explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3095: Archaea

2025-05-29T13:13:25Z

172.71.241.100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3095
| date = May 28, 2025
| title = Archaea
| image = archaea_2x.png
| imagesize = 404x412px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Under the two-domain system, anyone who punches you is technically an Archaean pathogen.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by an Archean pathogen. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
{{w|Archaea}} is one of the three main lineages (domains) of free-living lifeforms. The other two are {{w|Bacteria}} and {{w|Eukaryote|Eukaryota}}. Organisms within Archaea and Bacteria are {{w|Prokaryote|prokaryotes}}, and were treated as a single domain until the Archaea were split off in the 1970s.

The bacterial and eukaryotic domains each contain numerous species that cause human disease (are pathogens). However, to date, no species of Archaea has been unequivocally shown to be a human pathogen. Whether such pathogens exist, and why, even if they do, they are rare and have low impact, are [https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/why-dont-archaea-cause-disease.html matters of debate].

The joke in this comic is that one or more strains of Archaea, being cultivated in a laboratory, overheard a conversation among three human scientists (represented by [[Cueball]], [[Megan]], and [[White Hat]]). Perhaps taking offense at Megan's disparaging comments, perhaps considering it as a challenge, the eavesdropping culture resolves to become a human pathogen.

The caption reports this as "bad news" for humanity. It may turn out that they always had the ''potential'' to harm humans, but had never tried to (for any number of reasons).

Most of the species of Archaea that were known, at the time that the domain was recognized and for some time thereafter, were {{w|Methanogen|methanogens}}, cells that require anaerobic conditions for life and emit methane as a byproduct, or {{w|Methanotroph|methanotrophs}}, cells that use methane (also anaerobically) as a carbon source ("food"). Methanogens and methanotrophs are common in the guts of humans and other animals, therefore have proximity to human cells and opportunity to infect them — hence (the inappropriate anthropomorphism aside) their indignance at Megan's comment, especially since neither group contains methane "breathers". Archaea are now known from many different environments, including aerobic ones, so do not have the limited metabolic options that one might assume that they do from Megan's statement. Megan calls them ”gross methane breathers” and believes they are too weird and incompetent. If the Archaea could actually understand this, no wonder they became offended and would like to prove what they could do to us.

"Archaea has" in the caption is a debatable grammar, as it denotes that a lineage (a branch of a phylogenetic tree) has become pathogenic. "Archaeans have" could have been better, but contrast with statements using "humanity is", compared with "humanity are" for the linguistic and contextual complications involved.

The title text alludes to the hypothesis that the domain Eukaryota arose from within the domain Archaea, allowing for a {{w|two-domain system}} which classifies everything into Bacteria and Archaea, with Eukaryota being included as a sub-division of Archaea. Since humans belong within Eukaryota (i.e. being not Bacteria), by extension they would belong to the Archaea split. A human attacker of another human could therefore be considered both a pathogen and an archaeon. The same would be true of an attack by any other animal.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Megan, and White Hat are standing in a lab in front of a root-like phylogeny diagram, looking at it. Behind them is a desk with a microscope on it. There is a pile of items behind it and one item in front. From the plate on the microscope where the samle is, there is a star burst and a line going up to the text said by the sample.]
:Cueball: It's weird how, despite being one of the main branches of the tree of life, no Archaea species are known to cause disease in humans.
:Megan: Personally, I think it's because those gross methane breathers are too weird and incompetent to figure out how to hurt us even if they wanted to.
:Archaea sample: ''Hey!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad news: After overhearing a conversation in our lab, Archaea has finally started harming humans.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Biology]]

3088: Deposition

2025-05-13T20:49:57Z

172.71.241.100: Undo revision 377757 by 172.69.43.181 (talk) There's still a clash of utility and practical ability to grip what may be 19thC prospector tools with 121stC hoverdisc pincer-arm pincers.

{{comic
| number = 3088
| date = May 12, 2025
| title = Deposition
| image = deposition_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = P.S. If you have time travel, come to my birthday party Saturday!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by BEDROCK INSPECTOR NO 4. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
A {{w|continental margin}} is the place on the edge of a continent where the {{w|continental crust}} is underwater, covered by relatively shallow coastal waters. The scene is ambiguous, but it is feasible that Ponytail is stood on the back-shore {{w|littoral zone}} ''next'' to the rivermouth, such that she is actually {{tvtropes|LamePunReaction|a stone's throw}} away from the sea. As such, the stones she throws off to the right end up embedded directly into the soft shoreline/sediments without having to risk further erosion from all the other stones and gravel also sitting in the riverbed or being tumbled down it.

The continental margin is said to be {{w|passive margin|passive}}, which means that it is not currently undergoing {{w|subduction}}, where the oceanic crust slips under the continental crust, or a {{w|strike-slip fault}}, where one slides along the other, both of which can mechanically or thermally transform any seafloor material. Absent such occurrences, this causes piles of {{w|sediment}} to {{w|River delta#Formation|accumulate}} on the {{w|continental shelf}} with a minimum of additional geological disturbance.

This rock's eventual resting place in the sediment seems destined to be compressed by further overlying sedimentation and solidify over geologic timescales into {{w|shale}} or other similar sedimentary rock types, presuming that the future movement of further sediment and relative local changes of sea-level and shoreline keep adding more material. As shown, 100 million years later the sea level has gone down (and/or the bedrock has risen), re-exposing the strata, and recent erosion/quarrying has caused it to become a cliff face that eventually re-exposes the original rock that Ponytail threw into the river, apparently just at the right time and place to be discovered or uncovered by [[2990: Late Cenozoic|aliens/far-future-earthlings]].

