explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2833: Lying

2023-09-28T09:00:56Z

172.71.178.5:

Why the heck is the image so biiiiig? {{unsigned ip|172.69.135.23|03:54, 26 September 2023}}
:well, looks like he accidentally published the source file for the comic... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.100.205|141.101.100.205]] 04:06, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::Good. People should be using HD monitors by now. (EDIT: I didn't realize it was 8k, but still, don't most browsers let you resize images anyway?) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.188|172.70.126.188]] 08:41, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Why do I have to lug around an HD monitor as well as my smart-tablet?
::::Why doesn't your smart-tablet have an HD screen? My phone is 2960 x 1440 and it still fits in my pocket. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.168|172.70.127.168]] 00:29, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Nobody said HD ''screen''. It is the suggested additional monitor that is impractical. Including a suitable power supply and of course the appropriate dongles/etc. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 01:53, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
::::::Why do you need an additional monitor? Why can't your tablet display in HD by default? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.46|172.71.254.46]] 19:22, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::(Actually, it's not width that's the problem, for me, but height. As using in portrait orientation makes text too small for browsing, and I hate sites that 'mobile optimise' assuming I'll turn my device that way.)
::::Most mobile browsers have a button for "show desktop version". I just hate when people assume vertical videos are okay. Even when I'm using my phone, landscape is better. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.65|172.70.100.65]] 00:30, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Do you know how well the "show desktop version" ''doesn't'' work. It frequently doesn't switch away from the mobile-URL (e.g. "en.m.wikipedia.org" to "en.wikipedia.org", or "/FOO-mobile.htm" to "/FOO.htm") and you still have to make that sort of change manually to the address-bar to fuly jailbreak out of the hard-coded "useful" mobile functionality (which may come back once it forgets your preference and gets redirected to use them all again), and I'm pretty sure that the places that do this detection invisibly (fingerprinting the browser used) to make the changes behind the scenes don't all fully honour the browser setting, perhaps just get over-riden by some more insistent indicator that the site-author has encoded later in the decesion-stack (e.g., at least for me, I ''cannot'' get the non-mobile layout of https://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/find-events to display on this device, for whatever reason). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.174|141.101.98.174]] 01:11, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Note that especially wide images play merry-hell with the rest of the page (when it breaks out of the pixel-limits assumed), and an image that's twice as large (in both dimensions) could be quadruple the data (depending upon image compression ratios), which has data/bandwidth/etc issues that not everyone can easily suck up and laugh off, even in this post dial-up era. It ought to be best not to assume that the best quality image is the 'best' or desired, although that ship has long sailed. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 09:08, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::::Unless I'm misunderstanding, the image is now in the usual size range (590x887 in this case). -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 20:32, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Something changed, yes. I haven't yet investigated if it was softcoded ("imagewidth=" in the template, or whatever it is, but perhaps still serving the full image to scale-down) or the uploaded image reuploaded in the 'friendlier' pixel-sizes. And for me it doesn't matter, but obviously the exact solution may be just as important for others, so I hope it isn't just the fudged one. (I may go and check, though I currently have no power to do anything about it.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.174|141.101.98.174]] 01:11, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::Addendum: Just checked, and it was ''softcoded too large'', originally, with "imagesize = 4422x6653px" for some unknown reason. I don't know why the uploadbot set it like this (incorrect metadata/sidedata at source?) but that definitely 'broke' the original page.
::::::So the imagesize was ''lying'' about the true image size? That reminds me of the title...
:::::Until just now I had only seen the slightly later version or the page where the image now merely strained the page-size (from a revised imagesize=, obviously to deal with the page-rescaling issue), then the latest where it's given the more usual one (but is still the exact same source _2x image behind the scenes).
:::::From all the talk about this, I had assumed that the image (like it sometimes has been) was the 'compositing' version not yet cleaned up by Randall to remove onion-skin 'planning' layers, etc. Instead, we were just given an upscaled correct version, but of course people were still able to dwell upon the details exposed by zooming in. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.219|172.71.178.219]] 01:29, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
::::::It was reuploaded to be normal sized later. http://web.archive.org/web/20230926034049/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/lying.png [[Special:Contributions/141.101.100.194|141.101.100.194]] 05:20, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:::::::The initially uploaded explainxkcd version [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2833:_Lying&oldid=324385 as seen dynamically mis-scaled here] has not been changed, though. Which is different from my original assumption taken from the chatter about it.
:::::::If (perhaps, just looking at the URL above) it's that the _2x was normal _2x but the '1x' was mis-sized (we've seen that happen before) and/or the rough/not-yet-finalised working copy, then this might need better explaining. That'd explain why the _2x was given larger default dimensions. (I think the 'bot currently grabs the _2x but 'suggests' the non-2x size... I could then see how this would have happened.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.179|172.70.86.179]] 05:53, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
::::::::Yup. That is what happened. —[[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 15:01, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

The rhythm of the title text calls to mind Spock's words to Kirk as he's dying at the end of Wrath of Khan: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend." This can't be a coincidence. {{unsigned ip|172.70.210.182|08:06, 26 September 2023}}

I'm the same. Can't stand these games. I have a hard enough time with jokes that people refuse to explain; if I have to _intentionally_ mislead people, who know my tics to start, where's the line? What's real, what's fake, what's important, what's just another joke?

I need to lighten up? No, the world needs to be comprehensible. I can't just choose to know what's real and what isn't. Other people can very easily make it clear to me, if they so desire.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.39|162.158.2.39]] 06:35, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:i, uh, good for you. [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 07:04, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:Simple answer: Don't play those games.
:Non-simple answer: Learn how to play those games with your advanced hyper-analytical abilities being used to your advantage (or as a "non-optional social convention") in which the reality is the game you're in and thus you are fulfilling the role of your existence.
:Meta-answer: I think you're a Joker (winning condition is to be lynched). Or maybe one of a number of other player-types which demands that you play differently from either mainstrean Mafia or vanilla Villager. Which, in a four-player game (very short of practical assignments!) makes it a bastard-setup of some sort. (Rather than single mafia/werewolf and all the rest vanilla village, or ''possibly'' one cop/special-role of some kind.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 09:08, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

How do you even play Mafia with four people? Under standard rules, you have one moderator (Alice), one mafioso (Bob) and two civilians (Charlotte and Dave). Bob kills Dave in the first night, then there are only one mafioso and one civilian left, and the mafia wins, game over. Does anybody know a mod that would make it work with so few players? [[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 11:16, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:It's a Mafia-''style'' game, apparently. It could be moderatorless (or with a playing-controller who manages the gameplay outwith whatever role they have) and streamlined.
:How about four (playing?)cards, one designating the villain. Cards are dealt randomly an all close their eyes for the night phase, only the villain gets to open them and 'tap out' their choice of villager (some subtle way, like a feather on a stick ((not shown in comic!)) that everyone has, that can be used at will to silently reach anyone - reverse the stick to tap the centre of the table to signal completion?).
:Because that leaves little logic for the Town to follow, just blindly moving towards "lynch or lose" by luck, you can afford (maybe) a Cop role (from a different card) who then operates after that, at 'night'. They use ''their'' stick to ask a given player to thumbs up/down their status, with the and/or you even could do a Blocker that way (tell a victim to ignore being night-killed), etc. Or even mix things up with a role-giving role, whatever you need to balance play in the right way. 'Dead' night-role players could just 'tap completion' without having done anything, if there's no lynch-reveal (beyond town/scum, if even that before the sole scum announces this game is over and they won/lost).
:It'd have to be on the honour-system, and I could see mistakes and accidental reveals, but the post-mortem of a few such games might suggest refinements and precautions that haven't occured to me.
:...though it'd be easier (even 'player led') with maybe a minimum of six participants (could afford to have two villains, subtly gesturing ideas to each other, and a more complete set of "power townies" than just the one. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.192|172.71.134.192]] 12:51, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

I guess I just assumed every comic out there by anyone was printed with Comic Sans but when I was skimming through the source image I noticed the letters are unique and he hand-writes them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.179.43|172.70.179.43]] 12:09, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

: Yes that's always been noticable from the kerning. His habit of tucking the left-hand vertical of an "H" under a preceding "T" - and shortening the left side of a "T" after an "I" (to pick just two examples)...is not something that any automated text rendering system that I'm aware of can produce. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.135|172.71.167.135]] 12:25, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::Also, his O's are quite noticably different from one another. Perfect repetition of loop sizes is a dead giveaway of a "handwritten" font. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.44|172.69.247.44]] 14:22, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Also 'I', the pronoun, is serifed, whereas the letter i elsewhere, whether upper or lowercase, is not.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.5|172.71.178.5]] 09:00, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

The published image appears the correct size on xkcd.com now. It seems it would be nice to preserve the larger one (edit: it also didn't look upscaled to me, it looked source dimensioned). I'm not sure how to upload an image. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.248|172.71.254.248]] 14:28, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:You (and I) cannot upload it, but if an established named editor cares to grab the archive.org and do so... (Or just rely upon the archive link, and the image link behind it, being available directly for long enough.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.203|172.70.91.203]] 16:13, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Is there any actual difference between Mafia and Werewolf, beyond what the killers are called? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 22:47, 27 September 2023 (UTC)
:Aside from thematic differences, I think any 'baseline' differences are probably swamped by the variations seen within each gametype (number of players, spread of roles, additional further tweaks to rebalance/unbalance according to taste). And things can often progress more differently between SpeedMafia ('live' chatroom play) and a Mafia run through a persistent forum/BBS than could be seen between SpeedMafia and a Werewolf game 'in the round' (in person, chairs in a circle).
:But I couldn't immediately recite the numbers of 'standard' roles (e.g. "for X players, there should be Y mafia/werewolves, 1 doctor, <etc>"), it could be that the ratios are actually different and the 'special role mix' (by whatever name, cop/seer, etc) a bit different, but it's all subject to the whim of the game moderators anyway, and there's usually a personalisations or two by them, just to mix things up (sometimes tending towards Bastard setup, whether the players know to start with or not; and not all 'work', but an experienced mod will at least leave it entertaining). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.13|172.71.178.13]] 07:44, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

2693: Wirecutter Recommendation

2022-11-02T22:40:53Z

172.71.178.5: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2693
| date = November 2, 2022
| title = Wirecutter Recommendation
| image = wirecutter_recommendation_2x.png
| imagesize = 430x333px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Their 'best philosophy of epistemology' picks are great, but you can tell they're struggling a little in the 'why you should trust us' section.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Recommended by WIRECUTTER — Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

''[https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter Wirecutter]'' is a product review website, owned by ''The New York Times''. As such, Wirecutter is best used for product reviews. The comic, however, lists things that Wirecutter should ''not'' recommend, or that one should not choose based on Wirecutter reviews.

The first panel shows [[Cueball]] telling [[Ponytail]] that he decided to go with Wirecutter's recommendation when buying something unspecified. The second panel shows a list of different contexts for this conversation, ranking them from "Fine" to "Very Bad".

