police escort on the road. This problem can be solved though, by the timely acquisition of a police car (donut: $1.50). The plane Cueball is attempting to steal is clearly much smaller than this, as it's nose is barely higher than Cueball's head, but is still big enough to almost certainly create loading and/or transportation issues without further advanced planning.

{{w|Aircraft marshalling|Marshallers}} stand or walk on aircraft pathways and use marshalling wands to direct planes around while they are taxiing. Another part of the joke is that the apron of an aiport, the area where marshallers most often work and where airplanes will typically be parked during trans-loading of passengers and cargo, is also referred to as 'the ramp', mainly in the US, Canada, the Maldives, and the Philippines.

The title text mentions doing a similar thing, but with detour signs rather than glow wands and flatbed trucks rather than planes. Cueball may have used this tactic to obtain the truck he is loading the airplane onto.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is waving two orange sticks in the air, one in each hand. They are glowing as indicated with small orange lines all around the orange part. The handle he holds them by is black. Cueball is pointing one stick to the left where, behind him, is a ramp that extends beyond the panel. The other stick is held up in front of his face and he looks up onto the front end of a large plane. Only a small part of the plane is visible, mainly the very tip with just a bit of the window into the cockpit shown. The underside of the tip is gray, the rest is white with the window in black.]
:Cueball: ...Keep going...
:Cueball: ...Slightly left...
:Cueball: ...Okay, good...you're lined up with the ramp...
:Cueball: ...Now pull forward slowly up onto the trailer...

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I don't understand why anyone would pay full price for an airplane when you can buy those glowing wand things online for like $30.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Aviation]]

2775: Siphon

2023-05-15T12:41:25Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2775
| date = May 12, 2023
| title = Siphon
| image = siphon_2x.png
| imagesize = 310x378px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = ADDITIONAL NOTES: Fixed a bug that caused some rocks to generate virtually infinite heat while just sitting there.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SIPHONIC WINDS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] have set up a simple experiment to test how a {{w|siphon}} works, using the gravitational force on a lower portion of liquid-filled tube, and molecular cohesion, to move a liquid upwards through a bit of tube at a higher gravitational potential. In short, passing oved a higher peak to reach a lower exit. [[Randall]] has also mentioned siphons in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/ whatif 143] and in his book, "how to," section "how to make a pool."

Siphons are commonly used in modern society (e.g., most American residential toilets are flushed by siphon action). Siphons should not be confused with [[#Trivia|capillary action]].

Apparently, even though Cueball and Megan have set up the experiment correctly, the water no longer demonstrates a siphon by flowing from the upper bucket to the lower. Cueball observes in surprise that "it's true," that siphoning doesn't work anymore. Thus indicating that this is a very recent development, and Megan remarks that it was honestly weird that it ever worked, and muses over why we ever thought that was a normal thing.

The punchline of the comic comes in the caption, which delivers a piece of ''Physics News'': "The 2023 update to the universe finally fixed the "siphon" bug." The joke here is that the entire complex and multifaceted system of {{w|physics}} in and of itself is treated as though it is simply the coded logic running the universe (or perhaps the sometimes unintentional result of various default configuration options like in a video game - see [[1620: Christmas Settings]]), and that siphoning (rather than being an interesting physical phenomenon worth studying) was nothing more than a bug in the Universe. It has has now been fixed, somehow and for some reason, being considered a glitch and not the intended behaviour.

In reality, siphons still very much exist in our universe.{{Citation Needed}} Siphons require filling beforehand to function, either by initially actively sucking liquid through or by first immersing the siphon tube in the liquid then ensuring it retains its contents as one end is brought over to its position lower than the other end, so it is plausible to imagine skeptical people “proving” they do not function by refraining from providing the initial priming. However, the small amount of water in the bottom of the bucket near Megan indicates that there at least was some water in the tube, and that this just ran down on either side, leaving the tube empty and a bit of water in Megan's bucket and a bit more in Cueball's bucket. So they did set up the experiment correctly, but since the latest update siphons do not work anymore. Or as they state it, the universe now works correctly and the siphon bug has been corrected.

{{w|simulation hypothesis|The idea}} that we live in a computer simulation is also prevalent in our modern pop culture, most famously shown in {{w|The Matrix}} (See [[566: Matrix Revisited]]).

The title text is an additional note to the 2023 physics update stating that the update has: "Fixed a bug that caused some rocks to generate virtually infinite heat while just sitting there."

This is a reference to radioactive materials that keep emitting energy (heat) almost indefinitely (on a human timescale). This is mainly a reference to {{w|uranium}} and {{w|thorium}} and their decay chain, which are the main reason for keeping the Earth's core warm.

This is similar to the comic [[2115: Plutonium]], because {{w|plutonium}} (though man-'made', during nucleosynthesis) is used to power spacecraft. In that comic the title text has the same idea that someone controls the universe: ''It's like someone briefly joined the team running the universe, introduced their idea for a cool mechanic, then left, and now everyone is stuck pretending that this wildly unbalanced dynamic makes sense.''

The entire comic is one of many where Randall muses over strange aspects of our universe, and wonders why we (people) ever think that it seems normal, the way the Universe works (or how humans works - see for instance [[1268: Alternate Universe]]).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing next to two buckets while Megan is looking on from the other side of the buckets. The left bucket is on a stool and is almost filled with water while the other is on the ground and has a very small amount of water in it. Cueball is holding an empty tube between the two buckets. The end to the left is deep into the water in the left bucket while the other end hangs into the empty bucket to the right.]
:Cueball: Wow, it's true—the water doesn't flow up the tube anymore.
:Megan: Honestly, it's weird that it ever did.
:Megan: Why did we think that was normal?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Physics news: The 2023 update to the universe finally fixed the "Siphon" bug.

==Trivia==
Siphons are separate from a similarly counter-intuitive phenomenon of {{w|capillary action}}, where a liquid flows through narrow spaces (even upwards, entirely against gravity) in that a siphon need not be of such small diameter. Capillary action will also move liquid into an initially empty channel, whilst a siphon must be 'primed', by filling the tube, in order to draw liquid over a high point to ultimately always drop down into a lower container. Capillary action is caused by surface tension and attractive forces between the liquid and the walls of the channel; the liquid level will rise until the weight of the column of liquid matches the attractive forces. A siphon requires that the weight of the liquid column on the "higher" side of the channel peak not exceed atmospheric pressure, or else the liquid will split, leaving a {{w|Torricelli's_experiment|partial vacuum}}. Capillary action can lift liquid higher than the maximum height of the "higher" side of a siphon with the same liquid, if the attractive forces are strong enough.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]

2466: In Your Classroom

2023-05-12T09:22:07Z

172.70.86.31: Undo revision 312919 by 172.70.91.151 (talk) First is ambiguous (is it the lack of universality?), second is badly punctuated and not worthwhile enough to correct.

{{comic
| number = 2466
| date = May 21, 2021
| title = In Your Classroom
| image = in_your_classroom.png
| titletext = Ontology is way off to the left and geography is way off to the right.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Randall]] has created a thought experiment and corresponding chart about school courses. The idea is, "the subject of the class appears in the classroom" and the chart compares how dangerous and how unusual that would be.

In the title text two points that are off the chart to the left and right are also mentioned. See details about all the subjects in the [[#Table of subjects|table]] below.

Note that Randall uses similar diagrams in each of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], [[1242: Scary Names]] and [[1501: Mysteries]], which also contain different items. They also have extra points mentioned in the title text. In the first two comics the points are also off the chart, whereas for the last the description of the point is too long to fit on the chart. Extra info outside the chart is also used in the title text of [[1785: Wifi]], but this is a line graph.

==Table of subjects==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Breakdown of Subjects
|-
!Course Topic
!Weirdness
!Badness
!Explanation
|-

!scope=row|Atmospheric Physics
|0%
|0%
|Absent very strange and unprecedented circumstances, every classroom on Earth has an atmosphere (although going by the exact wording of the starting hypothesis, "The thing you study just showed up in your classroom", the implication is that up until that point, the room in which the class is being held contained a vacuum, which in and of itself is interesting to physics students.)
|-

!scope=row|Ethics
|25%
|0%
|Ethical thinking and behavior are widely considered good and should normally be present in education, but are sadly not universal.
|-

!scope=row|Education
|0%
|10%
|Learning usually goes on in classrooms, so education as a concept is both being learned about and present in the form of learning itself.
|-

!scope=row|Bibliography
|25%
|7%
|Bibliography is the study of books, and books are normally present in classrooms, particularly bibliography classrooms. Although, more commonly speaking academically, a bibliography is a list of all sources used to compose a research paper, considered mandatory in all branches of academics but occasionally falsified or written in an incorrect style.
|-

!scope=row|Human Physiology
|0%
|20%
|This comic assumes that there are humans learning in the classroom, which was true at the time this comic was published, although in many places at the time the comic was published, many classrooms were closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
|-

!scope=row|Public Speaking
|25%
|15%
|Some classes require students to present things in front of the class, which is likely a requirement in a public speaking class. Thus, public speaking itself would be present in the class.
Some classes also have a teacher talking or presenting to the students from the front of the class, another form of public speaking.
|-

!scope=row|Architecture
|0%
|30%
|All buildings can be considered architecture, and most classes take place in buildings. This comic also refers to a class''room'', which is a room, and therefore considered architecture.
|-

!scope=row|Library Science
|25%
|25%
|Library science is concerned with the organization of knowledge, and is useful for finding information. Many classes require [https://papersowl.com/pay-for-research-paper research papers] that require the use of books and other sources of information to complete them. This would be even more appropriate for a class actually taught in the school library.
|-

!scope=row|Furniture Design
|0%
|40%
|Most rooms have furniture,{{Citation needed}} so this would probably be present in a classroom. May also be implying the classroom furniture has not been assembled yet, making it not as good and a lesson in furniture design.
|-

!scope=row|Culinary Arts
|40%
|30%
|Most studies of culinary arts include the teacher and/or students preparing food using the tools and/or techniques that have been taught, so it would be fairly normal for food to be a result of classroom activities. How ''good'' it is, however, can be a mixed bag, especially for student cooking attempts.
|-

!scope=row|Ergonomics
|5%
|45%
|Ergonomic equipment and workspaces promote comfort and efficiency, while non-ergonomic ones may be unpleasant, unhealthy, or even immediately dangerous.
|-

!scope=row|Botany
|40%
|40%
|The near-neutral position of botany (aka plant biology) suggests that the most likely reason for plants to be present would be something like a potted plant, which is not uncommon, and usually not unpleasant, but not very noteworthy. There are other potential reasons for plants to be present, but those are generally less likely.
|-

!scope=row|20th Century Authors
|65%
|10%
|Literature classes would benefit greatly from an open discussion or interview with the author themself. Sadly such things are rare, but not unheard of, putting it slightly on the "weird" side of the spectrum. Well-known authors of the 20th century have an increased likelihood of being dead by 2021, but there are still some authors of the 20th century who were well-established enough to be studied and still alive at the time this comic was published.
|-

!scope=row|Exobiology
|100%
|0%
|Exobiology is the study of extraterrestrial life. This would mean that an alien lifeform was in the classroom. This is extremely weird but very good for people to investigate and research the alien.
|-

!scope=row|21st Century Authors
|60%
|20%
|21st century authors have the advantage (over 19th and 20th century authors) of typically being alive and active at the time this comic was published. However, most authors who were primarily active in the 21st century are still developing their body of work, and/or still awaiting the judgment of history. The better availability of such authors, as compared to 20th century author probably explains the slightly lower "weirdness" score, while the limited body of truly prominent authors probably explains the lower "goodness" score.
|-