These beings appear to be digging with relatively primitive hand-tools that are strangely anthropocentric, given the apparent use of antigravity personal conveyors with mechanical manipulators, and have found a rock. Whether or not they fully comprehend it, this seems to be one of those left with a still visible carved message by Ponytail, saying "This bedrock inspected by No. 5". This is a parody of a typical {{w|quality control}} label left attached to (or hidden within) clothing, to reassure any purchaser and/or help identify which manufacturing and inspection path any newly discovered {{w|product defect}} had passed through.

In the title text, Ponytail suggests that the aliens/future-earth-based-lifeforms may have access to {{w|time travel}} technology, and invites them to her birthday party (next) Saturday, which suggests that the "inspected by" message is just one of several different speculative statements engraved on any particular stone. The invitational one does not seem to give an indication ''which'' Saturday is meant so, even if the finders would be able to time travel, it might still not be trivial for them to attend the birthday party. This also presupposes that the future discoverers have no trouble reading the invite, both remaining legible and not requiring impractical levels of translation from 'ancient English'.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Cueball approaches Ponytail, chiselling a rock on a shoreline next to a river with shallow rolling hills in the background]
:Cueball: What are you doing?
:Ponytail: This river empties onto a passive continental margin.

:[Cueball and Ponytail stand talking, Ponytail holding several flat rocks, in an otherwise empty and frameless panel]
:Ponytail: If I chisel notes onto these rocks and throw them into the sea, they might be incorporated into some shale cliff in the distant future.

:[Silhouetted scene of Ponytail as she throws multiple rocks off frame to the right, Cueball watching from behind her]
:[From off-panel, sound effect of a rock hitting water:] PLOP

:[Two 'bug-eyed aliens', sitting in personal 'hover-saucers' look rightwards at an exposed rock-face. A pick and shovel are left stuck in the ground, and one of the 'saucers' sports a mechanical arm currently holding a loose fragment of rock. There are three question marks above the alien on the left and two question marks next to the alien on the right]
:[Panel label:] 100 million years later...
:[Text originating from the held rock fragment:] This bedrock inspected by No. 5

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

explain xkcd talk:Crap

2025-05-02T17:10:34Z

172.71.241.100: /* Not that I'm questioning the wisdom of it, of course. */

__NOTOC__'''The main discussion about the vandalism happened on [[explain xkcd talk:Community portal/Admin requests#User vandalizing rapidly]]. This discussion is about the page itself.'''

----

"if it contained a t it was treated as crapped"
Shouldn't it be the other way around?
The code suggests that you are correct, but "crap" doesn't contain a 't', why would it assume that the page was crapped when a 't' exists. [[User:Soulus|Soulus]] ([[User talk:Soulus|talk]]) 04:14, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
:You're right, thank you! ✅ Done [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.34|108.162.246.34]] 03:52, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
::I just noticed I had written that code wrong too. Thanks again! (That's not the original code; it's my "reconstruction" of it based on what I remember from reading it before it was deleted, with some gaps filled in by educated guesses that should be equivalent in functionality, even if they aren't the exact lines the vandal used. In particular, the CSS selectors are functionally equivalent guesses at the original code; I don't remember what the vandal had used for them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.34|108.162.246.34]] 04:02, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
:::Cool, no worries. Did you fix the code? Afaik, it should be != -1, rather than == to check equality, but idk much about js. [[User:Soulus|Soulus]] ([[User talk:Soulus|talk]]) 04:14, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
::::I got the code fixed, and tested it. The current code is fully functional. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 17:04, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Am I the only one wondering why we're providing a fully-functioning code that was capable of rendering the site unusable in minutes? With commented explanations amounting to a virtual tutorial for use? If JS has not been disabled within user pages, what's to stop someone from just copying this code and doing it again? [[User:Jrfarah|Jrfarah]] ([[User talk:Jrfarah|talk]]) 17:35, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
:@Jrfarah That is correct, but an annotated version could allow us to analyze it and its derivatives, and perhaps make a counter-bot. This is a reasonable concern though. [[User:4D4850|4D4850]] ([[User talk:4D4850|talk]]) 19:18, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

WE GOT A NEW ONE! ALERT ALERT[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.30|162.158.63.30]] 01:38, 21 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

Can I edit this page? [[User:TheBlueRiolu|Riolu The Furry]] ([[User talk:TheBlueRiolu|talk]]) 16:39, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