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Thing Being Chosen!!Judgment!!Explanation
|-
|Vacuum cleaner||Fine||Vacuum cleaners are an everyday household item, and exactly the kind of thing Wirecutter generally reviews.
|-
|Headphones||Fine|||Headphones are also fairly ubiquitous, and Wirecutter would likewise be useful in such a scenario.
|-
|Electric scooter||Fine||While less common than the two above, electric scooters are still a popular electrical product, so Wirecutter is a decent choice for advice.
|-
|Favorite movie||Weird||Most people would say that your choice of favorite movie should be based on your own experiences, rather than someone else's opinions. Reviewing movies is a very different endeavor to reviewing products, and one would not expect Wirecutter to be particularly proficient with it. While a movie review website may be a reasonable source of recommendations on whether to see a particular movie at all, it would be strange to choose one's own favorite movie based on a website's recommendation.
|-
|Personal style||Weird||Not only does the term "personal style" encompass a vast range of topics, it is also (predictably) a deeply personal thing. These two factors mean that not only will Wirecutter's recommended likely not fully discuss every factor of your personal style, it also isn't the kind of service you'd use to choose something as nebulous and personal as your "personal style."
|-
|Neighborhood||Weird||It can be assumed this means "the neighborhood one lives in." In this case, it is odd to rely on Wirecutter for recommendations on where to live, since a respectable portion of that decision is up to personal preference. In a best case scenario, Wirecutter is recommending neighborhoods based on empirical data, such as local economic growth.
|-
|Pet||Weird||Picking a pet is an extremely personal decision that probably can't be considered covered by a product review website like Wirecutter.
|-
|College major||Bad||Your college major will influence the rest of your life significantly, and basing it on Wirecutter, something completely unrelated to college, is likely a bad idea.
|-
|Career||Bad||One's optimal career choice is subject to a wide range of highly personal factors, including your talents, ambitions, and capabilities. It is highly unlikely that a hardware review site like Wirecutter would be capable of accounting for every one of these factors for every conceivable viewer.
|-
|Religion||Bad||Don't base your religious worldview off of the electronic device equivalent to Yelp. The idea of Wirecutter reviewing religion has appeared in a previous comic, [[2536: Wirecutter]].
|-
|Spouse||Very Bad|| In general, people pair off when choosing spouses. This would mean that Wirecutter would be required to either find one potential spouse for every reader (cumbersome, to say the least) or would recommend ''one'' spouse for multiple (possibly millions of) partners. Even assuming an accelerated divorce rate, it would be impossible for the choice spouse to actually accomplish the role.
|-
|Dreams||Very Bad|| There are two possible definitions of "dream" that may be referred to here. When it comes to "the series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep," most people cannot consciously control what they dream about, so recommending this sort of dream is somewhat pointless.<br />On the other hand, if Cueball is relying upon Wirecutter to recommend "a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal," he is allowing one of the most personal and individual aspects of his life — something which may give life itself a sense of meaning — to be dictated by a consumer product review site. As with many entries here, this is something that most people have to come up with or discover for themselves; relying on a third party to recommend one FOR him is deeply unlikely to bring about long-term satisfaction.
|-
|Favorite child||Very Bad|| Assuming this is a reference to the reader's own children, it can be difficult and furthermore bad practice for a parent to choose their "favorite" child, and using Wirecutter to do this analysis is near impossible. And a website that purports to know more about how to judge the relative merits of your own family than you would be... interesting.
The alternative interpretation of assuming that this is from "all children, everywhere" is more difficult. There are approximately 1.3 billion persons under the age of 18, most of whom have at least one good quality,{{citation needed}} and defining a useful ranking in such a situation is functionally impossible.
|-
|Site for product recommendations||Very Bad|| This is a topic of which the authors, editors, and publishers of Wirecutter have a vested interest and clear bias. This implies that the people at Wirecutter would be self-serving when it comes to recommending recommendations, specifically.
|-
|}

The title text references ''epistemology'', a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge and truth, and by stating it is the philosophy ''of'' this branch may indicate another layer of meta-review. Broadly speaking, epistemology attempts to answer the question "how do I know that what I know is true?", which is already a philosophical and practical issue when relying upon third-party recommendations. It would be problematic, then, for Wirecutter to write an article on this topic of trust if they already knew (assuming any actual expertise in the subject) that they were unable to convincingly argue why their reviews should be trusted.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Ponytail standing next to each other. Cueball has his palm raised.]
:Cueball: I just went with the one Wirecutter recommended.

:[A panel of four categories with topics next to them]

:[Fine category]
:Vacuum cleaner
:Headphones
:Electric scooter

:[Weird category]
:Favorite movie
:Personal style
:Neighborhood
:Pet

:[Bad category]
:College major
:Career
:Religion

:[Very bad category]
:Spouse
:Dreams
:Favorite child
:Site for product recommendations

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

1037: Umwelt

2022-11-01T23:26:25Z

172.71.178.5: /* Reddit */ Ordinal correction and clearly observable inconsistency.

{{comic
| number = 1037
| date = April 1, 2012
| title = Umwelt
| image = umwelt_the_void.jpg
| titletext = Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your web browser.
}}
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
This was the third [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was
[[880: Headache]] from Friday April 1st 2011. The next was [[1193: Externalities]] released on Monday April 1st 2013.

This comic was released on April 1 even though that was [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the third comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fool joke, as it did replace the comic that would have been scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The next comic, [[1038: Fountain]], was first released on Wednesday, April 4th. This was the first that could be different for different readers.

An {{w|Umwelt}}, as the title text explains, is the idea that one's entire way of thinking is dependent on their surroundings. Thus, this {{w|April Fools}} comic changes based on the browser, location, or referrer. Thus, what the viewer is viewing the comic on, where they live, or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day, although only one is seen.
(The term 'Umwelt,' as mentioned in the comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

Information about how the wide variety of data was collected and credit for the viewers who contributed can be found [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/rnst4/april_fools_xkcd_changing_comic/ here].

===The Void===
[[File:umwelt the void.jpg]]

If the device or browser you are using does not support Javascript, you will simply see a static image of a white swirl on a dark background.

Possible reference to The Ring (http://imgur.com/wlGmm), as though to suggest that using an alternative browser is dismal and horrific.

Davean (xkcd's sysadmin): "[This] comic isn't available everywhere and it can come up i[n] some situation[s] only for recognized browsers."

Browser: Alternative Browser

===Aurora===
[[File:umwelt aurora.png]]

One could interpret that since Megan didn't go out and therefore missed seeing the {{w|Aurora}} (northern lights), Cueball in his [[1350:_Lorenz#Knit_Cap_Girl|knit cap]] lied about it. That way, she wouldn't have felt sad that she missed out. Another interpretation could be that he decides that since she did not even bother to go outside to see such a spectacular sight he will not tell her about it. And yet another could be that he did not think it was interesting.

Cueball could possibly also be red-green colorblind, seeing the green aurorae as grey "clouds". This would serve as an example for the theme of the comic, as a non-colorblind person and a colorblind person seeing the same color would perceive it differently, one seeing it as its true color, and the other seeing it without the shade of color they cannot see. If this is the case, then it would be a reference to umwelt, as Cueball would be living in a world where the auroras do not reach his location.

In real life, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-northern-lights-dont-look-anything-like-they-do-in-photos_n_5500a4d9e4b0e62d0dd4f9bb aurorae are usually seen as grey/white clouds] to the naked eye, as our eyes cannot perceive the "greener" colors as well in the dark.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Locations: Canada, Boston, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Norway, Denmark, France, Rhode Island (not sure if mobile only or not.) (also in Virginia, but using Ohio in the first panel) (also in Maryland, but using Canada in the first panel)

In [[1302: Year in Review]] a possibly different Megan has a completely different approach to the chance of seeing northern lights, as that was the only event she was looking forward to in 2013, and it failed. If this is the same Megan, perhaps she learned that there actually were northern lights in her area from another source, and so desperately wanted to have another chance to see them.

===Snake===
[[File:umwelt snake composite 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt snake composite.png|Full size]]

The joke here is the extreme length of snakes. The world's longest snake is the python, the longest ever being 33 feet or approx. 10 meters. The blue and orange circles refer to the hit game {{w|Portal}}.
There is also a reference to the book "The Little Prince" in the second panel, where there is a large bulge in the snake that looks like an elephant. The Little Prince starts out by mentioning a drawing that the author made when he was six that showed an elephant inside a snake.

Also, the number and content of the panels changes depending on the size of your browser window.

This image changed based on the size of the browser window including different panels at different sizes.

Specific AltText for this image: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit -from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

Location: Texas (on Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m), New Jersey, California (on Chrome Version 39.0.2171.95), Maryland, Massachusetts (Safari for iOS, Chrome version 49.0.2623.112), Connecticut (Safari for iOS, Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge), Virginia (on Chrome), Michigan (Firefox v46.0.1), Penang (Chrome Version 65.0.3325.162).

===Black Hat===
[[File:umwelt tortoise 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt tortoise.png|Full size]]

Cueball as an analyst attempts to psychoanalyze [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] [[72: Classhole|classhole]] tendencies. Cueball's quote and the whole setup is a direct reference to the movie {{w|Blade Runner}} (1982) and Black Hat is taking the Voight-Kampff test which is used to identify replicants from real humans.

Black Hat's reason for not helping the tortoise is that ''it '''knows''' what it did'' and thus in Black Hat's world view it deserves being turned over. The final part of the joke is that when zooming out it turns out that there is a tortoise behind Black Hat and he has actually already turned it over for what it did.

Location: Seems to appear mostly in "other countries" — those without location-specific comics.

===Too Quiet===
[[File:umwelt too quiet 1024.png]]
[[:File:umwelt too quiet.png|Full size]]

A reference to {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} which has been [[87: Velociraptors|constantly]] [[135: Substitute|referred]] [[1110: Click and Drag|to]] [[155: Search History|before]] [[758: Raptor Fences|in]] this comic.

Also referencing the film {{w|2 Fast 2 Furious|2 Fast 2 Furious}}, an entertaining, yet intellectually unprovoking sequel in a popular film franchise, which is aimed at teenagers and young adults, prompting the blunt response from the stickman. The fact that Steve would use such a cliché {{w|2000s (decade)|noughties}} movie term in such an intense moment, and the subsequent curse, is the joke in this comic.

Location: short version — iPhone 5c Safari browser in Texas, iPhone 5 Chrome Browser in Minnesota, long version - Google Chrome browser in Indiana, Windows 8 Laptop

===Pond===
[[File:umwelt pond mobile.png]][[File:umwelt pond wide.png]]

Two different versions showed, the narrower version for mobile devices.

Location: The Netherlands and various other countries.

===Galaxies===
[[File:umwelt galaxies 1024.jpg]]
[[:File:umwelt galaxies.jpg|Full size]]

Megan is distracted from her conversation with [[Cueball]] by realizing that the space behind his head, from her vantage point, contains millions of galaxies. This is similar to an [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/astro/hst_deep_field.jpg incredible photograph] taken by the Hubble Telescope, in which a tiny dark area of space in fact contained numerous galaxies.

The title text is an imaginative leap from this scenario: that the galaxies would be up to no good once Cueball is turned away from them. This is presumably a reference to [http://www.mariowiki.com/boo Boo], an enemy from certain Mario games who moves toward Mario only when Mario is facing away from Boo.

This comic was only reported once... the intended environmental context is a mystery.

Location: unknown

===xkcd Gold===
[[File:umwelt xkcd gold.png]]

This is probably a reference to the 4chan Gold Account, an implementation on 4chan that does not actually exist, and is usually used to trick newcomers into revealing their credit card numbers. The joke is that "Gold Account" users can supposedly block other users from viewing images they have posted. The fifth panel is probably a reference to Beecock, a notorious set of shocker images. 4chan's moderators have been known to give out "beecock bans" or "/z/ bans" to particularly annoying users, which redirect the user to a page containing beecock and the text "OH NO THE BOARD IS GONE".

Referrer: 4chan

===Yo Mama===
[[File:umwelt dog ballast.png]]

Possible reference to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "{{w|Harrison Bergeron}}."