!scope=row|19th Century Authors
|100%
|15%
|No author who was active in the 19th century was alive at the writing of this comic,{{Citation needed}} hence, having one of them show up in class would be extremely weird. The opportunity to interact with such a person would be utterly unique, meaning that it scores pretty high on the "goodness" metric, though interestingly not as high as a 20th century author. Possibly, the potential "badness" of having a zombie or other reanimated being show up in your class is weighed against the advantage of having a historical figure there in person. It may also be that someone from the 19th century has an increased danger of having outdated ethics, which may result in discomfort on the part of the students.
|-

!scope=row|Paleontology
|100%
|25%
|Paleontology is the study of the history of life on Earth as based on fossils. In geology classes, it would be normal to have some fossils in the classroom. However, fossils are not usually found in other classrooms, and especially below the college level. Randall is also probably implying the weirdness of finding a live ''Jurassic Park''-style dinosaur.
|-

!scope=row|Robotics
|55%
|30%
|A course on robotics would often be expected to have some form of working models of the robots being discussed. However, for it to have "showed up" in your classroom could imply an actual functioning robot prototype walked into the classroom. While not cause for concern (as long as nobody in the class is named Sarah Connor), this would be a bit weird.
|-

!scope=row|Martian Soil Chemistry
|100%
|35%
|Martian soil only reaches Earth in small amounts, so it would be unusual to find a meaningful amount anywhere, except Mars.
|-

!scope=row|Tourism
|75%
|40%
|Tourists coming into an active classroom would be quite unusual; while tourists sometimes visit university campuses, it would generally be rude for a tour guide to lead them into a classroom when class is in progress. This could also refer to the students leaving to become tourists in another location.
|-

!scope=row|Child Psychology
|60%
|45%
|Children are rarely students in classrooms advanced enough to teach child psychology. In order for child psychology to be on display, presumably someone would have to have brought a child (either for a demonstration, or for some other reason), which is slightly weird, but not unheard of. This is considered slightly "good", presumably because it would give students some opportunity for firsthand observation, and because most people like, or at least tolerate, children.
|-

!scope=row|Entomology
|15%
|55%
|Entomology is the study of insects. Insects getting into a classroom is a very common event, even putting aside the possibility of someone bringing insects specifically to study. Most insects that might get in are relatively benign, but some (such as mosquitoes) might sting or bite, and many people simply don't like insects, even when they're not harmful, pushing this slightly into "bad" territory.
|-

!scope=row|Occupational Therapy
|10%
|62%
|Injury, illness or mental health problem that hinder your participation in life/school. Many students who have significant physical injuries and conditions that require occupational therapy would generally not engage in those activities during a class, although volunteers may be brought in as a demonstration of a particular health problem or method of treatment.
|-

!scope=row|Hydraulic Engineering
|40%
|62%
|Likely in the form of flooding or plumbing problems.
|-

!scope=row|Pest Control
|25%
|70%
|This is not dissimilar to entomology, but pest control tends to involve larger infestations, as opposed to individual insects, and also includes non-insect animals, such as rats. Such events in classroom are not as common as individual insects getting in (especially in a well-maintained building), but are far from unheard of, and risk many negative effects, from bug bites to structural damage, and may require evacuation and fumigation to deal with.
|-

!scope=row|Foodborne Illness
|15%
|80%
|Sometimes students in a culinary arts class do not properly observe hygiene standards and the food they present would lead to illness in those that consume the food. Thankfully, this is rare if the teacher is paying enough attention to proceedings. Students could also be ill from food eaten outside of class.
|-

!scope=row|Criminal Law
|45%
|85%
|This might happen if a crime occurs in the class. While an armed robbery is unlikely, incidents involving theft or drug use are not particularly uncommon. Regardless, such an incident would be very bad.
|-

!scope=row|Physiology of Stress
|0%
|90%
|Stress in a classroom, even stress that's bad enough to manifest itself in physical symptoms, is all too common. Stress that bad is very harmful, and a student realizing that they were manifesting the symptoms they're studying should take it as a warning sign.
|-

!scope=row|Oncology
|25%
|100%
|Oncology is the medical practice of treating cancer. For someone in a classroom full of students to have cancer is, unfortunately, not an uncommon event, putting it on the "normal" side of the scale. While not abnormal, it's clearly very bad.
|-

!scope=row|Ornithology
|60%
|55%
|Ornithology is the study of birds. A bird getting into a classroom would be somewhat strange, but there are circumstances under which it would happen. In most cases, that's not especially dangerous, but it would be disruptive, and introduce the possibility of the bird making a mess, and possibly getting hurt (or even hurting others), which makes it slightly bad.
|-

!scope=row|Animation
|100%
|56%
|Presumably Randall isn't referring to examples of animated works being displayed to the students in an animation class, as that would be normal. However, it would be very weird for animated characters to appear physically in the classroom instead of being projected on screens. Possibly a reference to movies such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' in which cartoon characters actively interact with the live action cast. As many of the characters abide by different physics, and a couple are depicted as insane, this would be very weird and potentially bad.
|-

!scope=row|Petroleum Geology
|65%
|60%
|Crude oil coming up through the floor of the classroom would be ''very'' weird. Any potential for hands-on learning experience would be limited, and quickly outweighed by classes being disrupted entirely (be it damage to the building, or oil companies trying to negotiate for the land).
|-

!scope=row|Highway Engineering
|75%
|65%
|A highway being built through an active classroom would be very unusual and not that safe.
|-

!scope=row|Toxicology
|55%
|75%
|Most likely, a toxic substance is present in the room. This is not very weird if the room is in a building that has {{w|asbestos}}-containing insulation (typically associated with buildings constructed before the 1990s, although it has not been specifically outlawed in the United States due to industrial lobbying) or lead paint (which was fully outlawed in 1978 in the United States, so any paint must have been applied prior to that date). However, toxic substances are unsafe for humans.{{Citation needed}}
|-

!scope=row|Hematology
|75%
|70%
|Hematology is the study of blood. Given that there should be blood in each of the students present,{{Citation needed}} we should probably assume Randall means "large quantities of blood outside of one's body ([[:Category:Comics with blood|click here]])", which would indeed be both bad and weird.
|-

!scope=row|Hostage Negotiation
|70%
|85%
|Reasons as to why there would be hostage negotiations taking place at a school have horrifying implications for the students and teacher. The 'weird'ness rating of this occurence would presumably change depending on location, school shootings and hostage situations being (unfortunately) much more 'normal'ised in the USA than any other country.
|-

!scope=row|History of Siege Warfare
|100%
|80%
|This would be an exceptionally strange event. Given that the topic is "history", having it show up implies that either historical figures have the classroom under siege (possibly through time travel or reanimation) or at least that the besiegers are using traditional weapons and methods in their attack. In either case, it would be a very weird event, and also very bad.
|-

!scope=row|Trauma Surgery
|55%
|95%
|An injury severe enough to require trauma surgery would be rare in a classroom, but there are circumstances under which it could realistically happen. Such an injury would be, by its very nature, a very bad thing.
|-

!scope=row|Volcanology
|75%
|95%
|Having a live volcano in one's classroom is both very dangerous and very weird {{Citation needed}}. Volcanoes mature over very long time frames, but even the earliest stages are highly disruptive and potentially deadly, as seen in the {{w|Parícutin#Formation|1943 eruption of Paricutín}} and the {{w|2018_lower_Puna_eruption#Eruption|2018 flank eruption of Kilauea}}. Note this also applies to [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar | baking soda and vinegar volcanoes that are offshoots of much larger vinegar hotspots]].
|-

!scope=row|Quasar Astronomy
|75%
|100%
|{{w|Quasars}} are distant astronomical objects that release large amounts of energy. Not only would the power of a quasar destroy the classroom (as well as the rest of Earth), quasars are too large to fit inside any known classroom. For example, {{w|ULAS J1342+0928}} has a mass of 8*10^8 solar masses. This means the event horizon of the black hole is almost 16 AU in radius, and this size does not include the accretion disk.
|-

!scope=row|Ontology (title text)
|<0%
|?
|Ontology is the philosophical study of existence and being. Since there must be ''something'' learning in the classroom, it is unsurprising that ontology is a normal subject to appear in the classroom. It would, in fact, be more bizarre to have a lack of ontology in the classroom.
|-

!scope=row|Geography (title text)
|>100%
|?
|Geographers study the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth. While each classroom classroom contains a small portion of the Earth's surface (normally not enough of it to be interesting to geographers), having the ''entire Earth'' appear inside a classroom would likely demand explanation. In particular, if this is an ordinary classroom (i.e. located ''on'' the Earth), the planet's simultaneous appearance within its walls would both defy our current understanding of spacetime, and risk [[1515: Basketball Earth | disastrous consequences at the hands of curious students.]] This could also be implying the classroom is suddenly being located on top of a geographic border, which would be highly unlikely, especially if it happened without warning.

|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption above scatter plot with labeled axes]
:Caption: The thing you study just showed up in your classroom! That's...
:Top: good
:Bottom: bad
:Left: normal
:Right: weird

Items are listed row by row, left to right, top to bottom.

:[First quadrant (good and weird)]
:20th century authors
:Exobiology
:21st century authors
:19th century authors
:Robotics
:Paleontology
:Martian soil chemistry
:Child psychology
:Tourism
:[Second quadrant (good and normal)]
:Atmospheric physics
:Ethics
:Education
:Bibliography
:Human physiology
:Public speaking
:Architecture
:Library science
:Furniture design
:Culinary arts
:Ergonomics
:Botany
:[Third quadrant (bad and normal)]
:Entomology
:Occupational therapy
:Hydraulic engineering
:Pest control
:Foodborne illness
:Criminal law
:Physiology of stress
:Oncology
:[Fourth quadrant (bad and weird)]
:Ornithology
:Animation
:Petroleum geology
:Highway engineering
:Toxicology
:Hematology
:Hostage negotiation
:History of siege warfare
:Trauma surgery
:Volcanology
:Quasar astronomy

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]

2771: College Knowledge

2023-05-08T15:31:59Z

172.70.86.31: /* Notes */ Inexactitude

{{comic
| number = 2771
| date = May 3, 2023
| title = College Knowledge
| image = college_knowledge_2x.png
| imagesize = 649x266px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Your chitin armor is no match for our iron-tipped stingers! Better go hide in your jars!' --common playground taunt
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT GOING TO IO TO GET MORE DIODES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A common playground rhyme which children will often recite when divided by gender is that "girls go to college to get more knowledge; boys go to {{w|Jupiter}} to get more stupider," with the genders being interchangeable depending on the rhyme's singer.

Starting out with this cadence, three characters (or child versions) {{w|Skipping rope|jump rope}} and explore parts of the solar system and beyond by taking it in turns to provide the rhythm's tempo. First [[Science Girl]] (who is turning the left end of the rope), then a [[Cueball]] (at the right), followed by a [[Ponytail]] (doing the jumping), before returning to Science Girl. As they concentrate on various stellar bodies that are harder and harder to rhyme, their chants become increasingly hesitant and obscure, ruining the rhythm and resulting in ever more contrived "rhymes", to the point where they eventually seem compelled to abandon the whole game.

The title text refers back to some of the rhymes the characters mention, making sure to stay consistent with whichever gender acquires which object. Speaking from the perspective of the college-bound gender, who had acquired {{w|ferrous}} iron from {{w|Eris}} (or perhaps {{wiktionary|ferrous|become more composed of it}}, by {{w|Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed|bodily transformation}}), the girls playfully threaten the boys with iron-tipped {{w|stinger}}s, for which the boys' acquired armour of {{w|chitin}} (a material commonly found on the exoskeletons of various insects, including in any stings these might normally have) is purportedly no match. The girls then also refer to the jars which the boys had acquired from {{w|Mars}}, telling the boys that they'd better hide in them if they wanted any sort of protection from the iron-tipped stingers. To top it all off, the title text finally claims that this is supposedly a "common playground taunt" among children, which implies the unlikely outcome that the bizarre and unwieldy rhymes which the characters in the comic created have somehow persisted and passed into common usage enough to be generally recognizable.