== Code ==

I think it could be dangerous to have such destructive code visible to any wiki user, and I don't understand how the code helps enrich our understanding of the ongoing vandalism. I personally think it should be removed from the page. [[User:Vandalbane|Vandalbane]] ([[User talk:Vandalbane|talk]]) 19:57, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
:The code is there so countervandalbot developers can look for bugs in it. By having the vandal code public, we have found a few bugs that have allowed us to temporarily disable the bot. The vandal usually just fixes the bugs within a few minutes, but those minutes allow us to do mass reverts and get ahead a little bit. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.195|172.70.130.195]] 22:08, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
::The original anticrap "vaccine" was based on studying the code, and [[User:Theusaf]] has put some counter-bot code in the main wiki JS, which also would not have been possible without public code. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.195|172.70.130.195]] 22:12, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
:::But (until deleted, i.e. not active any more, to be directly countered) the offending account's common.js contains the code. Assuming it isn't over-obfuscated (which makes it a new task to present the possibly-buggy code to inspection) then there's each new study-case and anybody truly able to counter it can take it from (as it were) source.
:::Between attacks, I think there's more risk of independent copycats taking the copy (perhaps altering it, if they have any idea how to do that) than anything novel being learnt by whitehats who just missed the boat on the most recent incarnation.
:::I'm also concerned that the one-click-revert code provided for undoing the regular rap-spam was ''specifically'' used by the latest NATO Alphabet incarnation of the offending account. Though I've yet to go through everything they did, this legitimate tool was seemingly applied to both revert-to-Crap and unrevert-back-from-Crap in seemingly randomness, which just made things that bit messier to unravel in some ways.
:::(Though that was a logical step, for the vandal, I'm surprised they hadn't used a script to do that already, and I'm anticipate their next move but don't wish to give them any hints so can't really say what I think it'll be... And maybe they'll surprise me anyway.)
:::For what it's worth, I'm against this record having been kept in the first place, but of course that's a horse/stable-door issue. (The vandal knows the page is here, their addition to it is what prompted its semi-protection.) Any decent whitehat with an interest can probably pick up more than enough from the each attack they witness, but vandall-wannabes are being given a much lower-hanging fruit, gratis, which may inspire them more than is really comfortable for us and others. IMO. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 22:38, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
::::My guess is that the vandalbot's crap removal was a bug that will be fixed in the next incarnation. Do you know JS? If you think you know what the crapper will do next, maybe you could write a counterbot for that behavior? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.115|172.70.178.115]] 22:47, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
:::::I think it was deliberate. And I just unre-(re-re-re-...)reverted a handful of pages where it seemed obvious that the flip-flop reversion left it on the wrong state. Most were where the last legit addition/improvement (at least one quite historic) had been nixed, so I reinstated. One was a not-useful-comment that I personally had reverted away, previously, and it had come back by an odd number of vandal-reversions. The method I used to check for these isn't guaranteed to not miss others, though, and I left the renverting as a manual process in case of false-positives (for example, some of Kynde's dealing with apparently deleted catagories... which was interesting to learn about being done, along the way ;) ). So, anyway, just FYI, in case you have an inkling to check this kind of thing in your own way either now or in the future.
:::::And I can ''read'' JS, fairly well, but I'm not really expert enough to not easily make a hash of it in fresh (re)coding. More of a Perl man (where it is often ''necessary'' to make {my %hash;} of it! :p ) and too prone to using Perlish techniques. Plus creating an account for myself just to ''try'' to write a counterbot won't inspire confidence. Especially as I can't claim to know exact details (enough to stop anything in its tracks), just the general form of what I'd do if I were malicious and had progressed through the last few iterations of maliciousness, and thus what I am pre-prepared to do in reaction to whatever the next ''specific'' events may then turn out to be.
:::::Which I know looks like a cop-out. But, except where I have strong opinions to voice, I like working on the sidelines as a grunt as and when required. Rather than claiming to be the perfect Wellington to any and all particular Napoleons. I'm sure there are some very capable Wellingtons out there, even reading this, but not I. Though I'm also rather agnostic about the possibility of a definite advanced countermeasure. At best, it'd just slightly change the tack of the attacker if they discover that their One Neat Trick isn't going to work as they initially thought.
:::::Consider my input on this a POV, not a statement of authority or any true prescience. And, as an habitual IP, I couldn't easily claim to have had the answer all along. (Or attempt to excuse my inability to be correct, if I wasn't – swings and roundabouts!) What little I'm saying, in oh so many words, as is my unfortunate habit in such things.
::::: '''TL;DR;...''' Fair winds and smooth seas to the true sailors, and I'll do my bit to repel any pirates that swing by, and ride the storms nature throws our way in the nebulous future. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 23:53, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

These are all good points, it makes sense for users to have access to the vandal's script to poke holes in it. I'm just concerned someone could get confused (or some other random troll joins) and accidentally mess up many pages. [[User:Vandalbane|Vandalbane]] ([[User talk:Vandalbane|talk]]) 22:51, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
:I don't think accidental messing up is really as much of an issue. Although the Crapper already tried to socially-engineer innocents into his activities by pretending to have an anti-vandal script (which, as I say above, is not something I'd ever conceivably really claim to have). The best antidote to that is to mitigate the "Hey, everyone, try this!" being so easily propogated. And common sense. But what wiles the vandal still possesses could still result in similar spill-over of blame if they get lucky.
:i.e. "Be alert! Your country needs lerts!" *cough* [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 23:53, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
::This is a bit off-topic, but I wonder: what are the motives of our recurring vandal? Are they just bored, are they looking for reactions, or do they have some vendetta against our community? They seem to be able to bang some code together, but they don't seem very mature. [[User:Vandalbane|Vandalbane]] ([[User talk:Vandalbane|talk]]) 00:54, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
::: As I recall, they started out just being curious that any autoconfirmed user could run common.js scripts. I imagine they're having a gay old time "fighting" us. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 01:00, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

== Bugs in code ==

The last edit broke the code, but it could be trivially fixed, so it's not going to keep future vandals from using it. Also, the last few versions have used https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Random?action=edit for the link, and we should probably mention the automatic undo part of the latest version. It seemed to be the existing one click revert code that was intended to remove crap, modified to automatically revert instead of just adding buttons (basically a zero click undo). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 16:52, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

== Unprotect ==

I would like to edit this page. Can an admin please unprotect it? [[User:Anticrap|Anticrap]] ([[User talk:Anticrap|talk]]) 20:03, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
:Could you just give your suggestions here and let an Admin implement them as required?
:I actually disagree with the logic of having this page, but if it exists I'm for it remaining protected from who-knows-what targetted maliciousness.
:Anything useful can survive a bit of awkwardness because of that. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.31|162.158.159.31]] 23:28, 25 May 2022 (UTC)
::At the end of the paragraph beginning with "While this code" add: "Newer versions appear to be based on this reconstructed code, rather than the original. It is not clear why the crapper did this."
::Replace "The vast majority of crapped pages (if not all of them) have now been reverted back to the last good state. The new bot seems to be slower and more intermittent than the old one. " with "Later attacks/recoveries have followed this same pattern, except administrators have responded faster, reducing the number of pages crapped in each attack."
::Replace "The vandal changed the delay after page load (the number in the last line; 500 in the latest version) several times. " with "The vandal changed the delay after page load (the number in the last line; 500 in the last version with a delay) several times, before changing it to load with <code>document.body.onload</code>, the finally removing the wrapper and making it run as soon as the JavaScript loads."
::[[User:Anticrap|Anticrap]] ([[User talk:Anticrap|talk]]) 02:44, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
:::I have implemented these changes. [[User:CRLF|CRLF]] ([[User talk:CRLF|talk]]) 18:16, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