The joke is that people's different experiences shape how they perceive the world in that the people who live in this world would perceive the joke as funny, while people in our world would not get it. This is the idea of umwelt mentioned at the top of the context where different individuals perceive the world differently.

Refer: Facebook

===Reddit===
[[File:umwelt reddit.png]]

Reference to referencing, because Reddit, as a referring site, likes references to its referencing in its references.

This comic also features recursive imagery similar to [[688: Self-Description|Self Description]] where the second panel embeds the entire comic within itself. (Except, conspicuously, the arrow indicating that it is "You" in the first panel.)

One of the browser tabs visible in the center panel is {{w|Elk}} on Wikipedia.

Referrer: Reddit

===Buns and Hot dogs===
[[File:umwelt somethingawful.jpg]]

This is a reference to the question "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 6 while buns come in packages of 8?"

Another, more sexual reference to this question can be found in [[1641: Hot Dogs]].

Referrer: SomethingAwful, Questionable Content, & MetaFilter

===Twitter===
[[File:umwelt twitter.jpg]]

A summary of the "content" typically found on Twitter.

In the tweet feed, there are three tweets about some podcast on the top, followed by the tweet containing link they clicked on to get to the comic, tweets about Rob Delaney, unspecified passive-aggressive tweets, and a tweet from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_ebooks Horse Ebooks] retweeted by one of the users the reader follows.

On the left, the topmost dialog, with profile information, shows that the user has posted 1,302 tweets, but only follows 171 people and has even fewer followers, at a measly 48. This is marked with a sad face, implying that the user wants more followers.

Below that is the "who to follow" dialog, which is written up as consisting of "assholes".

Below that is the "trending tags" dialog for the United States. It is full of tags about word games, tags about misogyny, and tags about Justin Bieber.

Below that is an unidentified dialog full of "stuff your eyes automatically ignore". And finally, on the bottom is the background color, which is "a really pleasant blue".

Referrer: Twitter

===Wikipedia===
[[File:umwelt wikipedia wide.jpg]]
[[File:umwelt wikipedia mobile.png]]

The term {{w|Mile High Club}} (or MHC) is a slang term applied collectively to individuals who have had sexual intercourse while on board an aircraft. Randall says that reading the news articles on it has distracted him from making that comic.

Two different versions shown, the narrower version (the single panel with all the text) for mobile devices.

Referrer: Wikipedia

===Google Chrome===
[[File:umwelt chrome1.jpg]]

{{w|Sergey Brin}} (born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. As of 2013, his personal wealth was estimated to be $24.4 billion. Randall makes the joke that as the founder of Google, Brin's permission would be needed to use Google Chrome. Because there are millions of people who use Google, it is likely that at least some of the time Brin would be asleep, thus he would need to be woken.

Browser: Chrome

===Chrome/Firefox===
[[File:umwelt chrome2.png]]

Mozilla {{w|Firefox}} is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, and Linux, with a mobile version for Android and iOS, by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Cueball is complaining about {{w|Google Chrome}}, to which [[Ponytail]] replies that there is an {{w|add-on}} that fixes what he is complaining about. When questioned, she replies that the add-on is Firefox, which isn't an add-on at all and is instead a different browser.

Browser: Chrome

===Google Chrome-2===
[[File:umwelt chrome3.png]]

This panel references Google Chrome's error screen, which shows a puzzle piece. The comic humorously implies that Chrome is looking for that piece. When completing jigsaw puzzles, a common strategy is to figure out where the pieces must be from their geometry rather than from the picture they create. In this case, the text suggests that Chrome believes the puzzle piece connects to the pieces which form one of the corners of the puzzle, which may seem impossible because any piece that links up to a corner would usually have at least one flat edge, which this piece has none. However, more complicated puzzles have complex shapes and are not always simply approximate squares with tabs and blanks.

Browser: Chrome or silk on desktop view

===Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing===
[[File:umwelt firefox incognito.png]]

Another reference to crashing web browsers.
Firefox shows the history when it crashes.
Browser: Firefox (Incognito only?)

===Internet Explorer===
[[File:umwelt ie.png]]

Yet another reference to crashing web browsers

Browser: Internet Explorer

===Maxthon===
[[File:umwelt maxthon.png]]

Browser: Maxthon

===Netscape Navigator===
[[File:umwelt netscape womanoctopus.png]]

[[File:umwelt netscape man.png]]

{{w|Netscape Navigator}} was a web browser popular in the 1990s.

Browser: Netscape

===Rockmelt===
[[File:umwelt rockmelt.png]]

{{w|Rockmelt}} is a social-media-based browser.

Reference to the gospel song {{w|Longing for Old Virginia: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1934)|"There's no hiding place down here" by The Carter Family}}, later covered by Stephen Stills.

:I run to the rock just to hide my face
:And the rocks cried out, no hiding place
:There's no hiding place down here

It may additionally be a reference to the ''Babylon 5'' episode "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place," which featured the song.

Browser: Rockmelt

===Plugin Disabled===
[[File:umwelt plugin disabled.png]]

When the Google Chrome web browser does not have the required software (called a plug-in) to display a web page's content, it displays a puzzle piece icon and an error message. In this case, Chrome informs the user that the content is impossible to display.

Browser: Plugin (?) Disabled, Safari Desktop

===Corporate Networks===
[[File:umwelt corporate general.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate amazon other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate google chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft firefox.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate microsoft other.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes chrome.png]]
[[File:umwelt corporate nytimes other.png]]

These error messages appear if the user is on a network owned by one of the corporations noted. The error message includes a warning against speaking on the company's behalf.

ISP: Corporate networks of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, NY Times

===Military===
[[File:umwelt military.png]]

[[Cueball]] assumes that anyone using a military network has an important job like watching for incoming missiles. He includes a thank-you to the user for their military service.

ISP: Military networks

===T-Mobile===
[[File:umwelt tmobile.png]]

Reference to T-Mobile's distinguishing feature (at the time it was written) of weaker coverage, in relation to other major providers.

ISP: T-Mobile

===Verizon and AT&T===
[[File:umwelt verizon.png]]

[[File:umwelt att.png]]

Reference to Verizon and AT&T's scandals/controversy regarding implementation of bandwidth caps.

ISP: Verizon and AT&T

===France===
[[File:umwelt france.jpg]]

A common joke about France is that the nation does not win wars. This originated from France's annexation by Germany during World War II, and America's late entry into the war, which is sometimes portrayed humorously as a case of America 'saving' Europe, in this joke particularly France (the role of the French resistance is usually not mentioned), leading to a common American joke at the expense of France's military prowess [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-frenchmilitaryvictories.htm][http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchmilitaryhistory.htm]. When France did not form part of the coalition that invaded Iraq in 2003, aligning with the many countries that condemned U.S. action, the joke was revived.

A Google search of "French Military Victories" + 'I'm feeling lucky' used to direct to "did you mean: french military defeats" (due to a {{w|Google bomb}}). Cueball is trying to show this to his friend, who is French. However, his joke backfires, as his friend immediately points out that the stereotype of France not having military victories is undercut by the fact that one of the most innovative military commanders in history, Napoleon, was French by citizenship (though Italian/Corsican by culture, as the French annexed Corsica a few months before his birth to an Italian noble family), and in fact conquered much of Europe.

Following the theme of umwelt, the comic highlights the two characters' differing perspectives: The American thinks that France is a military failure, while the Frenchman thinks of Napoleon.

The last line of the comic further implies that Cueball is not as smart as he thinks he is in regards to anything French, as he mispronounces the French loan word "{{w|Touché (fencing)|touché}}".

Locations: France & Quebec

===Germany===
[[File:umwelt germany.png]]

This comic references the {{w|Berlin airlift#The start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin Airlift}}, a relief measure for citizens in West Berlin (surrounded by East Germany) instituted by the Western Allies after World War II. In reality, the Western Allies flew a grand total of 500,000 tons of food over the Soviet blockade in planes. Randall puts a twist on this event by making it more fun: dropping supplies from a grand chairlift. The play on words is that "chairlift" rhymes with "airlift" and thus makes an easy substitution. The chair force is also a name that other service branches use to make fun of the air force.

Location: Germany

===Israel===
[[File:umwelt israel.png]]

Translation: Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

A reference to the multiple use of the word Jewish to denote both a {{w|Judaism|religious group}} and a {{w|Jews|nationality/ethnicity}}, as well as the stereotype of Jews holding low opinions of interfaith marriage.

A side note: Randall accidentally drew an apostrophe instead of the similar-looking Hebrew letter י everywhere that letter should appear.

Location: Israel

===Carnot Cycle===
[[File:umwelt japan.png]]

A pun on "cycle"; a "{{w|Carnot cycle}}" is a thermodynamic cycle (e.g. refrigeration). Its efficiency depends on the temperature of the hot and cold 'reservoirs' in which it is operating. The icon on the side of the motorcycle resembles a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carnot_cycle_p-V_diagram.svg graph of the Carnot cycle.]

Location: Japan

===UK===
[[File:umwelt uk.jpg]]

He worded this as though to imply that the UK is a state of the U.S., and an unimportant one at that, which pokes fun at the UK, creating a paradox (sort of).

Location: UK

===Blizzard===
[[File:umwelt disasters blizzard.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or blizzards are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe blizzard, while the Northeasterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild blizzard.

For each location this displayed in, the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Georgia, Halifax, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, the Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Texas, Toronto, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin

===Tornado===
[[File:umwelt disasters tornado.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or tornadoes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The California perceives a mild earthquake and a severe tornado, while the Midwesterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild tornado.

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: Alabama, Dallas, Illinois, Georgia, The Midwest, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Tennessee, Texas (and Virginia, but it used Ohio in the third panel)

Tornadoes are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd. The picture used in [[1754: Tornado Safety Tips]] very reminiscent of the one from this version of Umwelt. [[Category:Tornadoes]]

===Hurricane===
[[File:umwelt disasters hurricane.png]]

This comic is aimed at the debate over whether earthquakes or hurricanes are harsher conditions to live under. In keeping with the theme of umwelt, the comic demonstrates that the two people perceive the world in two different ways due to their different experiences: The Californian perceives a mild earthquake and a severe hurricane, while the Easterner perceives a severe earthquake and a mild hurricane.

For each location this displayed in the state name was substituted in the third panel.

Locations: D.C, Florida, Georgia, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

===Lake Diver Killer===
[[File:umwelt lake diver.png]]

This comic shows a news reporter standing in front of a lake. She is reporting on a serial killer who targets divers. As more divers are sent in to investigate and/or search for bodies, more divers go missing, the implication being that they were also murdered. The more likely reason is the lake itself is dangerous for diving, and the divers probably drowned from natural hazards (undercurrents, entanglement, running out of oxygen in tanks, etc.) instead of a malicious assailant. Also, this is a sort of loop, where each time a diver gets killed, the investigative team goes and investigates, causing more divers to get killed, causing more deaths, and so on.

Location: Bay Areas, Metro Detroit, Vermont showed an image specifically referencing Lake Champlain

===Lincoln Memorial===
[[File:umwelt lincoln memorial.png]]

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America, was not an entity composed wholly of nanobots that attempted to consume the entire nation to then be imprisoned within the Lincoln Memorial.{{Citation needed}}

Locations: Illinois & Washington, D.C.