In [[1202: Girls and Boys]], boys and girls both go to college ''and'' to Jupiter, both to get more knowledge.

==Notes==
*Going to Mars to get more jars may be a reference to a 1955 {{w|Burma-Shave}} campaign promising a free trip to Mars for whoever sent in 900 empty jars. The joking offer was accepted by a Wisconsin shopkeeper named Arliss French. The company enjoyed the publicity, and sent him and his wife to {{w|Moers}}.
*{{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}} is a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
*{{w|Chitin}} is a polysaccharide found in the exoskeletons of insects and cell walls of fungi.
*{{w|Tim Berners-Lee}} is the inventor of the World Wide Web.
*{{w|Pamplemousse}} is the French word for grapefruit or pomelo, depending on dialect. Note that it does not actually rhyme with Betelgeuse for {{w|Betelgeuse#Spelling and pronunciation|most pronunciations}}, only when pronounced along the lines of ''Beetlejuice'' does this line really rhyme.
*It could be debated whether these are three children, and thus not Cueball and Ponytail, who are adult, but there is nothing to compare them to, and Science Girl has also been drawn as an adult. So for ease of naming them, it is easier to keep the names even if these are children.

==Transcript==
:[Science Girl, Ponytail and Cueball are jumping rope while singing a common playground song. Science Girl and Cueball are swinging the ends of the rope, Ponytail is jumping in the middle facing Cueball on the right. The rope is going so fast around her that it is drawn with four thin gray lines, one over and one below her and two in between, so they form a kind of 3D ellipsoid shape around her. Small lines indicate the movement of the rope and the hands that hold it.]
:Science Girl: Girls go to college to get more knowledge
:Science Girl: Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider

:[Same scene but Ponytail is at a different moment in her jumping.]
:Cueball: Girls go to Ceres to get more theories
:Cueball: Boys go to Mars to get more jars

:[Same scene but Ponytail is at a different moment in her jumping.]
:Ponytail: Girls go to Eris to get more ferrous
:Ponytail: Boys go to Triton to get more chitin

:[The three have stopped playing so the rope is hanging from the hands of Science Girl and Cueball, running along the ground beneath Ponytail's feet. She is now just standing but has turned towards Science Girl.]
:Science Girl: Girls go to...Mercury...to...meet Tim Berners-Lee
:Science Girl: Boys go to... ...Betelgeuse...to get more... ...pamplemousse
:Cueball: I think we're done.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]

116: City

2023-05-04T08:08:53Z

172.70.86.31:

{{comic
| number = 116
| date = June 16, 2006
| title = City
| image = city.jpg
| titletext = God, she's such a whore.
}}

==Explanation==
The poem or description alternates between using words that start with C and words that start with S, to achieve an effect resembling {{w|alliteration}}. The gentle, romantic tone of the poem is broken by the last two words, Your Mom. This is an example of a {{w|maternal insult}} joke, and is phrased accordingly.

The title text further emphasizes this, implying that the mother in question is also promiscuous.

==Transcript==
:[A picture of various apartment buildings.]
:Shadowed city slumber silently. A second-story suite.
:Come craving courtship, selected serendipitously
:Crazed copulations, a salacious storm of continuous coitus.
:Spread, straddled, conquered.
:Countless crashed suitors strewn carelessly.
:Center, silken sheets sensuously caressing soft skin,
:Contentedly sleeps your mom.

==Trivia==
*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:LongPages&limit=20&offset=2540| This is the shortest comic explanation] on explainxkcd, as of writing this. This still holds as of 04/05/2023 (dd,mm,yyyy), ignoring the 281 bytes this trivia section occupies.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]

840: Serious

2023-05-04T08:02:24Z

172.70.86.31:

{{comic
| number = 840
| date = December 29, 2010
| title = Serious
| image = serious.png
| titletext = Not to be confused with Serious PuTTY, the Windows terminal client where everything is in Impact.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a play on words with the child's{{citation needed}} putty known as "{{w|Silly Putty}}", which is "silly" because it likes to be played with.{{citation needed}} Whereas Serious Putty does not even like to be touched.

As it says in the title text {{w|PuTTY}} is a Windows Terminal client. {{w|Impact (typeface)|Impact}} is a font that is distributed with Windows that is used in the vast majority of "{{w|internet meme|meme}}" image macros, such as {{w|lolcat}} pictures.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing next to a table. There is a can on the table.]

:[The label on the can reads, "Serious Putty".]

:[Cueball is looking at the table again.]

:[He reaches out to touch the can. The can speaks.]
:Can: Don't touch me.

==Trivia==
*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:LongPages&limit=20&offset=2540| This is the shortest comic explanation] on explainxkcd, as of writing this. This still holds as of 10/22/2022, ignoring the 268 bytes this trivia section occupies.

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

Talk:1732: Earth Temperature Timeline

2023-05-01T09:03:32Z

172.70.86.31:

{{notice|As this is a controversial topic, there may be several {{rw|climate_change|denialist}} trolls lurking below. Beware of feeding them.|image=Troll.png}}

Well, never mind then. Oh well. -- [[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 1:02, 12 September 2016
:I acknowledge that the picture is WAY too long, so I added a "skip to explanation" bar, to speed things up. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 17:32, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
::Thank you [[User:Run, you clever boy|Run, you clever boy]] ([[User talk:Run, you clever boy|talk]])

Is it just me or does the picture not render all the way down in full resolution on firefox? I found it worked on Chrome and explorer... And Wauw, just after I had created the new [[:Category:Climate change]]... Was also just watched a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxEGHW6Lbu8 QandA program] yesterday where [[1644: Stargazing|Brian Cox]] tried to convince some Australian politician about global warming, but the other one just cried conspiracy... Will take some time to make this one complete I guess? Great ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:53, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
:That's the thing with this kind of stuff. It takes a LONG time to make it just right. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 19:08, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Please delete the ridiculous trivia
*The colors used to represent temperature vary from blue (the perceived hue of a black body at 20000K) to pale red (perceived at 2200K).
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.139|108.162.221.139]] 19:44, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

Of course you can pretty much ignore the part of the diagram that is in dotted line, you can't rely on that data. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 20:40, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
:Note that even if we ignore the extrapolated future, the warming in the past century is already a vastly more abrupt climate shift than anything that happened in the preceding 219 centuries. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:15, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
::Actually we don't know what the shifts were on that scale in the past. The dotted line before modern measurement is a very limited estimate. We have no idea what the year to year changes were in the past, at best we can work out an average. I am reminded of a house mouse(life span of about 1 year) looking at the leaves fall from the tress and saying "Surely this is the end of the world". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 14:44, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:::Randall explicitly addresses your specious complaint at 15900 BCE. Year-to-year fluctuations are not the same as the current century-long surge. Either show scientific evidence or go away, Mr Troll from Seattle Cloudflare. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 16:11, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
::::I should have known better to enter into a religious debate on the internet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 00:17, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
:::::No it is not that which is the problem, but that you try to disqualify the data without even bothering to look through them. Aa mentioned Randall tries to let us know that such a high fluctuation as we have in these last 100 years would not be hidden in the old data. As mentioned by Fankie this is explained between 16000 and 15500 BCE... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:30, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
::::::I refuse to debate a matter of faith with you. Note that 15500-16000 is 500 years, perhaps when we have 500 years of accurate temperature measurements we will know more. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 03:54, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:::::::I'm not surprised that you can't even read a chart. 16000-15500 BCE is where the explanation is placed on the chart. The fluctuations he shows that would not register are small fluctuations over a decade or two. A fluctuation of a century would "unlikely" be smoothed out. The examples are even drawn to scale... 3rd grade level stuff here. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.145|108.162.221.145]] 17:28, 16 September 2016 (UTC)
:::::::Why even bring your faith into this? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.92|108.162.212.92]] 16:29, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:::::::I call Troll. Talking about the significance of where the subchart/Legend/footnote lies? Like what years it's next to actually has any significance? Either he's too dim to actually look, or he's trolling. The standard recommendation is "Don't feed the trolls". :) - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.118|108.162.218.118]] 02:55, 16 September 2016 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. (Heh, seems I was right, looks like the troll stopped after I called him out) :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 11:03, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
::::[[User:Frankie|Frankie]], funny how the nonaveraged plots [and even the averaged plot] [[#wikimedia|linked]] to below invalidates Randall's plot, "Hence the comparison is not comparing like with like and is scientifically invalid." The temperature rate between 1859 (coincident with America's discovery of petroleum and the Carrington Event) and today does not exceed that within the past 2,000, 20,000, or 100,000s of years. The present surge (the tip of the "hockey stick") concerns not 100 years but almost 40 years (36 years in Randall's plot) which does not successfully meet the three fluctuation disclaimers. As mentioned in the Wikimedia discussion the temperature resolution is about 300 years; therefore it should take another 150 years to see whether this slope corrects itself. [[User:Lysdexia|Lysdexia]] ([[User talk:Lysdexia|talk]]) 13:04, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

:Have you read the referenced papers? Well you fit well with the people he refers to between the two lines at the top. ;-) We are heading for troublesome times :-( [[164: Playing Devil's Advocate to Win]]... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:22, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

*the use unqualified of the words "still many people" is exactly the kind of weasely nonsense that this comic is designed to refute. there are "still many people" who claim the earth is flat, that they have been abducted by aliens, or that the MMR jab made their children autistic. those people are deluded or insincere. the difference with deniers of climate change is that there are in their ranks scientists who are clear-sighted but who have decided that funding at any price is better than none. this site should be better than that. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]]
::You're absolutely right, the ranks of climate deniers do indeed include a few scientists willing to sell their voices to the highest bidder (e.g. http://www.polluterwatch.com/heartland-institute ). But is that what you meant to say? - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:50, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:::that the wording be changed to reflect that. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:59, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

For a large post like this, it's a wonder that we can all keep up and edit something like this all at once. Wow. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 11:56, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:Also, anyone else notice that this was a top trending post on Facebook last night? I don't know if I could call it a milestone but it's still pretty cool. And '''WE''' edited it! :D --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:06, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
::Very interesting, so it was explain xkcd and not xkcd that where the top trending post? Could you post a link to where you found this out? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:15, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:::I can see you are right from the fact that Randall has chosen to postpone his next comic in order to keep this one on the front page for all the new visitors as has now been noted in the explanation and in the trivia section. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:30, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Maybe someone should add the fact that the transcript may be a reference to oxidation?[[User:Transuranium|Transuranium]] ([[User talk:Transuranium|talk]]) 19:21, 13 September 2016 (UTC)Transuranium
:I think you mean the "title text" not the transcript? And that you refer to the recent comic [[1693: Oxidation]] which is indeed referened in the title text, then that has been written at the bottom of the main explanation and has been there already since the 12th edit less than 1½ hour after the comic came out... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:02, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Is nobody else having a problem seeing the comic? Both here and on XKCD I get an "Image not found" icon, a blue question mark. I thought maybe this was an interactive comic that doesn't work on my iPad (like that garden thing, though that did nothing on my computer either). If I tap it on XKCD nothing happens, here it leads to the picture's Wiki page - also with the question mark - which says it's a PNG, which I know this iPad can show. It's 11pm EST, maybe night maintenance on XKCD? Or the file got renamed without updating the sites? - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.227|162.158.126.227]] 03:12, 14 September 2016 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 11:03, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:I had trouble seeing it on my own PC using Firefox but not the other browsers I have. See my early comment above. I guess the file is too big for your iPad as it is a very huge file. I tried to download it but it failed. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:07, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
::It's weird that I got what is clearly an "Image not found" icon, though. Maybe my 1st Gen iPad's Safari saw the file, decided "No way I'm loading that!"(or "that size can't be right", LOL!) and chose to show the error icon instead. When I force the issue, by going directly to the image URL listed on XKCD, the first time Safari crashed rather than load the image (but it crashes on a regular basis, so that didn't deter me), the second time it crashed, the third time it actually loaded, and I was able to see it. After seeing mentions here of spelling errors (though I have to disagree on "Pokemon", generally only people connected to the show bother with the accent. Like how I'm the only one who spells Hallowe'en correctly, with the apostrophe), I thought maybe the comic was taken down to correct it, but guess not. LOL! - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.239|108.162.218.239]] 20:54, 14 September 2016 (UTC) So's this! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 11:03, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