== New section, titled "Bot with auto-reverting" ==

A later version of the bot, using the account [[Special:Contributions/Donald Trump|Donald Trump]], had the normal crapping behavior, but also mass-reverted edits, both regular and decrapping, done by users who removed its crap. The reverts were automatic, but the operator apparently manually initiated them by opening tabs with the targeted users' contributions pages. The auto-revert code was based on [[User:CRLF/OneClickUndo.js]], which was written as an anti-crap tool. This latest version of the bot had this code:

<pre>
if (location.href.indexOf('ontrib') != -1) {
cssSelectorForLatestCheckbox = '#mw-show-top-only'
cssSelectorForForm = '.mw-contributions-form'
if (document.querySelector(cssSelectorForLatestCheckbox).checked) {

function rvt(undop, undoafterp, c, tl) { // Implements one-click undo
$.ajax({
url: 'https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php',
data: {
format: 'json',
action: 'edit',
title: atob(tl),
undo: undop,
undoafter: undoafterp,
summary: "Reverted edit by anti-crap user",
token: mw.user.tokens.get('csrfToken')
},
dataType: 'json',
type: 'POST',
success: function () { if (c) { $('.mw-diff-undo > a').text("success"); $('.mw-diff-undo > a').removeAttr("onclick"); } else { $('#link' + undop).text("success"); $('.mw-diff-undo > a').removeAttr("onclick"); } }
});
}
try {
var href = $('.mw-diff-undo > a').attr('href').split("=");
var undop = href[4];
var undoafterp = href[3].substr(0, href[3].length - 5);
$('.mw-diff-undo > a').removeAttr('href');
$('.mw-diff-undo > a').attr('onclick', 'rvt(' + undop + ',' + undoafterp + ',1,"'+btoa($("#firstHeading").text().substr(33, $("#firstHeading").text().length - 34))+'")');
}
catch (e) { console.log(e); console.log("assumed not undoable"); }

function makeLinks(str, titles) { // Implements undo links on contribs page
$.ajax({
url: 'https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php',
type: 'GET',
dataType: 'json',
data: { format: 'json', action: 'query', prop: 'revisions', titles: str, rvprop: 'ids', formatversion: 2 },
success: function (data) {
for (var i = 0; i < data["query"]["pages"].length; i++) {
ob = data["query"]["pages"][i]
pg = ob["title"];
if (titles[pg] == "done") continue;
el = titles[pg];
$('').insertAfter(el);
$("#span" + ob["revisions"][0]["revid"]).html(' [<a id="link' + ob["revisions"][0]["revid"] + '" onclick=\'rvt(' + ob["revisions"][0]["revid"] + ',' + ob["revisions"][0]["parentid"] + ',0,"'+btoa(pg)+'")\'>revert</a>]');
titles[pg] = "done";
$("#span" + ob["revisions"][0]["revid"] + ' strong a').click()
}
}
})
}

cs = $('.mw-contributions-title');
titles = {};
str = "";
for (var i = 0; i < cs.length; i++) {
titles[cs[i].getAttribute("title")] = cs[i];
str += cs[i].getAttribute("title") + '|'
makeLinks(str.slice(0, -1), titles);
}

setTimeout(function() {
location.reload()
}, 4000)
} else {
document.querySelector(cssSelectorForLatestCheckbox).click()
document.querySelector(cssSelectorForForm).submit()
}

} else if (location.href.indexOf('common') == -1) {
var cssSelectorForEditTextBox = 'textarea'
var cssSelectorForEditSummaryBox = '#wpSummary'
var cssSelectorForEditForm = '#editform'
var cssSelectorForMainContent = '#bodyContent div:nth-child(4)'
var cssSelectorForEditLink = '#ca-edit > span:nth-child(1) > a:nth-child(1)'
if (window.location.href.endsWith('edit')) {
// The current page is an "edit" page
// Crap it
document.querySelector(cssSelectorForEditTextBox).value = 'crap '.repeat(5000);
document.querySelector(cssSelectorForEditSummaryBox).value = 'Crapped page';
document.querySelector(cssSelectorForEditForm).submit()
} else if (document.querySelector(cssSelectorForMainContent).textContent.indexOf('t') == -1) {
// The current page is a regular "read" page, but it has already been crapped
// Go to a random uncrapped page
window.location.href = 'https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Random?action=edit'
} else {
// The current page is a regular "read" page, and it has not yet been crapped
// Go to its "edit" page so it can be crapped
document.querySelector(cssSelectorForEditLink).click()
}
}
</pre>

The crapping part seemed substantially the same as the old one, except with some minor changes to circumvent anti-crap code put in [[MediaWiki:common.js]].

This bot ran much faster than previous bots, and affected well over 50% of pages. Several users tried to [[User talk:Donald Trump|talk to the vandal and ask him/her/them to quit]]. (S)he/they did stop for the discussion and for a while afterwards, but then began sporadically running the bot again until the account was blocked.