===Helicopter Hunting===
[[File:umwelt helicoptor.png]]

In Alaska, governments and individuals have {{w|Wolf hunting#North America 2|shot wolves en masse from helicopters}} in an attempt to artificially inflate populations of game, such as moose and caribou, to make hunting them easier. This is opposed by many, as the game populations are not endangered (thus, this threatens ecological balance); wolves are a small threat to livestock in North America; most of the wolf body —including meat and bones— goes wasted as they are sought mainly for their pelts.

Location: Alaska

===Newspaper===
[[File:umwelt life scientists.png]][[File:umwelt life rit.png]][[File:umwelt life umass.png]]

Creating new life has long been a well understood process, in a lab or otherwise.

This comic is likely a reference to the title text of [[983: Privacy]]

Location: Various

Specific versions appeared for RIT and UMass Amherst

===Robot Paul Revere===
[[File:umwelt paul revere.png]]

Combination of the legend of {{w|Paul Revere#"Midnight Ride"|Paul Revere}} and a computer bit that differentiates between two situations by indicating a zero or a one.

Location: Boston

===Counting Cards===

All four colleges in this series are in Massachusetts and, being similar, in pairs, rival each other to some extent (Harvard-MIT, and Smith-Wellesley). The comic contains a reference to the {{w|MIT Blackjack Team}}, which entered popular culture via the {{w|21 (2008 film)|film 21}}, and a possible reference to Orwell's book '1984' and/or {{w|Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|popular homage to it via Star Trek}}: "There are four lights."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYIm6MW39k]

Bonus: The thought-gears in panel 3 are spinning against each other.

Location: Harvard

[[File:umwelt counting cards harvard.png]]

Location: MIT

[[File:umwelt counting cards mit.png]]

"Course 15s" at MIT are the business major students, often mocked for taking a less-rigorous program. The different interpretation for why the MIT students could not count cards compared to Harvard may be a reference to the theme of umwelt.

Location: Smith

[[File:umwelt counting cards smith.png]]

Location: Wellesley

[[File:umwelt counting cards wellesley.png]]

Both Wellesley and Smith are all-women colleges in Massachusetts.

===Giant Box Trap===
[[File:umwelt box trap.png]]

Randall got his undergrad in Physics at the {{w|Christopher Newport University}}, and was scheduled to return shortly to give a talk. The "Trible" figure on the right is Paul Trible, the then-president of CNU. This comic depicts a classic trap, where an upside-down box is propped up with a stick. When the stick is removed, by pulling a string, the box falls and traps whatever is underneath it. Aside from the joke of the obvious trap, there's also the fact that the president would not be responsible for revoking unearned diplomas.

Location: Christopher Newport University

===Chemo Support===
[[File:umwelt chemo.jpg]]

[[Cueball]] has shaved his head in support of people going through {{w|chemotherapy}} but, as he is always depicted as a stick figure with no hair, no one can tell.

Randall's now-wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and apparently DFCI is where they've been spending much of their time.

Location: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

===Reviews===
[[File:reviews.png]]

The previous strip appears twice when using [[wikipedia:Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]].

Browser: Any using Tor, xkcd API (JSON, RSS, Atom), w3m, and reports of seeing it on a Kindle Fire HD; also happens if visiting with a browser that does not support JavaScript (such as Firefox with NoScript)

===Nothing===

[[File:Umwelt blank.jpg]]

In some cases, the comic can be completely absent, with only the top and bottom buttons visible. On most newer browsers, this is caused by a script loading part of the comic via a HTTP request while the rest of the webpage is delivered over HTTPS. This is referred to as [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/Mixed_content mixed content] and is blocked on modern browsers by default due to security concerns. This version of the comic is therefore likely not an intended outcome, but rather an unintended consequence of how this comic was implemented.

Since this comic's release, all devices viewing it have returned two rows of navigation buttons if near IP address 69.114.249.104.

==Transcript==
:[Note to courageous readers- The transcript has been reordered in the order in which the comics appear in the picture and appropriate names have been given.]

:'''The Void'''
:[An epic void with a bright light shining right on you.]

:'''Aurora'''
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar flare that's causing some Great Aurorae. CBC says they may even be visible here! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: Hockey's on.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

:'''Aurora-US'''
:[Cueball heading out past Megan comfortably sitting in front of a desk.]
:Cueball: Apparently there's a solar storm causing northern lights over Canada. CNN say they might even be visible {Options: "As Far South As Us", "Here in Boston", "Maine", "Ohio", "Oregon", "New York"}! Wanna drive out to see?
:Megan: It's cold out.
:Cueball: Ok. Later.

:[An expansive, marvelous image of emerald green northern lights, floating down through the sky.]

:Megan: See anything?
:Cueball: No, just clouds.
:Megan: Not surprised.

:'''Snake'''
:[Two people standing next to each other. Megan is holding the head end of a snake. Depending on the width of your browser, the snake is: three frames, the third of which has a little bit of a bump; the first frame has a human-size bump, the second has a third person looking at the snake, and the third has the snake going though two Portals; a squirrel and the human-size bump in the first frame, a ring next to the third person in the second frame, and Beret Guy riding the snake in front of the portal; or The squirrel, a fourth person within the snake being coiled, and the human bump in the first frame, the ring, a fifth person in love, and the third person in the second frame, Beret Guy and the portal in the third frame, and the same two people in the fourth frame.]

:Megan: I found a snake, but then I forgot to stop.

:'''Black hat'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk. One is Black Hat. The other is an analyst. Black Hat has a number of terminals attached to his head.]
:Analyst: You come across a tortoise in the desert. You flip it over. It struggles to right itself. You watch. You're not helping. Why is that?

:Black Hat: It '''knows''' what it did.

:[View of the entire scene, with said turtle off in the distance on its back and trying to right itself.]

:'''Too quiet'''
:[A group of four scale down a wall into a field in the middle of the night. They walk off single-file.]
:Person 1: It's quiet.

:Person 3: Yeah - *Too* quiet.

:[A Velociraptor is off in the distance, following the group.]
:Person 4: Yeah - too *too* quiet.

:Person 2: Yeah - 2quiet2furious.
:Person 1: Fuck off, Steve.

:'''Pond'''
:[A landscape showing a pond, some reeds, and a set of mountains off in the distance.]

:'''Galaxies'''
:[A trio of galaxies.]
:Galaxy 1: He's not looking!
:Galaxy 3: Let's get him!
:[Lines draw in illustrating the eye-line of one of a pair of people.]
:Cueball: So he said he didn't get the text, but c'mon, he *never* misses texts. Right? ..hello?
:Megan: I'm just staring at your head freaked out by the fact that there are millions of galaxies *directly behind it*.

:'''xkcd Gold'''
:[Cueball holding bat.]

:Cueball: Sorry, but this comic

:[Cueball starts to wind up.]

:Cueball: requires

:[Cueball prepares to strike with bat.]

:Cueball: XKCD

:[Cueball swings at a beehive.]
:GOLD

:[Penis Bees fly out of the beehive.]

:'''Yo mamma'''
:[Cueball yells at a friend.]
:Cueball: Oh yeah? Well you mama's so ''cynical'', her only dog ballast is a ''leash''!
:(This comic takes place in a dystopian future where the government is afraid dogs can hover, so it requires them to wear weights at all times, and some people privately doubt the government, but not enough to stop buying dog weights.)

:'''Reddit'''
:Five seconds ago:
:[You sitting in front of a desk, reading a reddit thread.]
:You: Oh, hey, reddit has a link to some XKCD april fools comic.

:Now: [An image of the xkcd comic page.]
:Five seconds from now:

:You: ..hey

:30 seconds from now:
:[DANCE PARTY!]

:'''Buns and Hot dogs'''
:Cueball: What I wanna know is why do hot dogs come in packages of six while buns come in these huge sacks of ash and blood from which "Ave Maria" is faintly audible?
:[Chanting sacks of gore in the background.]

:'''Twitter'''
:[A Twitter account page with the following: Many tweets, fewer following, even fewer followers, A bunch of assholes in the suggested follow box, trending topics partitioned into: Word Games, Misogyny, and Bieber, stuff your eyes automatically ignore, A really pleasant blue. and the timeline: Something about a podcast, Someone confused because the description doesn't match the link, The link you clicked on to get to this comic, Rob Delaney, Passive Aggression, and horse ebooks.]

:'''Wikipedia'''
:[There's no comic here because instead of drawing one, I spent the last hour reading every news story cited in the Wikipedia article on The Mile High Club.]

:'''Google Chrome'''
:[A Chrome plugin error page.]
:Chrome: This plugin requires Sergey Brin's permission to run. Please wait while he is woken.

:'''Chrome/Firefox'''
:[Two people; Cueball is sitting at a desk in front of a laptop.]
:Cueball: Man, chrome's hardware acceleration really sucks.
:Ponytail: Oh - Theres' a great add-on that fixes it.
:Cueball: Oh? What's it called?
:Ponytail: "Firefox".

:'''Google Chrome-2'''
:[A Chrome plugin error page with the characteristic jigsaw piece.]
:Chrome: Chrome is looking for this piece. Have you seen it? Chrome thinks it links up with a corner.

:'''Mozilla Firefox Private Browsing'''
:[Firefox error page.]
:Firefox: Well, this is embarrassing. You know how I'm not supposed to peek at your browsing in private mode? Firefox.. is sorry. Firefox will not blame you if you
:[Button with text.]
:Click here to report this incident.

:'''Internet Explorer'''
:[IE error page.]
:IE: Error: Internet Explorer has given up.

:'''Maxthon'''
:Cueball: Maxthon? Hey, 2005 called. Didn't say anything. All I could hear was sobbing. This is getting harder. Anyway, yeah, Maxthon's still cool! Didn't know it was still around!

:'''Netscape Navigator'''
:[Two different versions exist: one with Cueball talking and one with Megan with tentacle arms talking.]
:Person: Netscape Navigator? Hey, the nineties called - drunk as usual. I hung up without saying anything. This is getting harder. Anyway - it's cool that you'e got netscape running.

:'''Rockmelt'''
:[Cueball running to laptop.]
:I ran to Rockmelt to hide my face

:[Cueball sitting at laptop.]
:But Rockmelt cried out -

:[Laptop shouting.]
:NO HIDING PLACE

:[zoom out.]
:NO HIDING PLACE DOWN HERE

:'''Google Chrome-3'''
:[A chrome plugin error page.]
:Chrome: There does not exist --nor could there '''ever''' exist-- a plugin capable of displaying this content.

:'''Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google - Chrome'''
:[Chrome error page.]
:Chrome: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon/The Times/Google is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Microsoft/Amazon - Firefox'''
:[Firefox error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/Amazon is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Microsoft/The Times'''
:[Error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, Microsoft/The Times is a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Corporate - Generic'''
:[Error page.]
:Error: This plugin requires clearance from the corporate press office in order to run. Remember, we work as a team; individual employees should ''never'' speak for the company without authorization.

:'''Military'''
:[Person looking at two browser windows.]
:Cueball: I know y'all know what you're doing. But if you're on a military machine and you're supposed to be watching for missiles or something, I hope you're keeping an eye on that in the background while you're reading comics. Also: Thanks.

:'''T-Mobile'''
:[Error page.]
:Data Error: T-Mobile was unable to establish a connection

:'''Verizon'''
:[Error page]
:Error: You have exceeded your Verizon monthly bandwidth cap. Mobile web browsing has been disabled.

:'''France'''
:[Two people; one of which is browsing using a laptop.]
:Cueball: Hey, you're French, right? Ever see what happens when you type "French Military Victories" into Google?
:French person: Does it take you to an article on Napoleon?