I feel that the missing bottom axis is a usability problem, so I fixed it. [http://info.org.il/data/earth_temperature_timeline_bottom_axis.png See it here.] [[User:Hananc|Hananc]] ([[User talk:Hananc|talk]]) 10:42, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
:Nice but I'm sure it was on purpose to indicate that time continues down,as well as a possible even worse temperature change. As shown in the previous global warming comic [[1379]] Earth has been 8 degree hotter than now... And apart from the last small segment (albeit a very important one) you either remember that white is normal and bluer is colder redder is warmer or else you cannot use the chart in between the top and bottom, and since this is the longest xkcd comic so far it would be a shame. :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:07, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Okay, now that I've managed to SEE the damn thing, I have a question. There's no mention of why this is using "BCE" and "CE" instead of the standard "BC" and "AD", never mind what these stand for (thinking and thinking about it, my guess is "Before Christ Era" and "Christ Era"). This is the kind of thing that should be mentioned on ExplainXKCD, LOL! Fun fact: when I searched this page for "BCE", to confirm it wasn't explained, I got "Over 100 matches". :) Anyway, I figure maybe those are currently accepted scientific terminology, especially since "AD" is Latin, unlike "BC", but the average person still uses BC and AD. In fact, I think this is the first time I've ever seen BCE and CE (unless it's been on XKCD before and I just dismissed it as a typo or something. This time there are WAY too many for it to be a mistake every time, including here in the explanation!) - NiceGuy1[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.239|108.162.218.239]] 21:20, 14 September 2016 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 11:03, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:It's "Before Common Era" and "Common Era", an alternative to BC/AD. Pretty common alternative, though I don't know why off-hand - probably to remove the religious connotations of "Christ" and "Year of our Lord". --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.236|108.162.215.236]] 23:23, 14 September 2016 (UTC)
::Because they're the standards in the scientific community. The guy above assumed his way is standard, but that's inaccurate. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.92|108.162.212.92]] 00:26, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:::I assume nothing. My statements are completely accurate. I OBSERVE it is the standard, the only standard anybody (else) seems to use. BC/AD is the "standard" because it is standard practice to use it. For good reason, since I would estimate just about everybody knows what it means, while I am sure I am in the majority in having never heard BCE/CE. It is also not "my" way, I made no choice here, it is the established convention, it is the way accepted and adopted by society. While I would normally be more inclined towards terminology devoid of religion (as seems to be the point here, now that someone kindly clarified these acronyms for me), I feel this would be a losing fight, one it would be foolish to attempt, the classic terminology is too ingrained in society. Sorry. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.118|108.162.218.118]] 02:44, 16 September 2016 (UTC) Also mine! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 11:03, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:: For the convenience of archeologists working in the Middle East. [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 01:16, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
::Thank you! Yes, it sounds to me like the point would be to remove the religious aspect. Personally, I don't really mind the religious terminology, I just see it as historical, keeping a record of where the names and numbering came from. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.118|108.162.218.118]] 02:44, 16 September 2016 (UTC) Also mine! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 11:03, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:::Well, "it is the established convention" isn't quite correct either.. checking Wikipedia suggests to me that it's a large argument, and that people that aren't Christian or Muslim (i.e. just under half of all people) really never used the AD/BC notation in the first place. BCE/CE appears to have originated in Jewish European communities some point before the 1700s. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.192|172.70.100.192]] 20:12, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
What this comic doesn't show is what kind of changes occurred in the previous interglacial period as opposed to the current one. Since the current one is not yet over there could still be a stage of an interglacial with rapid temperature rise which we are only now reaching, but has happened in previous interglacial periods.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.54|108.162.219.54]] 02:32, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:Check out this 400k year comparison of temperature variations from two ice core projects in Antarctica, Lake Vostok and EPICA. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_Age_Temperature.png (Note that Randall's timeline matches up pretty well with the last 20k years on the far right of the graph) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.98|162.158.69.98]] 13:23, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

I think this would be first time where I see global thermonuclear war described as "best case scenario". There was and still is lot of discussion about how much is current warming caused by humans, but that's not important. Important question is "can we stop it?" and the answer is "not without literally billions of dead" (and even that might not suffice). Any money currently used for most plans to reduce CO2 (which usually fails to reduce CO2, not speaking about global warming, but succeed in their main goal, which is moving the money into pockets of their proponents) would be better spent on ADAPTING to the change. Only plans for reducing CO2 actually worth doing are the ones related to stopping burning fossil fuels, because we will soon need fossil fuels to make food (and other stuff) from. Oh, and also stop burning FOOD. So we should replace fossil fuel power plants with only viable alternative - NUCLEAR. So called renewable power sources like solar are good addition, but doesn't scale to the amount of power and stability we need. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:12, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

So disappointing to see that Randall Hitler Munroe subscribes to the obviously false "global warming" religion. He should know better. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.83|172.68.55.83]] 00:11, 16 September 2016 (UTC)
: Troll troll trolly trolly troll troll troll [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.217|162.158.214.217]] 03:07, 16 September 2016 (UTC)
: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/261:_Regarding_Mussolini {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.126}}

I understand the concept behind this comic, but why doesn't the graph include atmospheric CO2, sulfur aerosols, and solar 10.7cm radio flux for comparison? Also, for the person who suggested we look at previous interglacial periods, I may be wrong, but I believe a lot of that data comes from ice cores, that would make it hard to look at time periods before the present ice sheets existed. IIRC, there were periods not too long ago (geologically speaking) where Antarctica was covered in lakes, tundra, and sparse forests instead of ice sheets.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.127|172.68.65.127]] 05:08, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

The jump of 0.5 degrees from 2000 to 2016 has been shown to be false. It exists because "scientists" went back and changed (or "seasonally adjusted") their data to fit their preconceived conclusions. Just look at Al Gore's 'Inconvenient [Non]Truth', pretty much every doomsday scenario has not occurred. I expect better of XKCD.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.77|173.245.48.77]] 20:58, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

It would be very nice if they wouldn't spread climate change misinformation.
22,000 year Time line [20,000 BC to 2000 AD]
versus
2.5 to 3 billion years of Evolution
on a 4 Billion year old Planet

22,000 / 2,500,000,000 = 0.0000088
Using 0.00088 % of Evolutionary History do decide what the weather is supposed to look like.
Now an atmospheric history lesson
-
Cambrian
Oxygen 12.5% - Carbon Dioxide 0.45% - Average Temp. 21 °C - sea level 30 - 90 meters
-
Ordovician
Oxygen 13.5% - Carbon Dioxide 0.42% - Average Temp. 16 °C - sea level 180 - 220 - 140 meters
-
Silurian
Oxygen 14% - Carbon Dioxide 0.45% - Average Temp. 17 °C - sea level 180 meters
-
Devonian
Oxygen 15% - Carbon Dioxide 0.22% - Average Temp. 20 °C - sea level 189 - 120 meters
-
Carboniferous
Oxygen 32.5% - Carbon Dioxide 0.08% - Average Temp. 14 °C - sea level 120 - 0 - 80 meters
-
Permian
Oxygen 23% - Carbon Dioxide 0.09% - Average Temp. 16 °C - sea level 60 - 0 - -20 meters
-
Triassic
Oxygen 16% - Carbon Dioxide 0.1750% - Average Temp. 17 °C - sea level 0 meters
-
Jurassic
Oxygen 26% - Carbon Dioxide 0.1950% - Average Temp. 16.5 °C
-
Cretaceous
Oxygen 30% - Carbon Dioxide 0.17% - Average Temp. 18 °C
-
Paleogene
Oxygen 26% - Carbon Dioxide 0.05% - Average Temp. 18 °C
-
Neogene
Oxygen 21.5% - Carbon Dioxide 0.028% - Average Temp. 14 °C
-
Current
Oxygen 20.9% - Carbon Dioxide 0.039% - Average Temp. 15 °C

As you can see an atmosphere when healthy should have
Oxygen 25 - 32%
Carbon dioxide 0.1 - 0.15%
Average Temperature 14 - 18 °C
Sea level 60 - 180 meters
and there should be no polar ice caps

our sea level is at extinction levels
our carbon dioxide is almost too low for plants to survive
and our oxygen level is almost suffocatingly low

Less Carbon Dioxide means less Plants
Less plants means less Oxygen
Less Oxygen means less Life[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.112|108.162.246.112]] 07:24, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

:I think the point of comics is that while there were changes in temperature before, they were never this rapid. Although I wouldn't be sure about THAT either ... granted, the previous rapid changes were accompanied with mass extinction ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 15:16, 17 September 2016 (UTC)
::Yeah, the long sample intervals and best fit curves from pre-industrial temperature estimates tend to smooth out any rapid changes that may have occurred over the time period (Think of an ECG/EKG that took a single instantaneuos microvolt sample once every 15 minutes of your life from birth to death, the resulting deflection graph would not look like anything like a normal heart rhythm, but it could be interpreted as the average electrical activity of your heart over the course of a lifetime). It's true that the rapid climate shifts we are able see in geological records usually coincide with things like supervolcano eruptions and asteroid impacts. But those shifts are usually to the negative end from the nuclear winter effect. Idea for reversing global warming without affecting CO2 emissions, just send a couple of hypervelocity rods or a gravity-tractored asteroid into a dormant supervolcano caldera every few years and... instant winter. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.75|173.245.51.75]] 02:38, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

Very interesting and important work.

Actually.... Solomon and Jesus are not historical figures. Outside the Old and the New Testament, there is no archaeological or other evidence for their existence. I suppose, Jesus has played a significant role in history. So, you may be justified to add an entry saying something like "Date that religious traditions hold as the date of birth of Jesus."

Then, if you mention, say, Shakespeare, then you should also mention the estimated composition of the Bible, an event with more important historical influences.

Roman empire was continued for more than thousand years (Eastern Roman Empire, today reffered as Byzantium).