[[User:Anticrap|Anticrap]] ([[User talk:Anticrap|talk]]) 20:09, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

:Any reason why this hasn't been added yet? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.221|172.70.126.221]] 03:46, 29 May 2022 (UTC)

== Recent crap? ==

Has there been any recent crap? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.211|172.70.126.211]] 17:33, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

== Not that I'm questioning the wisdom of it, of course. ==

Oh, great(!) ...now we have a crap "how to" page to inspire others. /s [[Special:Contributions/162.158.216.169|162.158.216.169]] 09:34, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
...and it also turns out that the Talk redirection I happily followed goes to a page that says "Don't start new topics here" (which you don't see, because it anchors to a point down the page. Ok, partly my fault for not realising the subtle difference in namespace, but someone didn't think that one through at all! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.108|172.70.90.108]] 09:52, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

:It's not a how-to page, rather a preservation of the incident. But I hope the same method doesn't work anymore? I assume we took measures to prevent such an incredibly simple script to overwrite the entire wiki. Also, the page is only linked to from the archived discussion, so one can't stumble on it without being aware that it's archived (unless you look through the recent edits, of course). It's also purposefully not categorised. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:51, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

:Moved this from [[explain xkcd talk:Community portal/Admin requests]] and remoeve the redirect and added back the original discussions. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:57, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

::Wait this is making me reconsider this: it IS fixed, right? Another scriptkiddie can't just copy and paste and do this all over again, can they? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:02, 2 May 2025 (UTC)
:::I... would rather not tempt fate too much. Needless to say, there are changes made to prevent the ''worst'' of that episode recurring, and direct copycat attacks are probably prevented/reverted automatically. But I was always uncomfortable ''fully'' documenting how it happened, for 'posterity', as possible inspiration for someone's future (sufficiently different) "bright ideas", re: vandalism.
:::It wasn't necesarily hidden, what we had, but it wasn't all under a big page of "hey, this is ''exactly'' what happened, once". Also, acts as an even more direct threat against other wikis that hadn't yet experienced this but (if a suitably inclined individual should find them) can find themselves subjected to a full copypasta attack (and the usual users there are unlikely to find ''our solutions'' anywhere quick enough to deal with our (old) problems. So I'm wary by proxy, as well. Hopefully I'm not inspiring anyone to do anything, by writing these possibilities, also. But script-kiddies (who couldn't actually recognise a 0-day exploit if it came out of their screen and hit them round the ears, but might have the nous to experiment with prior exploitative code) are exactly the kind of people I expect to learn from all this. Especially if nicely packaged up. (My opinion, of course. Willing to be proven wrong.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.100|172.71.241.100]] 17:10, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

1053: Ten Thousand

2025-05-01T10:42:01Z

172.71.241.100: Undo revision 375881 by Translated ORK (talk) Don't be silly, that's ages away. Can't keep the reminder until then, if still active. (Interestingly, quite close to Apollo 11 centenary.)

{{comic
| number = 1053
| date = May 9, 2012
| title = Ten Thousand
| image = ten_thousand.png
| titletext = Saying 'what kind of an idiot doesn't know about the Yellowstone supervolcano' is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time.
}}

==Explanation==
In this strip, [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] presents a mathematical argument against the idea of making fun of people for their ignorance. The mathematical argument, presented in the first panel, goes as follows: Since people aren't born knowing ''anything'', everyone has to learn everything for the first time at some point. By using the US national birth rate and assuming that most common facts that "every adult knows" are learned by age 30, Randall calculates that there are around 10,000 people in the US alone who learn any given common fact for the first time each day.

Since you can only learn something for the first time once, each of these 10,000 people are having a unique, unrepeatable experience of enlightenment, which Randall sees as something to be cherished, not criticized. In the second panel, Randall notes that if he makes fun of people for not knowing things, he is effectively training them to avoid sharing those moments with him, and thus he will miss innumerable opportunities to do something he considers fun. To drive the point home, the second panel shows Cueball finding out that Megan doesn't know about the "Diet Coke and Mentos thing", and - instead of making fun of her, Cueball affirms that Megan is part of a special and select group - she is one of the "Lucky 10,000" who, that day, will learn and experience that thing for the first time.

{{w|Diet Coke}} (sold under the names "Diet Coca-Cola" or "Coca-Cola Light" in certain countries) is a popular brand of sugar-free soda. {{W|Mentos}} is a brand that makes chewable mints. If they are dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, the {{w|Diet Coke and Mentos eruption|soda erupts with startling violence}}, sending a fountain of soda many meters into the air. This interaction is widely renowned due to its dramatic, unexpected nature, and the fact that you can do it with cheap and commonplace ingredients (though it does make quite a mess and should only be done outdoors). The reaction can be done with a variety of sodas (though Diet Coke is the most commonly repeated choice), and is caused by a physical reaction between the Mentos and the soda. The Mentos rapidly nucleate the carbon dioxide bubbles in the soda, causing the dissolved carbon dioxide in the soda to assume gaseous form. The sudden formation of all the carbon dioxide gas forces the contents of the bottle out. A 2006 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjbJELjLgZg Mythbusters episode] explored the phenomenon in detail.

The Diet Coke and Mentos eruption has also been mentioned in a previous strip [[346: Diet Coke+Mentos]]. Both the eruption and this comic were referenced much later in the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|162|Comet Ice}}'', where the title text of the first image proclaims that "Some of the lucky 10,000 are less lucky than others", as demonstrated when [[Black Hat]] offers to "help" Cueball to stem his overflowing Diet Coke bottle by plugging the opening with Mentos. This comic also appears in a modified form in Randall's book ''[[How To]]'', in the introduction of the book. Supervolcanos would be mentioned again in [[1159: Countdown]] and in [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]].

The title text states, emphatically, that explaining a fact to a person for the first time (in this case, the existence of a supervolcano within the Yellowstone National Park) is much more entertaining than just expressing annoyance about their lack of knowledge. Here is a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PxDGiVQNg8 good video] about the {{w|Yellowstone supervolcano}}. Interestingly, both events alluded to in this comic include an eruption, although of two very different kinds.{{cn}}

===Calculation===
Randall does not show the full calculation in the comic, but we can derive it as follows:
* First, assume that everyone will know a given fact by the time they reach adulthood, which is defined here to be 30 years old.
* Assuming the US birth rate of 4 million per year, this means that in 30 years, 120 million people will be born who will learn the fact at some point.
* 30 years is equal to 10950 days (30 years x 365 days per year). Since we have assumed that everyone will learn the fact within that time, that means on any given day, there is a 1/10950 chance that that will be the day they learn the fact.
* So, if 120 million people have a 1/10950 chance per day of learning the fact, that means that on any given day, the number of people learning that fact will be, on average, 120,000,000 / 10,950 = 10958.9, which is approximately 10,000.