:French person: ..no? Strange, given how he kicked everyone's asses up and down Europe for over a decade.

:[Beat frame.]

:Cueball: Touche.
:French person: You know, that'd sound smarter if you didn't pronounce it like it rhymes with "douche".

:'''Germany'''
:[Cueball dropping food from an unorthodox high perch.]
:June 1948: In response to the Soviet blockade of East Germany, the western allies construct the Berlin Chairlift.
:Cueball on chairlift: Food!

:'''Israel'''
:[Person on phone.]
:Person (Translation from Hebrew): Mom, I met a great guy! But he's not Jewish. ...Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"? I'm completely confused.

:'''Carnot Cycle'''
:[Ponytail on a motorcycle with a heat-entropy graph on the side.]
:Ponytail: Check out my new Carnot Cycle!
:Cueball: Neat - how fast does it go?
:Ponytail: Depends how cold it is outside.

:'''Great Britain'''
:[Illustration of the Atlantic ocean.]
:American person: Sorry I don't have a comic poking fun at the UK here. I only had time to get to the most ''important'' US states.
:British person: Hey - At least we have free health care and real ale.

:'''Earthquake-Blizzard'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Boston", "Chicago", "Dallas", "Georgia", "Halifax", "Illinois", "Michigan", "Minnesota", "Missouri", "the Northeast", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", 'Pennsylvania", "Philadelphia", "Texas", "Toronto", "Tennessee", "New York", "Wisconsin"}! That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..
:[Both people are trudging through a massive blizzard.]
:Danish: In pictures, snow always looked so nice and sof - ''AAAA! MY NECK! How do people live here?!''
:Cueball: Come on - it's only three more miles.

:'''Earthquake-Tornado'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "Alabama", "Dallas", "Illinois", "The Midwest", "Missouri", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Ottawa", "Tennessee", "Texas"}!
:Cueball: That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..
:[Both people are in a shelter in a prairie with a rapidly-approaching tornado.]
:Danish: AAAA CLOSE THE SHELTER DOOR!
:Cueball: Say the magic words...
:Danish: THIS PLACE IS THE WORST!
:Cueball: Thank you.

:'''Earthquake-Hurricane'''
:[Two people sitting at a desk, facing each other. The desk rattles.]
:Cueball: Stop jiggling your leg.
:Danish: I'm not ji-.. oh!
:Cueball: What!
:Danish: You'll get it..

:[EVERYTHING RUMBLES.]
:Cueball: ..HOLY CRAP IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!
:Danish: Just a little one. Happens all the time back in San Francisco.

:Cueball: But this is {Options: "D.C", "Florida", "Houston", "Miami", "New Jersey", "North Carolina", "South Carolina", "Virgina"}! That was huge!
:Cueball: That was huge!
:Danish: Seriously? That's the worst this place can do? Wow. I guess we grow up tougher in California.
:Cueball: Oh ''really''...

:Six Months Later..

:[Both are in the middle of a hurricane. Danish is grabbing onto a signpost to avoid being swept away.]
:Danish: AAAAA WHAT THE SHIIIIT!
:Cueball: Calm down - this is barely a category 2.

:'''Lake Diver Killer'''
:[TV Field Reporter in front of a cordoned-off lake.]
:Reporter: Police divers searching the bay say they have recovered the body of another victim of the "Lake Diver Killer."
:Reporter: During the search, three more divers were reported missing.

:'''Washington'''
:[The statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.]
:In this Marble Prison As in the nightmares of the nation they tried to devour
:The nanobots that constituted Abraham Lincoln
:Are entombed forever.

:'''Alaska'''
:[A person with a gun chasing a helicopter on the back of a wolf in a snowy Alaskan field.]
:Some people hunt wolves from helicopters. I hunt helicopters from a wolf.

:'''Life in lab'''
:[Newspaper headline.]
:Scientists/UMass Amherst students/RIT students create life in lab
:[Caption under picture of scientists.]
:"The trick was fuckin'"

:'''American Revolution'''
:Robot Paul Revere: Remember: Zero if by land, One if by sea.

:'''MIT'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: I see their admission standards have been slipping.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''MIT Course 15c'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of MIT students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: I *knew* we shouldn't have picked course 15s.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''Smith/Wellesley'''
:[Two people in front of a group of students.]
:Cueball: I've hired a team of Smith/Wellesley students to count cards for us.
:Hairy: We'll be rich!

:[Hairy deals some cards while the students watch.]

:[The gears turn..]

:Student: Five. There are five cards.
:Cueball: We should've gone with Wellesley/Smith.
:Hairy: Yeah - there are actually four.

:'''CNU'''
:[Person unsuspectingly strolls under a giant box trap controlled by a Trible.]
:I worry that CNU only invited me back as a ruse because they realized I never turned in my final paper and want my diploma back. But if it turns out it's for real, I'll see you Wednesday at the Ferguson!

:'''Dana Farber'''
:[Cueball, pointing towards head.]
:Cueball: Check it out - In support of people going through chemo, I shaved my head.
:Lots of love to everyone reading this at Dana Farber. Cancer sucks. If you are new to DFCI, there's a great little garden on the third floor of the yawkey if you need somewhere quiet to just sit for a little bit and breathe.

:'''Reviews'''
:Shopping before online reviews:
:[Cueball and Megan stand in a store. Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. There is another lamp on the table behind them.]
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: And affordable.
:Cueball: Let's get it.
:Megan Ok!

:Shopping now:
:[Cueball points at a lamp on the table in front of him. Megan looks at her phone.]
:Cueball: This lamp is pretty.
:Megan: It's got 1 1/2 stars on Amazon. Reviews all say to avoid that brand.

:[Cueball and Megan are now both looking at their phones.]
:Cueball: This one has good reviews.
:Megan: Wait, one guy says when he plugged it in, he got a metallic taste in his mouth and his cats went deaf.
:Cueball: Eek. What about- ...no, review points out it resembles a uterus.

:[Cueball is still looking at his phone, Megan has hers at her side.]
:Cueball: Ok, I found a Swiss lampmaker with perfect reviews. Her lamps start at 1,300 Francs and she's only reachable by ski lift.
:Megan: You know, our room looks fine in the dark.

==Trivia==
*Reddit user [http://www.reddit.com/user/SomePostMan SomePostMan] created a [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/t6wmh/all_umwelt_1037_comics_in_two_imgur_albums/ post] that collected all of the Umwelt comics and added explanations. Much of his information is now included in this wiki.

*The transcript section for this comic also included a note alluding to its extreme length:
: <nowiki>[[Two people...]]</nowiki> ((..wait.. <scrolls through a listing of everything> oh goddammit Randall. Thanks a bunch, dude. I better get a raise for typing out all this))
: [[Two people standing next to each other. One is holding the head end of a snake...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Comics with blood]]

Talk:2685: 2045

2022-10-17T08:41:44Z

172.71.178.5:

I've add a CITATION NEEDED for the medical appointment because in many countries and in the past Soviet Statesit took that long and so is a questionable claim
I've been waiting for Randall to do a comic related to the DART mission. I think I'm going to have to be satisfied with the title text being inspired by it -- altering the orbits of the earth and/or moon would be infinitely harder. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:56, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

though it says Black Hat is rejecting the invitation sarcastically, considering Black Hat it's also possible he's planning something else for the total eclipse, such as playing a prank on people who don't know it's coming, or messing with the meeting under discussion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.51|108.162.241.51]] 17:31, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
:Or planning to be actively messing with the eclipse... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.97|172.70.85.97]] 18:59, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

That reminds me: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLW7r4o2_Ow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLW7r4o2_Ow] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.32|162.158.239.32]] 19:33, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Here’s a source for moving the Earth or the Sun requiring vast amounts of energy: [https://qntm.org/moving https://qntm.org/moving]. It doesn’t really cover moving the Moon though. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.133|172.69.33.133]] 02:23, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

:And with that breaks the 104-comic streak where we never saw Black Hat. I'm pretty sure that's the longest ever. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 03:52, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

:Is this Megan or Danish? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.117|172.69.33.117]] 05:28, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Can somebody please calculate the minimum needed energy amount, if you start now? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.157|172.70.242.157]] 11:09, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
: And how many probe impacts that would require. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.5|172.71.178.5]] 08:41, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

pretty sure the explanation needs to be sanitized of invisible control characters or zero-width whitespace - there were several edits that added thousands of characters but did not result in a visually different page, and those edits were never reverted --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.30|172.70.115.30]] 12:43, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
:edit: just now did it, lmk if i missed anything--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.8|162.158.63.8]] 12:46, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
::unedit: just now undid it, lmk if i missed anything
:::cheeky bastard 💀

Corrected date of annular eclipse to Oct 14 2023 link https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/ Peter 15:13, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2685: 2045

2022-10-17T08:41:26Z

172.71.178.5:

I've add a CITATION NEEDED for the medical appointment because in many countries and in the past Soviet Statesit took that long and so is a questionable claim
I've been waiting for Randall to do a comic related to the DART mission. I think I'm going to have to be satisfied with the title text being inspired by it -- altering the orbits of the earth and/or moon would be infinitely harder. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:56, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

though it says Black Hat is rejecting the invitation sarcastically, considering Black Hat it's also possible he's planning something else for the total eclipse, such as playing a prank on people who don't know it's coming, or messing with the meeting under discussion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.51|108.162.241.51]] 17:31, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
:Or planning to be actively messing with the eclipse... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.97|172.70.85.97]] 18:59, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

That reminds me: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLW7r4o2_Ow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLW7r4o2_Ow] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.239.32|162.158.239.32]] 19:33, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Here’s a source for moving the Earth or the Sun requiring vast amounts of energy: [https://qntm.org/moving https://qntm.org/moving]. It doesn’t really cover moving the Moon though. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.133|172.69.33.133]] 02:23, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

:And with that breaks the 104-comic streak where we never saw Black Hat. I'm pretty sure that's the longest ever. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 03:52, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

:Is this Megan or Danish? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.117|172.69.33.117]] 05:28, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Can somebody please calculate the minimum needed energy amount, if you start now? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.157|172.70.242.157]] 11:09, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
: And how many satellite impacts that would require. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.5|172.71.178.5]] 08:41, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

pretty sure the explanation needs to be sanitized of invisible control characters or zero-width whitespace - there were several edits that added thousands of characters but did not result in a visually different page, and those edits were never reverted --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.115.30|172.70.115.30]] 12:43, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
:edit: just now did it, lmk if i missed anything--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.8|162.158.63.8]] 12:46, 15 October 2022 (UTC)
::unedit: just now undid it, lmk if i missed anything
:::cheeky bastard 💀

Corrected date of annular eclipse to Oct 14 2023 link https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/ Peter 15:13, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

2685: 2045

2022-10-17T08:39:35Z

172.71.178.5: /* Explanation */ Many public events are scheduled this far in advance, but personal ones usually aren't

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

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GIGANTIC NUCLEAR FURNACE (THE SUN) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The characters are talking about upcoming total {{w|solar eclipses}}. Partial solar eclipses are fairly frequent (2–5 per year), but total eclipses are less frequent (about every 18 months), and most of them will not be in convenient locations for a particular set of people. Cueball seems to be talking about total eclipses visible in much of North America: {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|April 8, 2024}} and {{w|Solar eclipse of August 12, 2045|August 12, 2045}}. (There's also a {{w|annular eclipse}} on October 14, 2023.) Making plans for eclipses is awkward given the uncertainty present for anything else far in the future, such as whether the attendees will have children by then, and even whether another scheduling program will catch on and replace Google Calendar.