Current scholarly wisdom is that the Homeric epics, (the Iliad and the Odussey) were composed at the second half of the 8th century, perhaps around 720 BCE.
[[User:Konstantas|Konstantas]] ([[User talk:Konstantas|talk]]) 05:14, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

:Except that no historical evidence has ever contradicted the Bible, and many archaeological discoveries were predicted by it.
:According to proper scientific analysis, it is the most accurate historical document(s) in existence. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.51.173|172.70.51.173]] 02:19, 11 August 2021 (UTC) Darryl

I wonder if it is getting to be a good time to make a followup, showing the further warming over the last several years and the rightward movement of the 'if we...' paths. 21-Feb-2020

== Actual best-case scenario == 

The [http://imgur.com/a/H4prq actual best-case scenario] is far better than Randall's depiction; please see. However, the URLs below in that linked Imgur gallery's first caption were rendered unclickable, probably for spam protection measures, so I reproduce them here:
:;Actual "best-case scenario assuming immediate massive action to limit emissions"
:From https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/17/why-cant-we-give-up-fossil-fuels
:What will it take to get to this scenario? https://www.solveforx.com/explorations/foghorn/ with http://freenights.txu.com/ and http://co2-chemistry.eu/ for ocean carbonate-sourced plastic composite structural lumber allowing reforestation.
[[User:JSalsman|JSalsman]] ([[User talk:JSalsman|talk]]) 15:02, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

: First, the Guardian is a newspaper, not a science journal. Second, that article is from 2013, before the latest upsurge. Third, even ignoring those things, the article doesn't say what you claim it does. The single most optimistic sentence I see is ''"If we are lucky, the impact of burning all that oil, coal and gas could turn out to be at the less severe end of the plausible spectrum."'' The rest of the article is quite pessimistic, such as ''"it is overwhelmingly likely that we would shoot well past 2C and towards 3C or even 4C of warming."''
: Please post exact quotes where your links talk about a better scenario. Please do not post URLs and expect us to figure out what you mean. You are making the claim, the burden of proof is on you. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 17:13, 5 October 2016 (UTC)
::How do you expect me to quote from [http://imgur.com/a/H4prq the graphs]? I can't upload images, maybe I need more edits. Please ask any questions you like. [[User:JSalsman|JSalsman]] ([[User talk:JSalsman|talk]]) 06:14, 1 November 2016 (UTC)
::: please explain how the Guardian graph you posted on imgur has to do with better scenarios. The title: "Cuts required for 50% chance of not exceeding 2°C". The footer: "CO2 emissions since 1850 (red); exponential growth (blue); cuts to hit climate target (dashed)." It says that in order to '''possibly''' reach the "optimistic" +2° scenario (Randall's 2nd line, not the 1st one), we would need to cut anthropogenic CO2 to about 1/10th our current level, which is ridiculously unlikely to happen. The other graphs you posted are just hypothetical extrapolations about energy production that, even if they're trustworthy (which I doubt) don't reference any climate scenarios at all, much less ones better than the timeline. Until you can post a cogent explanation, I will assume you are trolling and undo your edits. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 17:19, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
:::: If you extrapolate [http://i.imgur.com/G6OSyYE.jpg] to 2023-4, renewables dominate, right? Wind has been in competitive equilibrium with coal since 1995, and solar hit grid parity early this year and is expected to continue falling in price about as fast at least until 2035. Is there any reason to believe fossil fuels won't be abandoned by 2030? [[User:JSalsman|JSalsman]] ([[User talk:JSalsman|talk]]) 02:01, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
::::: Exactly zero words in your explanation discuss how the linked graphs show the existence of a better scenario than the ones listed in the timeline. Your very first graph, from the Guardian, explicitly says '''50% chance of not exceeding 2°C''', which is Randall's middle scenario. That means '''it supports exactly what Randall is saying.''' It says absolutely nothing about a scenario better than the "best case" timeline. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:06, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
::::: Do you understand the words that I am saying? The words that I have been saying from the start of this conversation? I don't f***ing care about pie in the sky energy projects. '''Even if your energy claims are correct, they don't say a single d**n thing about beating the +1.2°C curve.'''. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:13, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
:::::: I apologize. I confused the +1° mark with +2°. The labels are so far above at the top. You are correct. I will forgo uploading the graphs as we are now in agreement. [[User:JSalsman|JSalsman]] ([[User talk:JSalsman|talk]]) 22:23, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

== Joanne Nova ==

* http://www.skepticalscience.com/How-Jo-Nova-doesnt-get-past-climate-change.html
* http://blog.hotwhopper.com/2014/03/almost-everything-we-know-about-fake.html
* http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/02/global-warming-denial.html
* http://www.desmogblog.com/joanne-nova-climate-skeptics-handbook
* http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Joanne_Nova
* http://itsnotnova.wordpress.com/
- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 23:41, 8 October 2016 (UTC)

== Interesting Ways to Look at it. ==

Hey, I had a great time scrolling down and watching the earth heat up :).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.115|108.162.245.115]] 19:47, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

ICYMI, [https://www.cato.org/ Cato] provides an [http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/wigley/magicc/ IPCC MAGICC] [http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/wigley/magicc/UserMan5.3.v2.pdf climate model] simulator for [https://www.cato.org/blog/current-wisdom-we-calculate-you-decide-handy-dandy-carbon-tax-temperature-savings-calculator anyone to examine]. FWIW, I side with {{w|Bjorn Lomborg}}, who famously champions a [http://www.lomborg.com/ middle way] in climate science for the sake of [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/09/19/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-lets-get-our-priorities-straight/ downtrodden peoples around the world]. Should we reconsider this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1732:_Earth_Temperature_Timeline#Explanation explanation] in this light? [[User:Run, you clever boy|Run, you clever boy]] ([[User talk:Run, you clever boy|talk]])

== Fact checking the chart on Stack Exchange ==

I posted a question on Earth Sciences Stack Exchange about how the {{w|Younger Dryas}} fits into this comic: http://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/9103/6973

There was also an existing question about the chart's general accuracy: http://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/8746/6973

--[[User:Aaron Rotenberg|Aaron Rotenberg]] ([[User talk:Aaron Rotenberg|talk]]) 02:53, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

== Translation of the Morse code message ==

The translation of the explanation in "Telegraph", written in Morse code, is: "Now, the mother of Samuel Morse always sent the lad out on a horse." [[User:Agusbou2015|Agusbou2015]] ([[User talk:Agusbou2015|talk]]) 15:56, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

== "Sad comics" ==
<blockquote>...So after the election of a climate change denier later in the year of this comic's release, several sad comics have been posted. Some of the reason could be that Randall no longer believes that even his worst fears (as expressed by the current path at the bottom) will hold up, when USA gets a president, who will on purpose act in a way that scientist claims will make the temperature rise even more. See more here.</blockquote>

I've mentioned this on the talk page for [[2137: Text Entry]], but I'll reiterate it here: this observation is not factual, not relevant to the explanation, and does not belong in the description of this comic. If you read it in context, you will see that it is also a non-sequitur, clumsily inserted after one or two factual sentences - it does not follow from anything prior in the discussion. It is poorly expressed and the point being made is unclear in any case.

While the user doing this may well have honest intentions, they are simply defacing articles with their own anti-Trump projections and spamming a link to their own, misleadingly-titled page ([[Sad comics]]) which has no clear meaning or explanatory value. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 16:38, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
:I have removed the offending paragraph. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 21:20, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race, and this graph shows it.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.19|172.68.50.19]]
:I agree that it has probably been a disaster (certainly a gamechanger) for the ecosystems, causing changes and challenges that are so much different to what everything else woupd have experienced without such a heavy hand of humans upon the planet. But for "the human race",vI wonder if there'd be so many billions of us if industrial (and post-malthusian) developments had never arisen. By a simplistic numbers game, we are (currently) ranking higher than it seems likely a more nature-tuned alternative 20th/21st-Century would have looked like.
:A higher population doesn't guarantee "success", I know, and only hindsight will say for sure whether unprecedented growth leads to unprecedented decline in the same 'scoring' value (indicating that it isn't the best score to use long-term), but some would say this. (Not me, I'm just philosophising here.)
:Beyond this, if only by entering the Industrial Age do we have the ability to foresee and forestall some asteroid impact..? Perhaps then the (somewhat damaged) ecosystem actually lives on 'better' (subjectively) from our flawed attempt to industrially improve the planet, to our own ends, the rediscovery of ecoprinciples and then the successful aversion of another planet-killing asteroid (or at least the development of "arks" to let the current biodiversity to ride out the problem, here or elsewhere). Unless you have the view that the post-now changes (like the post-dinosaur/etc changes) are themselves higher scoring on the nature-scale. (But then if an unaverted asteroid is equal to a prior one, then is our polluion of the world equal to when earlier organisms started to fill the atmosphere with deadly oxygen and convert the world to an entirely different phase of life?)
:What can definitely be said is that we're doing ''something'', but expect some people (who aren't actually full-on deniers) to suggest that it isn't really a bad thing. Which it probably is, of course. Or at least not the ''best'' thing, and there's probably better outcomes than the one we're tumbling into, by whatever measure. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 09:03, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

User talk:Unreliable Connection

2023-04-25T08:33:00Z

172.70.86.31: /* Birthday */ Reinserting vital information. And correcting a clear typo in it, given the opportunity.

Do you want me to create your sandbox? [[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 20:11, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

:Please create my user page and sandbox, and don't forget [[User:Memo Spike Connector]]. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 23:43, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

::I've created them both. Anyway, thanks for your kind reminder. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:42, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

:The page that you're in charge of got spam edits again. [[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 21:12, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

:Uh, They seem to know when I'm usually active, and spammed when I'm inactive, maybe just to annoy others. I always worked late. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 23:54, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
::Look guy(s), the spammers have been spamming long before you "took charge". Your work-hours matter not one jot, even if we knew your timezone, and the community handles it as it always tries to. I will deal with anything I see 'spammed', if not dealt with by others before I get there, and you can deal with anything that you see before anyone else gets there. Whether UC, CG, OMG or any other 'normal'. (Though OMG is clearly the same person as CG. If, by some remote chance, they are not, one of them is also UC; but very probably both are.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.86|172.71.242.86]] 11:37, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
:::And Look ''guy(s)''. You Have Already Been Tricked. Did you know about the email with CG's name on it? Y'no, I'm jealous of him, so I was gonna do a trick. [[User:Omg Oriental Music Group|Omg Oriental Music Group]] ([[User talk:Omg Oriental Music Group|talk]]) 23:03, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

'''DELETED COMMENT''' [[User:ColorfulGalaxy|ColorfulGalaxy]] ([[User talk:ColorfulGalaxy|talk]]) 21:26, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

:Thanks for encouraging. I will do better. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 23:52, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

Could you create my user page? [[User:Omg Oriental Music Group|Omg Oriental Music Group]] ([[User talk:Omg Oriental Music Group|talk]]) 09:34, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

:What are you going to do? [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:35, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

I want to put the lyrics in the sandbox into my user page sandbox. By the way, could you contact the author for the minor fix to the lyrics? [[User:Omg Oriental Music Group|Omg Oriental Music Group]] ([[User talk:Omg Oriental Music Group|talk]]) 09:36, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

:There is a lot of discussion about the lyrics going on in the portal. That's the place where I posted a math problem (sadly they removed it). Some people said that the lyrics were lousy. There are a lot of obscure words. I'm no linguist, really. I hope that the debate won't continue here. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:42, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

::See what the "author" said: http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/120234/a-message-of-encouragement --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 09:44, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

:::So this means that the only one left would be "Donald ATG Trump", which isn't active at all. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.228|172.71.154.228]] 09:47, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

== Predict the next comic ==

Let's try to predict what will come next on the xkcd comics. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 23:53, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

:What about music staff?

==Lyrics==

You're not going to create a sandbox for me, so I'll temporarily put it here.

? — [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:43, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

You made the page almost take forever to load. [[User:ClassicalGames|ClassicalGames]] ([[User talk:ClassicalGames|talk]]) 08:51, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Please stop talking about the lyrics. Several other people has gotten angry. I can't trust you, because you kept doing something suspicious and you sound like a scammer. [[User:Memo Spike Connector|2503: Memo Spike Connector]] ([[User talk:Memo Spike Connector|talk]]) 00:51, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

== When the bot failed ==

Please read [[User:DgbrtBOT|this page]] before creating a new comic page. Your edit had puzzled the bot too much. [[User:ClassicalGames|ClassicalGames]] ([[User talk:ClassicalGames|talk]]) 08:51, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

== Birthday ==
It happened that my birthday is the day immediately after yours. And our last names are almost spelled the same. [[User:Memo Spike Connector|2503: Memo Spike Connector]] ([[User talk:Memo Spike Connector|talk]]) 06:12, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

It seems that we have a lot in common. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:06, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

:Our birthdays all fall in the same month. [[User:Missed Connections|935: Missed Connections]] ([[User talk:Missed Connections|talk]]) 23:43, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
::You're not fooling anyone and, with messages like the above, it seems you don't care. Do what you do, and if it's not contrary to the site ethos/good practice then it's tolerable (whether or not it's annoying). But there's really no need to 'fake' different personæ. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.161|172.70.162.161]]

== Transcript ==
If this page was copied did you not remove the incomplete transcript tag? Its complete! Do your part!