It is worth noting that the target age of 30 is actually irrelevant to the calculation. Taking the assumption of a steady birth rate, and assuming that "everyone" learns a fact at some point in their lives, then the number of births per day and the number of people learning a thing each day must average out to the same value over time. The ages at which it is learned don't affect the numbers. This calculation is obviously simplified, since birth rates are not constant over extended periods, and some people presumably die before learning certain facts, (either because they die young, or because they simply never encounter the fact). The assumptions are, however, sufficiently good to give a general estimate.

Randall's calculation is for the US, but it can be easily converted for other countries or the entire world by supplying the appropriate birth rate. For the world as a whole, the average birth rate as of late 2022 is 140 million per year, which gives a total of approximately 400,000 people learning a fact for the first time each day (140,000,000 / 365 = 383,561.6 ≈ 400,000).

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:I try not to make fun of people for admitting they don't know things.
:[Caption right below said caption:]
:Because for each thing "everyone knows" by the time they're adults, every day there are, on average, 10,000 people in the US hearing about it for the first time.

:[A list of equations.]
:Fraction who have heard of it at birth = 0%
:Fraction who have heard of it by 30 ≈ 100%
:US birth rate ≈ 4,000,000/year
:Number hearing about it for the first time ≈ 10,000/day

:[Caption above the next panel:]
:If I make fun of people, I train them not to tell me when they have those moments.
:And I miss out on the fun.

:[Megan is standing. Cueball is walking, with his palm out.]
:Megan: "Diet Coke and Mentos thing"? What's that?
:Cueball: Oh man! Come on, we're going to the grocery store.
:Megan: Why?
:Cueball: You're one of today's lucky 10,000.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1393: Timeghost

2025-04-24T09:08:19Z

172.71.241.100: /* Explanation */ presumed typo (now<-not), as it had reversed the meaning somewhat.

{{comic
| number = 1393
| date = July 11, 2014
| title = Timeghost
| image = timeghost.png
| titletext = 'Hello, Ghostbusters?' 'ooOOoooo people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now ooOoooOoo'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] has been haunted by a ''Timeghost'' for some time. It is obviously not the first time the ghost arrives to let Megan know that "...ooOOOOOOOOooo... Tiiiime is passiiiing!" The ghost is dedicated to making people feel old by having them think about the passage of time. It is shown to reference time periods related to well-known people and events, such as famous actors and the release of movies and TV shows. Megan is just annoyed that it is back and wishes it to go away. However, when [[Cueball]] ask "How long has it been doing this?", the ghost suddenly predicts that Megan and Cueball will die in a shorter amount of time than the time that has passed since the ghost began its hauntings. This disturbs Megan who stops her complaining and asks "'''What!?'''" This is not the first time she has been haunted by the ghost but it has probably not been that long, so this is a very scary thought to her (and Cueball).

We do not, however, know how long the ghost has been haunting Megan. Also the "staaaaart of my haunting" may refer to the first time the ghost haunted anyone, not just Megan. This could be a long time ago and thus be true for anyone it meets today. Or it could mean since the start of this particular manifestation, meaning their deaths are imminent! It is also possible Timeghost is being deliberately ambiguous in an effort to frighten them even more. This is of course only scary if you believe the ghost can predict the future, which is not what it has been doing so far. There is no example in the comic where it makes a prediction that we know is accurate - only comparing time spans we can look up - see below. An alternative interpretation of the last panel is that the ghost is going to kill Cueball and Megan soon.

One thing about the prediction is true - they will eventually '''die'''. And this is the scary part about realizing how old you are and that you are quickly getting older: You will die, and "[[Time Vulture|soon]]" (for some value thereof). The comic seems to be using "factoid" to mean a small fact. "{{w|Factoid}}" can also mean a "questionable or spurious statement presented as a fact", but this does not seem to be intended usage here. In this instance, some of the factoids are easily verifiable, while others are reasonable assumptions based on the number of years passed since the individual events. Several sources advocate the use of the word "factlet" to express a brief interesting fact, while using the word "factoid" for unverifiable or untrue statements passed as fact.

While ''factoids'' tend only to have mostly only entertainment value, the last ''fact'' from the ghost is a prediction of the future (Megan and Cueball's death) which is actually of some practical value if it can be trusted. "Timeghost" might be a literal interpretation of {{w|Zeitgeist}}, which is a German term for "spirit of time" and refers to the school of thought that influences or dominates the art and culture of a time period. All the events and people mentioned in this comic may be considered influences on present day art and culture. [[Randall]] has covered making people feel old several times in [[647: Scary]], [[891: Movie Ages]], [[973: MTV Generation]] (in which White Hat utters Cueball's "That can't be right" line), and [[1477: Star Wars]]. Also see the blag post [http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/09/29/odd-temporal-milestones/ Odd Temporal Milestones]. This is, however, so far the only one that makes a prediction of anyone's death. A similar ghost with a much different agenda was seen in [[1108: Cautionary Ghost]]. Similarly annoying fact(oids) were given in [[1272: Shadowfacts]]. [[926: Time Vulture]]s make you feel old because the entire remainder of your life is only perceived as a few moments by them.

In the title text, Megan calls {{w|Ghostbusters}} (from the 1984 movie) to help get rid of the Timeghost. This of course makes the ghost state that "people born years after that movie came out are having a second chiiiild right now" making her feel old once more.