Black Hat claims he can't make it, as he vaguely and obscurely claims he already knows he has "a thing" on August 12, 2045. People do not usually have events scheduled for precise dates that far in the future in their personal calendars and, combined with the fact that Black Hat remembers this date without checking (but also without specifying what he'll be doing then), implies that this could be another of his grand and sinister plans... or he just doesn't want to go.

The title text is someone asking to reschedule a medical appointment to see the eclipse. The eclipse is hard to move because that would require hastening or delaying it by moving the Earth, Moon or Sun, any of which would require vast amounts of energy.{{Citation needed}}

This was published a year before the next eclipse; so, if you're someone who plans things a year in advance, this serves as a reminder to put it on your calendar.

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

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-17T08:35:42Z

172.71.178.5: /* Explanation */ Remove anti-bicycle bias

{{comic
| number = 2684
| date = October 12, 2022
| title = Road Space Comparison
| image = road_space_comparison_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1157px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder how hard it would be to ride an electric scooter in a hamster ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WALKABLE ELECTRIC HAMSTER BALL ENJOYER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic is a parody of a common comparison done in arguments for walkable cities - the amount of usable space taken up by cars and car-centric infrastructure that could be eliminated for other useful public amenities. The first of these may be from 1965[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/posters/item/1983-4-7561].

The first 4 images are common, real-life comparisons involving people walking, people on bicycles, public transport, and cars, which distinctly show how cars take up significantly more space for the same number of people than the other methods of transport. However, from this point the comic becomes more and more absurd in its comparisons.

The 5th image shows 50 people on what is reported to be a tandem bicycle, although it seems more likely to actually be a string of {{w|trailer bike}}s, due to it not being rigid and the separation from one person to the next is larger than is typical for tandem bicycles. This would obviously be impractical in a city due to the tandem's sheer length and it would not be able to work with fewer than 50 people due to its sheer mass. The [https://www.active.com/articles/bicycle-built-for-52-pedals-into-guinness-book longest compound] [https://www.deseret.com/2000/7/31/19521141/family-s-bike-goes-to-great-lengths cycle] holds 52 people, while an actual tandem bicycle exists that has at least [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/346988346267601955/ 35 seats].

The 6th one involves 20 people driving 40 cars, with each person driving 2 cars at a time by straddling them in the middle. Besides being unwieldy and impractical, it would also be extremely dangerous as the cars could go out of control at any time. Perhaps the cars would be a paired mix of left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models, although with enough push-rods/levers (to also reach the traditional foot controls, and also gear sticks unless ''fully'' automatic) this might not be as important. However, even if the cars were perfectly safe to drive, it would be unsafe to drive them on most roads; roads with only one lane per direction are common, everywhere from city streets to exit ramps, and attempts to drive a pair of cars down such a road side by side are unlikely to end well.

(Of course, worse than any of these petty safety concerns is the fact that each person takes up twice as much road space, making most infrastructure a bit less efficient. Of all the examples, this is the most wasteful of space, with the entire road being taken up by only 20 people.)

The 7th one has 30 cars riding on 6 buses by stacking them on top of each other. Assuming the same people-per-car/bus from the earlier examples, this arrangement would have about 345 people riding on the same road! (Unless, of course, the buses are carrying 30 cars ''instead of'' their normal passengers.) In addition, people getting out of the cars when they reach their destination would be a problem for most cars in this arrangement due to them being stacked under other cars or surrounded by them. And as in the previous example, it would be impossible to safely drive anywhere without two clear lanes...and the body count would be considerably higher.

The 8th panel has 50 people in hamster balls. Randall has shown his interest in human sized [[:Category:Hamster Ball|hamster ball]] transportation before, and indeed, for some people, this might be an enjoyable way to traverse a road, provided no other hamster balls try to drive into you and knock you off the road, and other traffic that could pose a greater hazard has been eliminated. The image shows 39 hamster balls, implying that roughly one in four has a passenger; under these constraints, they appear to be slightly more efficient than cars. Another explanation for 39 balls is that there are more hamster balls than are able to be shown on the road diagram -- this is supported by the fact that only one "person dot" is shown in each of the hamster balls, however since the diagram is supposed to show visibly what it looks like to have that many vehicles/people on the road at the same time, missing hamster balls negates the purpose of such a diagram.

The 9th panel has 40 tiny cars pulling a big one. Such feats of strengths are a common sight while setting world records, so maybe this is a world record attempt by the cars in question. It is unknown how many people fit in the big car; judging by its size, it likely fits more than a single bus and less than three. It is also unclear whether the tiny cars can fit a human driver, or if they would need to be driven remotely.

The 10th panel is a 50 person variation on the classic {{w|wolf, goat and cabbage problem}} (which has also been [[2348: Boat Puzzle|referenced before]] by Randall) except this one involves 30 goats, 20 cabbages and 10 wolves trying to cross a section of road that is underwater, using a single boat. The fact that there is a conveniently placed dock at the edge of the water suggests that this is a ford with provision for those crossing by foot, or at least that the road gets flooded often enough to warrant a permanent dock to be installed. It is not known how many people (or cabbages for that matter) the boat fits, but since humans significantly outnumber the goats, cabbages and wolves, it seems like a much simpler problem, though not necessarily without difficulty.

The initial bicycles and singular bus are actually (mostly) using the left-hand lane of the three shown, for whatever reason. This would not be unusual on British highways or {{w|Left- and right-hand traffic#Worldwide distribution by country|other countries}} using their system, whether the lanes seen are just one of the directional carriageways of a multi-lane split highway or the centre-lane is a gantry-signed {{w|Reversible lane|'tidal lane'}} of a fully two-way street. Yet people who have to walk on a road (due to no footway) are advised to walk facing oncoming traffic (the right-hand side, in the same jurisdiction) and not bunched up. It would be interesting to know why Randall, much more familiar with US road conventions, would have offset these various road-users the way he did (rather than hogging the central lane, or across the ''entire'' highway width as he did with the other diagrams in the series).

The title text proposes a problem related to another alternative form of transport — the electric scooter. Randall wonders how well an electric scooter would function when run inside the hamster ball. While this could function like a spherical {{w|monowheel}}, it might also be very dangerous.

==Transcript==
:[Overhead views of ten segments of highway in two rows with a caption above. Each road segment has a caption and a different scenario.]
:Road Space Comparison

:[50 people in the bottom left of the highway, all fitting into a single lane and taking up about a fourth of the length of the road.]
:50 people walking

:[50 bike riders in the bottom left of the highway, extending about halfway up the road and spilling over slightly into the second-to-leftmost lane]
:50 people riding bikes

:[A single bus, fitting into roughly the same space as the 50 people from the first scenario]
:50 people riding a bus

:[33 cars, taking up the entire length of all three lanes]
:50 people in 33 cars

:[One long string of connected bike riders, curving slightly and extending down the entire length of the middle lane]
:50 people on one tandem bicycle

:[40 cars in pairs, each pair with a single person straddling the windows between them. They take up the entire highway segment and each pair extends partway from the outer lanes into the middle]
:20 people driving 40 cars

:[Six buses on the lines between lanes taking up the majority of the highway, 30 cars arranged in stacks across the top]
:30 cars riding on 6 buses

:[39 evenly-spaced hamster balls with a person inside each, taking up the majority of the highway except a space at the top]
:50 people in human-sized hamster balls

:[An oversized car taking up all three lanes at the bottom of the highway, with a pair of ropes and a beam attached to the front bumper. The beam is attached to 40 miniature cars in front arranged into four lines]
:One giant car pulled by 40 tiny ones

:[The road is bisected by a large river taking up about half of its original area, with a dock and rowboat attached to the lower shore. 50 people, 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves are in groups on the same side]
:50 people with 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Logic]]

2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-17T08:33:19Z

172.71.178.5: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2684
| date = October 12, 2022
| title = Road Space Comparison
| image = road_space_comparison_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1157px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder how hard it would be to ride an electric scooter in a hamster ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WALKABLE ELECTRIC HAMSTER BALL ENJOYER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic is a parody of a common comparison done in arguments for walkable cities - the amount of usable space taken up by cars and car-centric infrastructure that could be eliminated for other useful public amenities. The first of these may be from 1965[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/posters/item/1983-4-7561].

The first 4 images are common, real-life comparisons involving people walking, people on bicycles, public transport, and cars, which distinctly show how cars take up significantly more space for the same number of people than the other methods of transport. However, from this point the comic becomes more and more absurd in its comparisons.

The 5th image shows 50 people on what is reported to be a tandem bicycle, although it seems more likely to actually be a string of {{w|trailer bike}}s, due to it not being rigid and the separation from one person to the next is larger than is typical for tandem bicycles. This would obviously be impractical in a city due to the tandem's sheer length and it would not be able to work with fewer than 50 people due to its sheer mass. The [https://www.active.com/articles/bicycle-built-for-52-pedals-into-guinness-book longest compound] [https://www.deseret.com/2000/7/31/19521141/family-s-bike-goes-to-great-lengths cycle] holds 52 people, while an actual tandem bicycle exists that has at least [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/346988346267601955/ 35 seats].

The 6th one involves 20 people driving 40 cars, with each person driving 2 cars at a time by straddling them in the middle. Besides being unwieldy and impractical, it would also be extremely dangerous as the cars could go out of control at any time. Perhaps the cars would be a paired mix of left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models, although with enough push-rods/levers (to also reach the traditional foot controls, and also gear sticks unless ''fully'' automatic) this might not be as important. However, even if the cars were perfectly safe to drive, it would be unsafe to drive them on most roads; roads with only one lane per direction are common, everywhere from city streets to exit ramps, and attempts to drive a pair of cars down such a road side by side are unlikely to end well.

(Of course, worse than any of these petty safety concerns is the fact that each person takes up twice as much road space, making most infrastructure a bit less efficient. Of all the examples, this is the most wasteful of space, with the entire road being taken up by only 20 people.)

The 7th one has 30 cars riding on 6 buses by stacking them on top of each other. Assuming the same people-per-car/bus from the earlier examples, this arrangement would have about 345 people riding on the same road! (Unless, of course, the buses are carrying 30 cars ''instead of'' their normal passengers.) In addition, people getting out of the cars when they reach their destination would be a problem for most cars in this arrangement due to them being stacked under other cars or surrounded by them. And as in the previous example, it would be impossible to safely drive anywhere without two clear lanes...and the body count would be considerably higher.

The 8th panel has 50 people in hamster balls. Randall has shown his interest in human sized [[:Category:Hamster Ball|hamster ball]] transportation before, and indeed, for some people, this might be an enjoyable way to traverse a road, provided no other hamster balls try to drive into you and knock you off the road, and other traffic that could pose a greater hazard has been eliminated. The image shows 39 hamster balls, implying that roughly one in four has a passenger; under these constraints, they appear to be slightly more efficient than cars. Another explanation for 39 balls is that there are more hamster balls than are able to be shown on the road diagram -- this is supported by the fact that only one "person dot" is shown in each of the hamster balls, however since the diagram is supposed to show visibly what it looks like to have that many vehicles/people on the road at the same time, missing hamster balls negates the purpose of such a diagram.

The 9th panel has 40 tiny cars pulling a big one. Such feats of strengths are a common sight while setting world records, so maybe this is a world record attempt by the cars in question. It is unknown how many people fit in the big car; judging by its size, it likely fits more than a single bus and less than three. It is also unclear whether the tiny cars can fit a human driver, or if they would need to be driven remotely.