:Thanks for reminding. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 07:13, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

1418: Horse

2023-04-24T12:57:07Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */ Added another layer of hindsight, semi-future-proofed (may still need an end-date if/when a resolution happens, whichever way that happens)

{{comic
| number = 1418
| date = September 8, 2014
| title = Horse
| image = horse.png
| titletext = Officer suspended from horse.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has set his browser to auto-replace the word "force" with the word "horse." Some of the humorous resulting news headlines are shown.

*Ukrainian town threatened by pro-Russian horses
**At the time this comic was published, there was civil unrest in Ukraine, mostly framed as pro-European vs pro-Russian. In earlier centuries, the phrase "pro-Russian horses" could refer to the animals riden by Cossacks, or by their enemies, as alliances shifted.
***In 2022, this statement would perhaps become even more relevent. 
**It should be noted that Randall spelled "Ukrainian" incorrectly, forgetting the first 'i'.
*Governor appoints task horse
**A {{w|Task force}} is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity, which makes it quite comical to picture a horse instead of a unit. A "task horse" would presumably be a horse performing tasks.
*Iraqi Air Horse growing
**The Air ''Force'' of Iraq may indeed be being up-armed, especially in light of the threat, at this time, of ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State forces across swaths of both Iraq and Syria. In mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse that could fly through the air, and might be considered an "air horse". In real life, "Air Horse One" is an airplane equipped for transporting horses.
*Quarks, which are bound together by the strong nuclear horse.
**{{w|Quark|Quarks}} are elementary particles. They form bound states e.g. the {{w|proton}} (two up + one down-quark) mediated by the {{w|Strong interaction|strong force}}, similarly as atoms are bound states of {{w|Electron|electrons}} and charged {{w|Nucleon|nucleons}} held together by the {{w|Electromagnetism|electromagnetic horse}}.
**They are also referenced in [[474: Turn-On]], [[1621: Fixion]] and in [[1731: Wrong]].
**There is a real Nuclear horse in a different sense, which is a racehorse born in 2017 and named Nuclear.
*Officer suspended from horse (title text)
**Being suspended from a police force (i.e. usually being forced upon mandatory leave pending resolution of the issue at hand; paid, part-paid or unpaid) is a common practice where culpable wrongdoing of sufficiently serious nature is suspected of the individual concerned. It may also occur in some countries when the police officer grew too old for the job. A person could literally be suspended from a horse if they fall off the horse but got stuck in the stirrups. Unlike most of these "horse" terms, a police horse is a real thing.

This is probably a parody of the [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cloud-to-butt-plus/apmlngnhgbnjpajelfkmabhkfapgnoai?hl=en Cloud to Butt Chrome Extension] (since it says ''new'' favorite browser text replacement).

There has been several [[:Category:Substitutions|comics using substitutions]] before and also at least one after this one.

==Transcript==
:[Headlines above the main frame of the comic:]
:New favorite browser text replacement:
:'''Force → Horse'''

:[In the comic frame Cueball is sitting in front of his PC reading the following headlines that are written above him in separate frames:]
:Ukranian towns threatened by pro-Russian horses
:Governor appoints task horse
:Iraqi air horse growing
:Quarks, which are bound together by the strong nuclear horse...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Substitutions]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2763: Linguistics Gossip

2023-04-17T19:24:13Z

172.70.86.31:

Added initial explanation [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:08, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo

Added possible explanation of title text [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:14, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo

Has anyone asked O what they think of all this?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 14:32, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

NOTE: I'm assuming the IE/VE ligature is IE, where the I is tilted
Could this also be a reference to the historical Latin pronunciation of Æ, and its separation into "AA" (which could be represented by "ar" in English ("r" is silent), hence the ligature "AR") and "IE" (which would be pronounced "ee" as in "relieve") [[User:1844161|1844161]] ([[User talk:1844161|talk]]) 15:21, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: I disagree. The title text strongly points towards VE as the logical interpretation [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 15:52, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Me too. Also, funnily I thought of Andy Warhol...but in his "LOVE" pop art, the O is tilted, not the V.[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.133|198.41.242.133]] 09:20, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
::That wasn't Warhol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(image) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.151|162.158.63.151]] 13:33, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

I think it might be helpful to readers to provide a parenthetical describing the pronunciation of the 'ash' glyph, so that people who aren't old language aficionados aren't left in the lurch if they're the sort who read aloud in their head. I'm going to add it, but if someone removes it I won't be miffed. Also, there's no way the new E ligature is meant to be IE. The title text only makes sense if it's VE.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.136|172.69.67.136]] 15:56, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Thank you. That was super helpful as I'm language-curious, but not an æficænado. Any chance we could get similar explanations of the AR (seems legit) & AV(seems not)? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:49, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

I hope AR wedding hat a pirate theme. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 16:05, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

The AR ligature is used in aeronautical engineering for the aspect ratio of a wing. This mainly applies to handwritten work, since there isn't an easy way to insert that glyph when typing. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 17:18, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Example of 🜇 in aeronautics: http://tug.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/aspectratio/ar.pdf . It was also used in antiquity: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exempla_Mensurarum_Sal%C3%B2.JPG

The AR (🜇) ligature also stands for a substance that can mix with gold. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.125|162.158.166.125]] 09:09, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
:If you mean {{w|Aqua regia}}, it's not so much 'mix with' as 'dissolve'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 18:08, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
::Is this comic inspired by an "aqua regia" incident? [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 02:07, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Does it have to be? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 19:24, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

2763 -MathHacked

I suppose the Æsop is that it's not necessary to maintain a chimæric quæstionability just for primævally æsthetic reasons, or have sæcularly dæmonic adhærence to adhæsively mæandering through an anæsthetic tædium of hæritage fæcality. Unless that's all just hæretical hyperbolæ, casting pædagogical umbræ on the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 21:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
: Well plæd.
: AUGH!!! Just make it stop!!!!
It's just too bad they all now live in the same ''small recreational vehicle'' because that leads to awkwardness. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.159|172.71.142.159]] 02:07, 15 April 2023 (UTC)
: Seems pretty roomy based on the space between them.;)

A and E got REM🜇RIED?! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.96|172.70.38.96]] 05:28, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

It is downright incorrect to refer to the ae-ligature as 'ash', as this is only true when it is used to Latinize the aesc-rune in Old English, which is anything but the most common use of this ligature. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.192|172.70.46.192]] 18:01, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

I went looking for "AR" and "VE" ligatures in general use (and in Unicode), and found nothing. Are they in general use? If not, a comment to that effect in the explanation would be helpful. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 21:44, 15 April 2023 (UTC)
:(Ignoring that D5xtgr said there was an AR, and an IP even ''wrote'' an 🜇...) Of course they weren't in general use, because A and E were together all that time, but now they're recoupled..! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.87|172.71.242.87]] 21:58, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

I'm no linguist, but this may refer to the fact that many languages with the AE ligature are romance languages, while English is not. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:04, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

[[https://battlefordreamisland.fandom.com/wiki/2,763 2763]] is a running gag in BFDI :) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.106|172.71.22.106]] 19:02, 16 April 2023 (UTC)Bumpf
:Probably unrelated. By the way, is it OK for me to edit comic explanations? [[User:Missed Connections|935: Missed Connections]] ([[User talk:Missed Connections|talk]]) 22:58, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

AE could refer to Adam and Eve

Then we get EV as Eve.
Not yet sure where AR refers to, Adam and Romeo, Augmented Reality?
Love does contain VE as reverse of EV.
[[User:XKCDnl|XKCDnl]] ([[User talk:XKCDnl|talk]]) 04:16, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

AR stands for:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%9F%9C%87
synonym for
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%9F%9C%86#Translingual
stands for to "aqua regia" that means:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/aqua_regia
"royal water"

So we have Eve and the royal water, so is she now baptised and blessed with love?
[[User:XKCDnl|XKCDnl]] ([[User talk:XKCDnl|talk]]) 14:48, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

2735: Coordinate Plane Closure

2023-02-09T16:00:12Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */ Improved way to reference it.

{{comic
| number = 2735
| date = February 8, 2023
| title = Coordinate Plane Closure
| image = coordinate_plane_closure_2x.png
| imagesize = 271x376px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 3D graphs that don't contact the plane in the closure area may proceed as scheduled, but be alert for possible collisions with 2D graph lines that reach the hole and unexpectedly enter 3D space.
}}

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

This comic is a "Math Notice," which is presumably a warning or reminder for mathematicians or others who interact with the field of mathematics, in a similar way to how a "Travel Notice" may prewarn drivers of planned road closures for repairs (or [https://www.cameroncountytx.gov/spacex/ rocketry]). Specifically, this one advises those who are using the coordinate plane to avoid drawing any graphs in the area with a hole until the damage is patched or fixed. This comic invents this concept of Math Notices, and is also very similar to that of a {{w|Notice to mariners}} or {{w|NOTAM|airmen}}, where nautical or aeronautical navigation might be impinged by a clear area (or volume) that should be kept clear from in the near future. The comic also resembles notices from websites or software providers about planned maintenance, which alert users about upcoming outages.

{{w|Coordinate planes}} are used in math for drawing graphs. The joke here is that a small section has been "closed for maintenance," likening the concept of a coordinate plane to an actual physical platform used by math, which is therefore vulnerable to damage such as is shown in the comic. In reality, the coordinate plane cannot be damaged as it is not a tangible thing.{{citation needed}}

Closure in mathematics can be a term relating to sets, specifically operations on sets, and a coordinate plane is a particular set of numbers. A set is closed under an operation if all the "answers" to the operation are also in the set. The coordinate plane is said to be closed under vector addition for example - adding together any two coordinates produces another coordinate in the plane. Many functions and operators may be said to have closure on the real plane, and this comic may be a pun on that term. However, if there actually is a hole in the plane, then suddenly the plane will no longer exhibit closure.

Also related to closure is the {{w|closure problem}}. Put simply, the closure problem is to find the highest or lowest weight of a closure in certain types of graphs. This comic may also be talking about the closure problem, as it talks about a hole in the graph, and to minimise it would be referring to the closure problem.

Closure can also be used in another sense, relating to the topology of a set; roughly speaking, a description of what parts of the set are "close" to others. In this sense, if one takes the closure of a plane with a hole, the result is indeed an intact plane, provided the hole is sufficiently (infinitesimally) small.

The title text notes that 3D graphs that cross the relevant x and y coordinates, but with non-zero z coordinates whilst in that zone, should be fine, since the hole only exists in the plane where z = 0. However, if they pass close - i.e. the z coordinate is small in this region - they should be wary of two dimensional graph lines suddenly become three-dimensional and interfering with them. This could be because they have intentionally entered three-dimensional space to avoid the closure, or possibly they have inadvertently been 'launched' above/below the plane by the torn and warped edges of the surface. This is similar to warnings to road traffic in open lanes being warned of traffic merging from lanes that have been closed due to works or any other general warning of increased congestion upon a parallel route used as a diversion.

The concept of 2D objects suddenly entering 3D space — in a way that creates interesting drama and conflict — is the subject of a book, Flatland, that Randall is familiar with, as it was the subject of [[721: Flatland]].