'''Timeline'''
{| class="wikitable"
!Year||Event
|-
!colspan="2"|Panel 1
|-
|1955-1975||{{w|Vietnam War}}
|-
|colspan="2"|19 years
|-
|1994||{{w|Forrest Gump (film)|Forrest Gump}}
|-
|colspan="2"|20 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
!colspan="2"| Panel 2
|-
|1964||{{w|Keanu Reeves}} (Actor) born
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years
|-
|1966||Today's new grandparents born (Average age: 48 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|48 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
!colspan="2"| Panel 3
|-
|1990||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's new parents born] (Average age: 24 in the US)
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1993-1994||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 5
|-
|colspan="2"|2 years (from '93 to '95)
|-
|1994-1995||{{w|The Simpsons}} Season 6
|-
|colspan="2"|4 years
|-
|1999||{{w|Eminem}} (Rapper) got big (second album)
|-
|colspan="2"|15 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|-
!colspan="2"| Title text
|-
|1984||{{w|Ghostbusters}}
|-
|colspan="2"|3 years
|-
|1987||[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf Today's people just having a second child born] (Average age at first childbirth (24) + average gap between first two births (3))
|-
|colspan="2"|27 years
|-
|2014||Year of this comic
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are approached by a floating ghost]
:Timeghost: ''...ooOOOOOOOOooo... Tiiiime is passiiiing!''
:Megan: Ugh. Timeghost.
:Cueball: Huh?
:Megan: Here come the factoids.

:[Timeghost floats around.]
:Timeghost: ''Forrest Gump'' came out closer to the Vietnam War than to the present daaay.
:Megan: Go ''away!''
:Timeghost: The average new grand-parents are younger than Keanu Reeeeves!
:Cueball: That can't be right...

:[Megan clutches her head, possibly attempting to cover her ears.]
:Timeghost: ''Today's new parents were ten when Eminem got big. Daaaaaad muuuuusic. They remember Simpsons season 5 or 6 at the '''earliest'''''.
:Megan: Argh!
:Cueball: How long has it been ''doing'' this?

:[Megan and Cueball looks up at the Timeghost as it delivers its most scary message.]
:Timeghost: ''The staaaaart of my haunting is now further away than your deaaaths!''
:Megan: Will you sto- -'''''WHAT!?'''''
:Timeghost: ''ooOOOOOOOoo''
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Ghostbusters]]
[[Category:Ghosts]]

Talk:3076: The Roads Both Taken

2025-04-16T13:51:33Z

172.71.241.100:

I just saw on Google's Doodle: "''...today’s Doodle shows an illustration of quantum superposition. April 14 is World Quantum Day, and this year is also the International Year of Quantum — celebrating 100 years since the discovery of quantum mechanics.''" https://blog.google/technology/research/world-quantum-day-doodle-superposition-thaumatrope/ --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:25, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
:Added World Quantum Day to the article. Thanks. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 13:25, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

I think "Photon poetry" is a reference to Vogon poetry in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (notoriously the worst poetry in the universe). [[Special:Contributions/104.23.172.2|104.23.172.2]] 07:19, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
:Actually, vogon poetry is 3rd worst, but I see your point and shared the same thought process. I think this should be added into the article. {{unsigned ip|172.68.84.192|05:21, 16 April 2025}}

Pretty sure the title text is a parody of a song lyric that I can't remember the original of. "When you something something something, that's something". Damn it, its on the tip of my tongue, but it isn't quite coalescing!
: When a grid's misaligned with another behind, that's a moiré! Biran4454 10:07, 15 April 2025 (UTC)]
::When the spacing is tight
::and the difference is slight,
::That's a moiré. [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 13:56, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
: I think it's more likely a slightly clunky way to reach the punchline that is a twist on photon-superposition-fomo being ''phomo'' [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 10:15, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
: The original was {{w|That%27s_Amore|a hit for Dean Martin in 1953}}. [https://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/10/17/thats-a-moray/ Parodies featuring moray eels came later]. I agree with Xseo that Martin's song is unlikely to have been an inspiration for the title text. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.82|108.162.246.82]] 14:40, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
:: My favorite is: When you make béchamel and throw cheese in as well that's a Mornay.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.135|172.69.246.135]] 01:59, 16 April 2025 (UTC)
:::When it causes a stir in your social milieu, that's a more. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.100|172.71.241.100]] 13:51, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— 
I took the one less traveled by, 
And I'm beginning to see why. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.180.164|172.69.180.164]] 19:43, 15 April 2025 (UTC)
:funny you should say that. from Wikipedia, {{quote|After Frost returned to New Hampshire in 1915, he sent Thomas an advance copy of "The Road Not Taken". Thomas took the poem seriously and personally, and it may have been significant in his decision to enlist in World War I. Thomas was killed two years later in the Battle of Arras.}} [[user talk:lett‪herebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 06:48, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

3073: Tariffs

2025-04-09T13:29:07Z

172.71.241.100: /* Explanation */ Geotexiles are a better solution to the pizza cheese problem than non-toxic glue

{{comic
| number = 3073
| date = April 7, 2025
| title = Tariffs
| image = tariffs_2x.png
| imagesize = 681x809px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope stability!
}}

==Explanation==

{{notice|This comic and explanation is about present-day politics and {{w|Donald Trump|Donald Trump, the current President of the United States}}. Please {{w|WP:DFTT|don’t feed the trolls}}, meaning that you don’t give recognition or respond to trolls or vandals. If you find vandalism, revert and move on. If the vandal is a registered user, {{w|WP:RBI|revert, block and ignore}}. If you are not an admin and need assistance in blocking someone, send a message to [[User:Kynde]] or [[User:Theusaf]]. As with these contentious topics, please do not edit if you believe you have a conflict of interest or might be writing in a biased and slanted manner (in regards to both major American political parties). Be {{w|WP:BOLD|bold}}, but not reckless. Always be considerate of the other side and don’t {{w|WP:CIVIL|attack people}}. Thanks, '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 00:23, 9 April 2025 (UTC)}}

{{incomplete|Created by a SPOILER FOR AVATAR 2 (Rosebud is his Ikran) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Explanation of the consequences of stopping imports (the last panel) is needed. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a parody of the global tariffs that {{w|Donald Trump}} {{w|tariffs in the second Trump administration|imposed in 2025}}, which were announced shortly before the comic's release. [[Cueball]] describes the tariffs and, specifically, why the plan has garnered widespread disapproval for several seemingly illogical decisions, to [[Ponytail]] using a pizza analogy.