The 10th panel is a 50 person variation on the classic {{w|wolf, goat and cabbage problem}} (which has also been [[2348: Boat Puzzle|referenced before]] by Randall) except this one involves 30 goats, 20 cabbages and 10 wolves trying to cross a section of road that is underwater, using a single boat. The fact that there is a conveniently placed dock at the edge of the water suggests that this is a ford with provision for those crossing by foot, or at least that the road gets flooded often enough to warrant a permanent dock to be installed. It is not known how many people (or cabbages for that matter) the boat fits, but since humans significantly outnumber the goats, cabbages and wolves, it seems like a much simpler problem, though not necessarily without difficulty.

The initial bicycles and singular bus are actually (mostly) using the left-hand lane of the three shown, for whatever reason. This would not be unusual on British highways or {{w|Left- and right-hand traffic#Worldwide distribution by country|other countries}} using their system, whether the lanes seen are just one of the directional carriageways of a multi-lane split highway or the centre-lane is a gantry-signed {{w|Reversible lane|'tidal lane'}} of a fully two-way street. Though it is considered bad practice to ride bikes three-abreast and across lanes, and would (intentionally or otherwise) generally annoy motorists. Yet people who have to walk on a road (due to no footway) are advised to walk facing oncoming traffic (the right-hand side, in the same jurisdiction) and not bunched up. It would be interesting to know why Randall, much more familiar with US road conventions, would have offset these various road-users the way he did (rather than hogging the central lane, or across the ''entire'' highway width as he did with the other diagrams in the series).

The title text proposes a problem related to another alternative form of transport — the electric scooter. Randall wonders how well an electric scooter would function when run inside the hamster ball. While this could function like a spherical {{w|monowheel}}, it might also be very dangerous.

==Transcript==
:[Overhead views of ten segments of highway in two rows with a caption above. Each road segment has a caption and a different scenario.]
:Road Space Comparison

:[50 people in the bottom left of the highway, all fitting into a single lane and taking up about a fourth of the length of the road.]
:50 people walking

:[50 bike riders in the bottom left of the highway, extending about halfway up the road and spilling over slightly into the second-to-leftmost lane]
:50 people riding bikes

:[A single bus, fitting into roughly the same space as the 50 people from the first scenario]
:50 people riding a bus

:[33 cars, taking up the entire length of all three lanes]
:50 people in 33 cars

:[One long string of connected bike riders, curving slightly and extending down the entire length of the middle lane]
:50 people on one tandem bicycle

:[40 cars in pairs, each pair with a single person straddling the windows between them. They take up the entire highway segment and each pair extends partway from the outer lanes into the middle]
:20 people driving 40 cars

:[Six buses on the lines between lanes taking up the majority of the highway, 30 cars arranged in stacks across the top]
:30 cars riding on 6 buses

:[39 evenly-spaced hamster balls with a person inside each, taking up the majority of the highway except a space at the top]
:50 people in human-sized hamster balls

:[An oversized car taking up all three lanes at the bottom of the highway, with a pair of ropes and a beam attached to the front bumper. The beam is attached to 40 miniature cars in front arranged into four lines]
:One giant car pulled by 40 tiny ones

:[The road is bisected by a large river taking up about half of its original area, with a dock and rowboat attached to the lower shore. 50 people, 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves are in groups on the same side]
:50 people with 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Logic]]

2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-17T08:27:33Z

172.71.178.5: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2684
| date = October 12, 2022
| title = Road Space Comparison
| image = road_space_comparison_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1157px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder how hard it would be to ride an electric scooter in a hamster ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WALKABLE ELECTRIC HAMSTER BALL ENJOYER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic is a parody of a common comparison done in arguments for walkable cities - the amount of usable space taken up by cars and car-centric infrastructure that could be eliminated for other useful public amenities. The first of these may be from 1965[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/posters/item/1983-4-7561].

The first 4 images are common, real-life comparisons involving people walking, people on bicycles, public transport, and cars, which distinctly show how cars take up significantly more space for the same number of people than the other methods of transport. However, from this point the comic becomes more and more absurd in its comparisons.

The 5th image shows 50 people on what is reported to be a tandem bicycle, although it seems more likely to actually be a string of {{w|trailer bike}}s, due to it not being rigid and the separation from one person to the next is larger than is typical for tandem bicycles. This would obviously be impractical in a city due to the tandem's sheer length and it would not be able to work with fewer than 50 people due to its sheer mass. The [https://www.active.com/articles/bicycle-built-for-52-pedals-into-guinness-book longest compound] [https://www.deseret.com/2000/7/31/19521141/family-s-bike-goes-to-great-lengths cycle] holds 52 people, while an actual tandem bicycle exists that has at least [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/346988346267601955/ 35 seats].

The 6th one involves 20 people driving 40 cars, with each person driving 2 cars at a time by straddling them in the middle. Besides being unwieldy and impractical, it would also be extremely dangerous as the cars could go out of control at any time. Perhaps the cars would be a paired mix of left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models, although with enough push-rods/levers (to also reach the traditional foot controls, and also gear sticks unless ''fully'' automatic) this might not be as important. However, even if the cars were perfectly safe to drive, it would be unsafe to drive them on most roads; roads with only one lane per direction are common, everywhere from city streets to exit ramps, and attempts to drive a pair of cars down such a road side by side are unlikely to end well.

(Of course, worse than any of these petty safety concerns is the fact that each person takes up twice as much road space, making most infrastructure a bit less efficient. Of all the examples, this is the most wasteful of space, with the entire road being taken up by only 20 people.)

The 7th one has 30 cars riding on 6 buses by stacking them on top of each other. Assuming the same people-per-car/bus from the earlier examples, this arrangement would have about 345 people riding on the same road! (Unless, of course, the buses are carrying 30 cars ''instead of'' their normal passengers.) In addition, people getting out of the cars when they reach their destination would be a problem for most cars in this arrangement due to them being stacked under other cars or surrounded by them. And as in the previous example, it would be impossible to safely drive anywhere without two clear lanes...and the body count would be considerably higher.

The 8th panel has 50 people in hamster balls. Randall has shown his interest in human sized [[:Category:Hamster Ball|hamster ball]] transportation before, and indeed, for some people, this might be an enjoyable way to traverse a road, provided no other hamster balls try to drive into you and knock you off the road, and other traffic that could pose a greater hazard has been eliminated. The image shows 39 hamster balls, implying that roughly one in four has a passenger; under these constraints, they appear to be slightly more efficient than cars. Another explanation for 39 balls is that there are more hamster balls than are able to be shown on the road diagram -- this is supported by the fact that only one "person dot" is shown in each of the hamster balls, however since the diagram is supposed to show visibly what it looks like to have that many vehicles/people on the road at the same time, missing hamster balls negates the purpose of such a diagram.

The 9th panel has 40 tiny cars pulling a big one. Such feats of strengths are a common sight while setting world records, so maybe this is a world record attempt by the cars in question. It is unknown how many people fit in the big car; judging by its size, it likely fits more than a single bus and less than three. It is also unclear whether the tiny cars can fit a human driver, or if they would need to be driven remotely.

The 10th panel is a 50 person variation on the classic {{w|wolf, goat and cabbage problem}} (which has also been [[2348: Boat Puzzle|referenced before]] by Randall) except this one involves 30 goats, 20 cabbages and 10 wolves trying to cross the now-flooded road with a single boat. It is not known how many people (or cabbages for that matter) the boat fits, but since humans significantly outnumber the goats, cabbages and wolves, it seems like a much simpler problem, though not necessarily without difficulty. It is, however, rather off that there is a conveniently placed dock at the edge of the water, implying that the road gets flooded often enough to warrant a permanent dock to be installed.

The initial bicycles and singular bus are actually (mostly) using the left-hand lane of the three shown, for whatever reason. This would not be unusual on British highways or {{w|Left- and right-hand traffic#Worldwide distribution by country|other countries}} using their system, whether the lanes seen are just one of the directional carriageways of a multi-lane split highway or the centre-lane is a gantry-signed {{w|Reversible lane|'tidal lane'}} of a fully two-way street. Though it is considered bad practice to ride bikes three-abreast and across lanes, and would (intentionally or otherwise) generally annoy motorists. Yet people who have to walk on a road (due to no footway) are advised to walk facing oncoming traffic (the right-hand side, in the same jurisdiction) and not bunched up. It would be interesting to know why Randall, much more familiar with US road conventions, would have offset these various road-users the way he did (rather than hogging the central lane, or across the ''entire'' highway width as he did with the other diagrams in the series).

The title text proposes a problem related to another alternative form of transport — the electric scooter. Randall wonders how well an electric scooter would function when run inside the hamster ball. While this could function like a spherical {{w|monowheel}}, it might also be very dangerous.

==Transcript==
:[Overhead views of ten segments of highway in two rows with a caption above. Each road segment has a caption and a different scenario.]
:Road Space Comparison

:[50 people in the bottom left of the highway, all fitting into a single lane and taking up about a fourth of the length of the road.]
:50 people walking

:[50 bike riders in the bottom left of the highway, extending about halfway up the road and spilling over slightly into the second-to-leftmost lane]
:50 people riding bikes

:[A single bus, fitting into roughly the same space as the 50 people from the first scenario]
:50 people riding a bus

:[33 cars, taking up the entire length of all three lanes]
:50 people in 33 cars

:[One long string of connected bike riders, curving slightly and extending down the entire length of the middle lane]
:50 people on one tandem bicycle

:[40 cars in pairs, each pair with a single person straddling the windows between them. They take up the entire highway segment and each pair extends partway from the outer lanes into the middle]
:20 people driving 40 cars

:[Six buses on the lines between lanes taking up the majority of the highway, 30 cars arranged in stacks across the top]
:30 cars riding on 6 buses

:[39 evenly-spaced hamster balls with a person inside each, taking up the majority of the highway except a space at the top]
:50 people in human-sized hamster balls

:[An oversized car taking up all three lanes at the bottom of the highway, with a pair of ropes and a beam attached to the front bumper. The beam is attached to 40 miniature cars in front arranged into four lines]
:One giant car pulled by 40 tiny ones

:[The road is bisected by a large river taking up about half of its original area, with a dock and rowboat attached to the lower shore. 50 people, 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves are in groups on the same side]
:50 people with 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Logic]]

2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-17T08:25:02Z

172.71.178.5: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2684
| date = October 12, 2022
| title = Road Space Comparison
| image = road_space_comparison_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1157px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder how hard it would be to ride an electric scooter in a hamster ball.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WALKABLE ELECTRIC HAMSTER BALL ENJOYER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic is a parody of a common comparison done in arguments for walkable cities - the amount of usable space taken up by cars and car-centric infrastructure that could be eliminated for other useful public amenities. The first of these may be from 1965[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/posters/item/1983-4-7561].

The first 4 images are common, real-life comparisons involving people walking, people on bicycles, public transport, and cars, which distinctly show how cars take up significantly more space for the same number of people than the other methods of transport. However, from this point the comic becomes more and more absurd in its comparisons.

The 5th image shows 50 people on what is reported to be a tandem bicycle, although it seems more likely to actually be a string of {{w|trailer bike}}s, due to it not being rigid and the separation from one person to the next is larger than is typical for tandem bicycles. This would obviously be impractical in a city due to the tandem's sheer length and it would not be able to work with fewer than 50 people due to its sheer mass. The [https://www.active.com/articles/bicycle-built-for-52-pedals-into-guinness-book longest compound] [https://www.deseret.com/2000/7/31/19521141/family-s-bike-goes-to-great-lengths cycle] holds 52 people, while an actual tandem bicycle exists that has at least [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/346988346267601955/ 35 seats].