==Transcript==
:[A coordinate graph is shown with both axis unlabeled but with two labeled ticks. In the middle of the shown area of the graph there is a hole torn in the white "fabric" of the graphs plane. It has jagged edges and lines runs away from the hole in all directions. The area visible through the hole is covered in thin gray lines, and the edges of the hole cast shadows onto the surface below. Two points are marked on the graph at coordinates (X,Y) of (1.5, 1) and (2, 1.5). These two dots marks two of the corners of a square drawn with gray dotted lines, The square completely surrounds the hole. Above the graph there is a very large heading, with black danger triangles with exclamation marks in them, on either side of the heading. Below this there are three lines of text. And below the graph there are four more lines of text.]
:<big>! Math Notice !</big>
:The coordinate plane will be closed Thursday between (1.5, 1) and (2, 1.5) to repair a hole.
:Labels on Y-axis ticks: 1 2
:Labels on X-axis ticks: 1 2
:If your graph uses this area, please postpone drawing until Friday or transform it to different coordinates.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:1227: The Pace of Modern Life

2023-02-07T13:01:52Z

172.70.86.31: Might as well give it a timestamp, while we're here. Not important, but also nice to do.

Is it sad that after reading the first few, I thought "TL; DR" and found myself skim reading most of them since I'm meant to be working right now and not reading xkcd? {{unsigned ip|‎90.152.3.226}}

Just finishing commenting on a special issue of the generational myth for a dedicated issue of Perspectives on Science and Practice. This here is a lovingly put together list of unique "life was better then" examples - which is exceedingly hard to do. Here's my commentary on why this occurs: "As Walker, Skowronski and Thompson (2003) review, autobiographical memory typically favors pleasant over unpleasant memories with bad memories fading with time, a notable exception to bad stimuli providing stronger reactions than good. This makes our recollection of our past biased towards the idyllic, and makes us very susceptible to the adage “Things were better then.” Combined with the “reminiscence bump” (Glück & Bluck, 2007), where people recall more events from their teenager and early adulthood years, which again tend to be recollected positively, the past will be a golden age for almost all of us, given time." Read this piece a day after getting our paper accepted, so neat timing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.114|108.162.215.114]] 19:50, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

That's obviously what's intended [[Special:Contributions/155.56.68.216|155.56.68.216]] 09:53, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree that this point was possibly intended and added text to the analysis, explicitly pointing it out. [[User:Jimbob|Jimbob]] ([[User talk:Jimbob|talk]]) 16:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

:It was not what was intended. Randall used all those quotes to build a compelling argument. The fact that some people "don't have time" to read them all is simply a supporting case, albeit one that each person will have to come to personally. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:05, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

I don't think it's sad. According to my 11th Grade Literary Analysis, the propensity to take shortcuts is a fundamental flaw in human nature, but introductory Psychology lauded our use of heuristics. I say you should find meaning in your humanity and ability to set your own priorities and allocate just enough resources to various aspects of your life in order to succeed in life where the objectives are unclear.[[Special:Contributions/98.166.43.28|98.166.43.28]] 12:06, 19 June 2013 (UTC)DBrak

:Did you just... quote yourself? [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 05:58, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

::As I've often said: "You've got to listen to someone who quotes themself" [[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 13:03, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

The topic made me slow down, read, and understand. Perhaps the point was lost on me, but the expressions from a century ago seem much like those made today. One can't help but wonder if that means they were wrong then and wrong now or if our society was in a century long devolutionary spiral, terminating with Twitter or whatever is coming next. --[[Special:Contributions/108.34.230.242|108.34.230.242]] 10:02, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:I think you're on the right track, and these are exactly the types of questions that Randall was seeking to raise. [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 05:58, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

Had this continued to present day the most recent entry would be something like this:
:lol didnt read '''#tldr #boredalready #yawn'''
:::- Most of 'Civilisation', ''Social Media''
::::::::::2013
[[Special:Contributions/77.86.53.65|77.86.53.65]] 12:11, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Just added an explanation. Unfortunately, there's no transcript provided in the source code and I don't have time to type all that out (who does?). Also, I have no idea what to use for categories. Any suggestions? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 12:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
:Not a suggestion, but does anyone know if Randall types or writes it out, or copies and pastes? --[[User:Luckymustard|Luckymustard]] ([[User talk:Luckymustard|talk]]) 13:04, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
::Looks like the letterforms are identical -- my guess is a custom font. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 14:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

If this comic was meant to say that we should give up on these types of arguments, this comic did the opposite effect: I actually AGREE with all of this!

I mean, I tend to write long private messages, while the longest replies I get are also the most satisfying, since they tell me quite a bit of the recipient. Relatedly, I prefer to write long responses to pieces of artwork when I comment on art sites, telling people exactly why I like the art... what shines... what needs to be polished. (Of course, I am going to need to find a way to simply stay at a work and truly take in what is presented.) In fact, letter restrictions sometimes restrict me too much. I DO need to be more social, not having any reading material at hand (whether the material be a newspaper or a video game). I dislike people PUSHING me to look around myself; this is something I do automatically. In fact, while I like staying inside and exploring the wonders of the Internet hours on end, I also like going outside alone and looking around myself, seeing the wonders that other people ignore (probably because other people are too busy talking to yet other people). There really is a mental degeneration (You can see this for yourself in the comments other people leave in websites.) and addiction to stimulants. In fact, stress (and DIStress) is one of the main reasons why we have cancer far more often that the non-developed parts of the world, since stress compromises the body severely. Play, while easily abused, is never the less a necessary part of development, even while an adult. I wish I could keep up pace with the world, but I also hope, for the sake of the world and myself, that the world slows down to me. You can see for yourself how newspapers are being scandalous. I myself suffer from eating foods too quickly (yet there is the problem of ants and spoilage if I take TOO long when eating, a sad possibility due to me preferring to eat at the computer.) Rebellion (a problem that even I suffer) does cause people to want their own way, not knowing that they are just being a slave to impulses, their authorities having the experience to liberate them for the things that their subordinates really do want and shall really want. (The rebels do not want others to 'cramp their style,' but they fail to learn basic anatomy and lighting, much less on making a pleasing style!) There is an entropy in displayed morals, yet that is something that requires changing the hearts of people, though we can control this by 'starving' the problematic media (another bit of advice with which even I also struggle, my curiosity provoking me to see things that should not be seen), since they only proliferate if there are people to feed them. People all around us know that marriage feel into disarray. While legally-backed homosexuality (and, soon, polygamy), and, to an extent, abortion (regardless of the reason) have been causing their problems, marriage already fell in disarray when divorce (that is, breaking a lifetime vow), pornography (that is, selling the private bodies of people for your selfish desires), promiscuity, and birth control (that is, using a reproductive function for non-reproductive reasons and otherwise abusing the reproductive function) already led themselves to an array of evils.

Again, people would probably just skip my wall of text here, but I feel that I need to make my old-fashioned (whether for worse or better) opinion heard here. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 15:16, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

In my honest opinion, your wall of text is a work of art in itself. I wholeheartedly agree with you, and ''I am the next generation. '' Life has been sped up too fast for us, and it is too often that I see my peers on their devices, or trying to do too many things at once. You make many valid points and good observations. ~Alithia [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.5|108.162.241.5]] 14:15, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

--
So, the argument has been going on for a long time. Does this comic imply that (1) we perceive that the pace of life was slower in the old days, but has always been as fast as it is today, or (2) that the pace of life has actually been speeding up for a very long time now? [[Special:Contributions/194.176.105.141|194.176.105.141]] 15:31, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
: I think that the pace of life has been speeding up for a long time now. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:59, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:: Perhaps it's the case indeed that the "pace of life" has been speeding up... but I wonder: to what end? Is this a problem? If so, why? In response to your "wall of text," I'm not sure that there are really so many negative repercussions to society today ''that we can quantify.'' Sure, cancer is more of a problem today than it was 100 yrs ago, but we are also living much, much longer today. So I have trouble imagining that it's due solely to "stressors" in our lives.

::I'm not so sure that Randall was necessarily for or against the "modern life is rubbish" judging by the comic's quotes. However, I do believe he was trying to spur questions and conversations about it. So, to that end it's a pretty important contribution. [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 06:06, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

Added to the explanation, please correct any grammar, composition, or repetition mistakes, thank you. -- [[Special:Contributions/186.124.46.183|186.124.46.183]] 16:40, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Did anyone else notices that you can get the gist by only reading the bolded text? It's probably a just me. Anyone want to take the time to compile the bold text only and place it in the explination? [[User:Crsoccerfreak19|Crsoccerfreak19]] ([[User talk:Crsoccerfreak19|talk]]) 18:47, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:I didn't see this before, but I think that work is a great idea. So my next job here is to work on that an checking if this does make sense. Thanks for your hint.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

------

I did an full update to the transcript. I used the existing parts here, many thanks to the contributors, the free web site [http://www.ocronline.com/ OCR Online] (the only one did work, in fact it did work as a hell) and {{w|LibreOffice Writer}} for changing the case to lower case. After that it was just some manual work without typing all that text.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:13, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

The meaning I took from this comic was very much [[wikt:plus_%C3%A7a_change,_plus_c'est_la_m%C3%AAme_chose|Plus ca change]]. There are translated Roman messages that say very similar things about the current state of Latin, and I bet even ''that'' was merely an inadvertent echo of prior ages. As one who can be very verbose with (at least ''intended'') correct spelling, grammar and vocabulary, I ''could'' go on at great length about how this works for the current day, but on this occasion shall restrain myself. Yours faithfully  [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 20:56, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Adding 'the sub text':
----
The art of letter-writing is fast dying out. We fire off a multitude of rapid and short notes, instead of sitting down to have a good talk oer a real sheet of paper.

In olden times it was different.

Men now live think and work at express speed. Sulkily read as they travel ... leaving them no time to talk with the friend who may share the compartment with them.

The age of leisure is dead, and the art of conversation is dying.

A craving for literary nips. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.

The art of pure line engraving is dying out. We live at too fast a rate.

Nothing is left to the imagination. And human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary. Thirty pages is now too much. Fifteen pages. Further condensed. A summary of the summary. Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works. Hurried reading can never be good reading.

Mental and nervous degeneration among a growing class of people. Brain incapable of normal working... in a large measure due to the hurry and excitement of modern life. Almost instantaneous communication between remote points of the globe.

Teach the children how to play. Instead of shutting them in badly ventilated schoolrooms.

Increased demand made by the conditions of modern life upon the brain. We talk across a continent, telegraph across an ocean. We take even our pleasures sadly and make a task of our play.

The managers of sensational newspapers. Create perverted tastes and develop vicious tendencies.

To take sufficient time for our meals seems frequently impossible.

May I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable old friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten.

People talk as they ride bicycles - at a rush - without pausing to consider their surroundings. The profession of letters is so little understood.

There is a tendency among the children of today to rebel against restraint.

Our modern family gathering, silent. Each individual with his head buried in his favourite magazine.

Deal openly with situations which no person would have dared to mention in general society forty years ago. Nude men and women in the daily journals.

Fitness and courtliness too often totally lacking.