The 6th one involves 20 people driving 40 cars, with each person driving 2 cars at a time by straddling them in the middle. Besides being unwieldy and impractical, it would also be extremely dangerous as the cars could go out of control at any time. Perhaps the cars would be a paired mix of left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models, although with enough push-rods/levers (to also reach the traditional foot controls, and also gear sticks unless ''fully'' automatic) this might not be as important. However, even if the cars were perfectly safe to drive, it would be unsafe to drive them on most roads; roads with only one lane per direction are common, everywhere from city streets to exit ramps, and attempts to drive a pair of cars down such a road side by side are unlikely to end well.

(Of course, worse than any of these petty safety concerns is the fact that each person takes up twice as much road space, making most infrastructure a bit less efficient. Of all the examples, this is the most wasteful of space, with the entire road being taken up by only 20 people.)

The 7th one has 30 cars riding on 6 buses by stacking them on top of each other. Assuming the same people-per-car/bus from the earlier examples, this arrangement would have about 345 people riding on the same road! (Unless, of course, the buses are carrying 30 cars ''instead of'' their normal passengers.) In addition, people getting out of the cars when they reach their destination would be a problem for most cars in this arrangement due to them being stacked under other cars or surrounded by them. And as in the previous example, it would be impossible to safely drive anywhere without two clear lanes...and the body count would be considerably higher.

The 8th panel has 50 people in hamster balls. Randall has shown his interest in human sized [[:Category:Hamster Ball|hamster ball]] transportation before, and indeed, for some people, this might be an enjoyable way to traverse a road, provided no other hamster balls try to drive into you and knock you off the road, and other traffic that could pose a greater hazard has been eliminated. The image shows 39 hamster balls, implying that roughly one in four has a passenger; under these constraints, they appear to be slightly more efficient than cars. Another explanation for 39 balls is that there are more hamster balls than are able to be shown on the road diagram -- this is supported by the fact that only one "person dot" is shown in each of the hamster balls, however since the diagram is supposed to show visibly what it looks like to have that many vehicles/people on the road at the same time, missing hamster balls negates the purpose of such a diagram.

The 9th panel has 40 tiny cars pulling a big one. Such feats of strengths are a common sight while setting world records, so maybe this is a world record attempt by the cars in question. It is unknown how many people fit in the big car; judging by its size, it likely fits more than a single bus and less than three.

The 10th panel is a 50 person variation on the classic {{w|wolf, goat and cabbage problem}} (which has also been [[2348: Boat Puzzle|referenced before]] by Randall) except this one involves 30 goats, 20 cabbages and 10 wolves trying to cross the now-flooded road with a single boat. It is not known how many people (or cabbages for that matter) the boat fits, but since humans significantly outnumber the goats, cabbages and wolves, it seems like a much simpler problem, though not necessarily without difficulty. It is, however, rather off that there is a conveniently placed dock at the edge of the water, implying that the road gets flooded often enough to warrant a permanent dock to be installed.

The initial bicycles and singular bus are actually (mostly) using the left-hand lane of the three shown, for whatever reason. This would not be unusual on British highways or {{w|Left- and right-hand traffic#Worldwide distribution by country|other countries}} using their system, whether the lanes seen are just one of the directional carriageways of a multi-lane split highway or the centre-lane is a gantry-signed {{w|Reversible lane|'tidal lane'}} of a fully two-way street. Though it is considered bad practice to ride bikes three-abreast and across lanes, and would (intentionally or otherwise) generally annoy motorists. Yet people who have to walk on a road (due to no footway) are advised to walk facing oncoming traffic (the right-hand side, in the same jurisdiction) and not bunched up. It would be interesting to know why Randall, much more familiar with US road conventions, would have offset these various road-users the way he did (rather than hogging the central lane, or across the ''entire'' highway width as he did with the other diagrams in the series).

The title text proposes a problem related to another alternative form of transport — the electric scooter. Randall wonders how well an electric scooter would function when run inside the hamster ball. While this could function like a spherical {{w|monowheel}}, it might also be very dangerous.

==Transcript==
:[Overhead views of ten segments of highway in two rows with a caption above. Each road segment has a caption and a different scenario.]
:Road Space Comparison

:[50 people in the bottom left of the highway, all fitting into a single lane and taking up about a fourth of the length of the road.]
:50 people walking

:[50 bike riders in the bottom left of the highway, extending about halfway up the road and spilling over slightly into the second-to-leftmost lane]
:50 people riding bikes

:[A single bus, fitting into roughly the same space as the 50 people from the first scenario]
:50 people riding a bus

:[33 cars, taking up the entire length of all three lanes]
:50 people in 33 cars

:[One long string of connected bike riders, curving slightly and extending down the entire length of the middle lane]
:50 people on one tandem bicycle

:[40 cars in pairs, each pair with a single person straddling the windows between them. They take up the entire highway segment and each pair extends partway from the outer lanes into the middle]
:20 people driving 40 cars

:[Six buses on the lines between lanes taking up the majority of the highway, 30 cars arranged in stacks across the top]
:30 cars riding on 6 buses

:[39 evenly-spaced hamster balls with a person inside each, taking up the majority of the highway except a space at the top]
:50 people in human-sized hamster balls

:[An oversized car taking up all three lanes at the bottom of the highway, with a pair of ropes and a beam attached to the front bumper. The beam is attached to 40 miniature cars in front arranged into four lines]
:One giant car pulled by 40 tiny ones

:[The road is bisected by a large river taking up about half of its original area, with a dock and rowboat attached to the lower shore. 50 people, 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves are in groups on the same side]
:50 people with 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Logic]]

Talk:2684: Road Space Comparison

2022-10-13T18:54:13Z

172.71.178.5:

Hold on, I'm trying to concoct an interesting 30 goats/20 cabbages/10 wolves problem... [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 20:53, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
S3C0ND P0ST [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.131|172.71.150.131]] 21:12, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

You have no idea how many car-centric infrastructure arguments happen in my discord servers, this is a fantastic comic to post for that[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.55|188.114.102.55]] 21:23, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

What if the last panel also references other river crossing puzzles like the "Missionaries and cannibals problem" or the Flash "Japanese River Crossing" puzzle so you have extra rules for each member of each species? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.97|172.71.98.97]] 22:11, 12 October 2022 (UTC) Alex

My name is GreyFox, and I added the transcript for this page. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.171|172.71.150.171]] 22:13, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

So [[1035|the takeway is]]... we can put humans in hamster balls by the handful all season and feel no worse about it than about cars driving down the road? This is awesome! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.215|162.158.2.215]] 22:20, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
:No, unfortunately the comic is missleading! Even though it is labelled as 50 hamsterballs the image only shows 39! [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]])
::The comic never said it was one person per hamsterball. There's plenty of space in those for the hamster equivalent of a sidecar. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 05:30, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
:::But the image shows only one shioulette per hamsterball. I assume this picture is intentionally misleading and Randall was payd by the hamsterball-industry in order to manipulate society towards being pro hamster-ball [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]])
::::Regarding the hamster wheels: I think the description is missing a reference to sphere packing. It’s the first thing I thought of when I saw panel 8: how many circles/spheres can you fit/pack into a given space is a famous mathematical problem that I believe Randall has played with before. [[Special:Contributions/75.174.26.242 |75.174.26.242]]13:14UTC, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Saw this one recently, can't be a coincidence [https://files.fietsersbond.nl/app/uploads/2011/07/18104628/enfb_ruimtegebruik.jpg NL Fietsersbond Ruimtegebruik] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.105|108.162.221.105]] 22:25, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

:No, it can not. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.39|172.71.142.39]] 16:13, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

I'm a bit unsure about the linked "52 person tandem" (also, the way it is currently made a bottom-of-page reference link, which we avoid on this site). It took me a while (behind all the popups the referenced link gave me, typically) to realise the only picture of it was the miniscule thumbnail planted at the start. Which explained the anomolous wheel-count, if I understand the low-res image correctly. I would dispute Ripleys'/Guiness's acceptance of that thing as a 'tandem'. It is clearly a multi-stage {{w|Trailer bike|Rann Trailer}}-style construction (possibly with individual tandem-'trailers' in there to get the wheel count down to ''no more'' than the rider-count). Also, how on earth would a linked line of trailers actually start bursting tyres? The load of riders plus frames would spread out about as evenly as for any given single occupant bike (certainly less than the forces on the wheels of a proper tandem/trandem, or even a tandem-trike!), so I'm not sure how they even buckled a wheel. So I'd like to know what the longest two-/three-wheel tandem is (and certainly how anything like Randall's slightly snaking frame does not buckle), if anybody has their finger on that rather more relevent information, rather than that faux-tandem. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 03:03, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Is it just me, or is the last block also a subtle dig at Putin's blown-up Kerch bridge? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.146|172.70.175.146]] 12:22, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
:then it would be 50 people with 30 sleeping bags, 20 guns and 10 medikits :) [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]])

Intrinsic problems to the multi-human/goat/cabbage/wolf riddle:

- How many generic objects can you take at once? (If you can take 110+, there is no riddle here)

- How many goats can one person transport at once? (Can you put 30 goats on a boat without pandemonium?)

- How many people are required to corral the goats? (Will the goats all run away when they get to the other side?)

- Are the humans able to catch the goats? And, if the humans *can* catch the goats, does that mean the wolves can, too?

- Is there a way to restrain the wolves?

- Can a wolf be lonely?--[[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 13:23, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
:"Can you put 30 goats on a boat without pandemonium?" - nicely done. :o)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 13:51, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

: If one person only is needed to "corral" 30 Goats/Wolves/Cabbages, then the problem is moot - the first boat ride just leaves a human on the other side of the water to watch over whatever is brought
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.105|172.70.230.105]] 14:20, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

*raises eyebrows at the suggestion that a 50-person tandem is only impractical in a city...*[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 13:52, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

The multiseater 'bike' drawing is off, for me. A tandem (including trandem, quad, quint, etc) tends to root the stoker's(/subsequent stokers') handlebars directly under the seat of the rider in front of them (steersman/intermediate stokers) in any decent scratch-built frame, not well behind the seated body (and presmably a head/hat of each person, seated upright). It's closer in longitudinal scale to what you get of an overhead view of a [https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/campaigns-guide/guide-tag-longs-trailer-bikes compound bike] with handlebars on or just behind the towing-point (though now it looks a little too close, practically, as there might not be room between the bottom-bracket/down-tube/head-tube to clear the rear wheel of the bike-rear in front of them... if not {{w|Moulton Bicycle|Moulton-sized}} units, which causes other building problems). Which also perhaps accounts for the slightly snaking plan view, being articulated. If well constructed with the right attachment geometries, this could actually travel city streets quite well by ensuring the wheel track of each compound unit follows the path of the weaving wheel(s) ahead of them. Although it'd need practiced riders to prevent lateral oscilations causing rolling forces to drag the whole thing sideways down to hit the ground. But I'll forgive Randall, as he clearly doesn't have enough practical experience with bike/tandem construction. Anyway, as the original '52 seat tandem bicycle' link was not a tandem (nor a bicycle) I looked up what I ''think'' is the correct most-seated tandem (tried checking Guiness Book Of Records website, just in case, but its cookie-authorisation popovers made it impossible to read) and added that as well as caveating the existing presumption of tandemness for the drawing and the already suggested machine. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.5|172.71.178.5]] 18:54, 13 October 2022 (UTC)