A hundred years ago it took sol long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. A brief letter to-day may be followed by another next week - a "line" now by another to-morrow.
{{unsigned ip|209.217.94.93|21:27, 19 June 2013 (UTC)}}
:Thanks [209.217.94.93], I will put in my version here and I am happy if you can correct possible mistakes.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:58, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Can anyone validate these are true quotes? I tried searching for the one in Google Books for Morley: Ancient and Modern and it came up with no results. They're great quotes, but is it possible they're made up?--[[Special:Contributions/119.224.37.9|119.224.37.9]] 07:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

At least one of the quotes is real: [http://books.google.com/books?id=nc_UAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA265&ots=AAC4OimA5D&dq=%22So%20much%20is%20exhibited%20to%20the%20eye%20that%20nothing%20is%20left%20to%20the%20imagination%22&pg=PA265#v=onepage&q=%22So%20much%20is%20exhibited%20to%20the%20eye%20that%20nothing%20is%20left%20to%20the%20imagination%22&f=false "So much is exhibited to the eye that nothing is left to the imagination"]{{unsigned ip|216.55.56.42}}

The only point this comic is trying to make is that yes the olden times were different, but they were not as different as we suppose. The people had exactly the same intelligence and capacities as we do today, and apparently shared the same concerns about change, and the detrimental effect it will have on all parts of society. OF course, every generation puts itself in the position of greatest importance, and believes that the present moment is of the highest criticality. Sorry folks - get over yourselves. It isn't true. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:05, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

"Our brains have just one scale, and we resize our experiences to fit." -xkcd: Connoisseur. I once saw an experiment where they ask random people to, without a clock, tell them when they thought one minute had passed. Overwhelmingly the young came in under and the old over. The world isn't moving faster you're moving slower. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.112}}

While there might be a tendency to look at this and say "Ah, you see, the complaints about the increasing pace of life has always existed and may thus be safely ignored today!", it's also worth noting that the earliest of the excerpts here began well within the heart of the Industrial Revolution, a time when humanity was changing at a pace unheard of in the thousands of years that had come before. It would be interesting to see if letters from a pre-industrial period still hold much the same complaints. Perhaps such things are a symptom of industrialization, and not inherent to humanity? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.9|108.162.225.9]] 02:07, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

To be fair, the 1898 quote from Medical Brief was lamenting not newspapers in general, but rather tabloid-style 'yellow journalism', which is more obvious if you read the [https://books.google.com/books?id=uaJWAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA75 full piece] (under the header "Newspaper Sensationalism"). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.28|162.158.75.28]] 05:39, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Children grow up, the world knows how children differ with the pace of tech development, that depends first and foremost on parents, the family.
Further, children gradually learn to live by themselves, but the base, the family, the school, the team, friends and all, this chain is supplemented by other stuff, but there must be the right start. Look at the pace of current educational tools and general tech gadgets (comparing [http://essaywriting.ninja ninjaessays prices] on the market).
[[User:Briansage|Briansage]] ([[User talk:Briansage|talk]]) 11:56, 18 September 2018 (UTC)

== Code for searching excerpts ==

Hey guys, DDJ student and longtime xkcd fan here.

Wanted to ask if anyone knows - or can deduce - what code was used by Randall while researching for this comic. How did he manage to find so many excerpts on this topic, especially in such antique and rather obscure publications?

I couldn't find a comment by Randall specifically on this matter. I've just recently begun studying code and can't think of a particular keyword or phrase that would return these excerpts - every one I come up with would find a massive amount of results which would take a lifetime to read through and select for the comic.

Can you guys help me figure out how this was done? Any insights on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

PS: it's my first time commenting on a wiki, so I apologize if it's added on the wrong section. If so, please let me know if it needs to be moved elsewhere. --[[User:Ritalina65|Ritalina65]] ([[User talk:Ritalina65|talk]]) 19:50, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

: first time commenting on a wiki, so please bear with me here. My guess is he used some kind of search feature like in Google ngrams, where you can search for keywords or expressions over a large dataset of published magazines, newspapers and books. {{unsigned|Fyreson|18:43, 14 March 2022}}

2733: Size Comparisons

2023-02-06T14:47:57Z

172.70.86.31: /* Explanation */ citation needed

{{comic
| number = 2733
| date = February 3, 2023
| title = Size Comparisons
| image = size_comparisons_2x.png
| imagesize = 238x373px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you shrank the Solar System to the size of Texas, the Houston metro area would be smaller than a grasshopper in Dallas.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TEXAS-SIZED CRICKET - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Another comic in the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series.

[[Cueball]] attempts to emphasize to [[Ponytail]] what {{w|Texas}}'s size is (as the largest state in the {{w|contiguous US}}, although the second largest state in the whole of the {{w|US}}), by making a size comparison. He states that with Texas expanded to the size of the {{w|Solar System}}, the {{w|ant}}s in Texas will be as large as {{w|Rhode Island}} (the smallest US state). However, Cueball on purpose (according to the caption) just proves how small Texas actually is compared to the Solar System (which is a lot larger).{{Citation needed}}

A common analogy for expressing a statistic (such as area/volume/population size/population density) of unfamiliar things is to compare that thing to some other reference that people are likely to already have an understanding of, if only through past comparisons. For instance, it is said that a human-sized {{w|flea}} could jump the equivalent height of the {{w|Eiffel Tower}} (if jumping ability scaled with animal size; which it does not, due to how some of the different numbers involved will scale to the square or cube of the linear factor, so such aspects as power-to-weight ratios and sheer biomechanical strengths cannot be maintained). In this case, Randall is comparing objects that are extremely different in scale (the state of Texas and a small insect), but then blowing Texas up to yet another size many orders of magnitude larger, and then comparing it with something else his addressee has no comprehension of, with the result that the comparison is of no value in understanding how big Texas is (which could be supposed to be Cueball's intended impartation), or what ants have to do with anything in the first place. The only message you get in the end is that "Texas is much bigger than an ant!

There are a lot of definitions for how large the Solar System is, but one that is used (and easily agreed upon) is based upon {{w|Neptune}}'s {{w|Apsis#Perihelion and aphelion|aphelion}} (the farthest point from Sun of the outermost planet). Using the {{w|Area of a circle|circle area equation}}, we might say that the 'area' of the solar system is 6.49×1019 square kilometers (2.506×1019 square miles), which is a lot, with Texas's area being in turn measured as 696,241 km² (268,820 mi²). The difference in size is the huge factor of 9.32×1013 (not a [[2707: Astronomy Numbers|simple number]]). Ants, unfortunately for the calculations, vary vastly in size, but Rhode Island's area is known to be 3,144 km² (1,214 mi²). We can therefore back-calculate that Randall's average "ant" would occupy 33.73 square millimeters. Roughly measured, an ant has an "aspect ratio" of 1:2 (width to length), and such an assumption leads to a length of 8.21mm, which falls easily into the range of 2–25mm for various possible species and types of ants. Therefore, Randall's calculated comparison indeed holds up as valid.

The title text refers to the opposite, with the entire Solar system being scaled down to the size of Texas. {{w|Houston}} (a city in Texas) has a {{w|Greater Houston|metropolitan area}} (an area extending a bit beyond the city itself) that, if ''shrunk'' by the same factor as before, would be smaller than a grasshopper in {{w|Dallas}}, another city in Texas. (This, of course, only works if Houston's environs are part of what is shrunk, yet the grasshopper – and perhaps at least part of its apparent hometown of Dallas – remains unchanged.) The calculations to verify this hinge upon Houston's metro area normally being considered to be 26,061 km² (10,062 mi²), and hence becoming 279.6 square millimeters. A grasshopper may be considered thinner than an ant, so we shall use the aspect ratio of 1:3 instead, to give a length of 28.96 mm, or almost 3 centimeters and approximately an inch. This falls within the range of 1–7cm range, that may be found [https://animalcorner.org/animals/grasshopper/ quoted in some places], but is significantly smaller than [https://a-z-animals.com/blog/the-10-largest-grasshoppers-in-the-world/ notably large species]. Whether the Dallas grasshopper is any particular variety (or even a native, rather than an exotic pet) is not expounded upon.

On the other hand, the comparison would be meaningful the other way around: "The Solar System is so big that if you shrink it to the size of Texas, (the shrunken) Rhode Island would now be as small as (unshrunken) ants".

==Transcript==
:[Cueball speaking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: Texas is so big that if you expanded it to the size of the Solar System, the ants there would be as big as Rhode Island.
:Ponytail: Wow!
:Ponytail: ...Wait.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My hobby: Unhelpful size comparisons

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2733: Size Comparisons

2023-02-04T17:06:40Z

172.70.86.31:

But Texas isn't even the largest US State. It's the ''second'' largest state, behind Alaska. Mind you, if you took Alaska and divided it into two then Texas would no longer be in second place... It would now be third! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.203|172.71.242.203]] 02:11, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:LOL, poor Texans. I'm from Australia. We only have 6 states, and 4 of them are bigger than Texas. So Texas would be in the smallest 50% of states if it was part of Australia [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 14:01, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

I started an explanation. My first, so I hope it's OK. Notice how I resisted [Citation needed]. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:20, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

:... and ninjaed. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:21, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Fixed the beginning, now it says Texas is the second-largest state. [[User:WhatDoWeDoNow|WhatDoWeDoNow]] ([[User talk:WhatDoWeDoNow|talk]]) 03:29, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:Alaska isn't usually considered part of the "contiguous US", so Texas is indeed first there. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:39, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Note that if you scale Rhode Island up to the size of the Solar System, the ants would be even larger. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 06:46, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Trivia: In Germany we like to compare big things to the size of the Saarland, the smallest federal state that is not a city state. But since it is also the state with the least people living in it almost noone really knows how big the Saarland really is (and of the rest noone really cares to find out). This reminds me a lot of this Texas vs. Alaska discussion and I wonder if every country has something like this...? --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.39|172.71.160.39]] 07:44, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:In the UK, at a certain range of scale our general comparison standard is (half/three times /etc) "the size of Wales". e.g. the quantity of rainforest that is doomed, at any particular time. There ''are'' a lot of people there (often, according to the Welsh themselves, too many English incomers) and it is usefully easy to identify (I think of it as the "head of the pig that the gnome is riding", but that might just be me), given its prominant appearance in the outline of Great Britain itself. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3715512.stm Usually!] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.81|172.70.85.81]] 08:51, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
::In Australia we seem compelled to use Sydney Harbour as the unit of measurement for any large amount of water[[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 13:57, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:::And when we don't compare to the size of states, we usually use sports fields. "football fields" is a frequent unit of measurement in the media. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:13, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

Notably, the larger the state you scale up the smaller the ants will be, as you would have to scale it by a smaller factor. The comparison would be more accurate if it read: "Texas is so big that if you expanded it to the size of the Solar System, the ants there would "only* be as big as Rhode Island."
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 10:31, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
:Wait, Jordan Brown already said that. [[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 10:32, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

I just barely resisted changing the "Dallas" wikipedia link to point to the page for the TV show. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:11, 4 February 2023 (UTC)

A note that, in an edit I just made, amongst other things I went through and (hopefully) clarified the style of the area measurements. (Though only assuming that they were numerically correct... Didn't check!) If you say "''N' kilometres squared", this can be so easily taken/meant as "(''N'' km)²", rather than "''N'' square kilometres", which is "''N'' (km²)". Both areas, but different. Just like the volume described as "10 centimetres cubed" would also be "1000 cubic centimeters". (In both cases being 1 litre).
 The easy confusion coming from the "km²" unit which you will read straight as "kilometres squared". And a single one is a "kilometre squared", before being given a number as some multiple of "kilometre squared"s, but that generally aint the same as a "multiple of kilometres" squared. So it is instead best to word it (if you do that at all) as "(a multiple of) square kilometres".
 ((Next up, I shall probably go on to explain the technical difference between "degrees Kelvin", °K (or alternately as required for the scales Centigrade, Fahrenheit, Rankine, Delisle, whatever), and "Kelvin degrees", K°... ;) ))
 Oh and, don't worry. Though I used the international version of "litre", etc, above, I tried to make sure I use the American-type spelling in the article itself, despite all my British instincts and natural preference... Just that here I couldn't.conscuously stand to write it 'wrongly' in my own far more personalised bit of prose. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.31|172.70.86.31]] 17:06, 4 February 2023 (UTC)