Similar to [[2396: Wonder Woman 1984]], Ponytail blocked news sites to avoid {{w|spoiler (media)|spoiler}}s about ''Avatar 2'' (officially titled ''{{w|Avatar: The Way of Water}}'') in early 2021, but did not re-enable notifications until just now. ''Avatar 2'' was released on December 16, 2022, but this means that she has missed all news since 2021, including the re-election of Trump in 2024. She is surprised by the fact that Donald Trump is still the president in early 2025. She may be under the impression that Trump refused to step down when [[Joe Biden]]'s presidency officially began on Jan. 20, 2021. Trump has made repeated false claims that {{w|2020 United States presidential election#False claims of fraud| the election was "stolen"}} shortly after the 2020 elections, indicating his reluctance to accept the results. On one hand, a U.S. president serving nonconsecutive terms has only happened once before in U.S. history with {{w|Grover Cleveland}} serving from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. On the other hand, only {{w|Franklin D. Roosevelt}} ever had more than two four-year terms, and that was before the {{w|Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution|22nd Amendment}} made it even less of a possibility that one could have started a third ([[2875: 2024|without getting false teeth, that is]]).

Ponytail has further missed Trump's wide-ranging tariffs, and the attending news coverage that has served to introduce many people to what tariffs are and how they work. Cueball attempts to explain by comparing the U.S. with the Geotechnical Survey company that Ponytail works for, as they are both producers of high value, technologically advanced goods, and comparing the countries the U.S. imports from to a pizza place, since the U.S. primarily imports lower value consumer goods and materials used to make the goods that the U.S. then exports, similar to how pizzas feed the workers in Ponytail's company.

A trade deficit occurs when party A buys more from party B than they sell to party B. Donald Trump, the president of the United States at the time the comic released, claimed that if the U.S. has a trade deficit with another country, then the U.S. is getting ripped off and the other country must be punished. In the comic, Cueball mockingly echoes Trump's belief to better explain his policies. As Ponytail explains, there is nothing wrong with having a trade deficit if you think you are getting your money's worth for what you are buying — specifically, looking purely at a "trade deficit" on paper does not tell you if the crediting partner is purchasing ''services'' from or offering other benefits to the debtor partner. The U.S. can benefit from a trade deficit in some cases: the flow of foreign capital (like factory machinery) into the country can allow for more development, and some kinds of production are dangerous or polluting relative to the value of the goods produced. In addition, up to today, the U.S. treasury commands the world's most common reserve currency, which is also the currency used for most world trade, making outflow of foreign currency not really a problem.{{Actual citation needed}}

A tariff is a tax on imports from another country. Most politicians try to balance tariffs carefully in order to keep domestic products competitive with imported goods. In contrast, Donald Trump introduced tariffs unilaterally and aggressively with the aim to "punish" countries with which the United States had a trade deficit. He also claims that tariffs on goods manufactured abroad will encourage U.S. companies to increase their domestic manufacturing in order to avoid these tariffs, which will then provide more domestic middle-class jobs. Trump's opponents and even many of his supporters worry excessive tariffs will backfire and artificially inflate costs of products from other countries, leaving the American consumer with even higher prices (especially prices of goods which the United States cannot wholly produce domestically at all). Additionally, if other countries do retaliate with their own retaliatory tariffs (typically more well chosen ones, specifically targeting products that the U.S. wants to sell more than the other country needs to buy them) it could result in a "trade war".

In the comic, Cueball proposes that Ponytail impose a tax or "tariff" on the pizza store until they start buying from Ponytail, using the {{w|Venmo}} transactions platform (it's not like [[2716: Game Night Ordering|Yahoo Cash]] was an option anyway). Notably, the tariff is applied on the people who deliver the products to Ponytail's company, just like in real life. Ponytail notes that such a tariff might encourage the pizza store to stop selling to her, which Cueball considers (in his position as devil's advocate for the whole concept) a victory. In reality, nations have very little control of where the products go after being produced inside their own borders. Instead, it is left up to the companies (the delivery companies, in this case) to decide where to produce (or procure) the goods. What tariff proponents often omit, is that companies will simply pass on the costs associated with tariffs to the consumers, making the pizza more expensive for the consumer but with no benefit to the supplier. In practical terms, the pizza company may even just stop taking orders from this company, having other customers that are easier to deliver to. Even if there's a saturated pizza industry, with several pizza outlets all vying for the local business, it may still be less problematic to compete for the slightly smaller 'rest of the town' market, perhaps even to offer deliveries to places previously outside their area, than to work with whatever requirements the survey company is imposing.

In contrast to real world countries like China or Canada which, as of 2025, procure a substantial amount of goods from the U.S., Ponytail notes that the pizza company has little use for land survey equipment, unless they are constructing their own stores from the ground up without outside contractors. Ponytail suggests surveying pizzas using their equipment, which would serve little purpose.

The U.S. used to be a dominant producer of consumer goods up until the 1970s, after which companies started offshoring production that utilized low-skilled labor to third-world countries. In contrast, Ponytail's company likely has never been a producer of food. {{w|LIDAR}} is a technique using lasers to measure distances. Ponytail's company is using the technology to do surveying. In the final panel and title text, Cueball suggests that they use their LIDAR components to make their own pizzas, which would be inedible and potentially toxic.{{Citation needed}} Cueball may be referencing the annoyance Italians have at unconventional pizza toppings.

The title text references slope stability, or the ability of an inclined slope to withstand movement. Toppings often slide off poorly-made pizzas when it is being eaten, leading to dissatisfaction. {{w|Geotextile}}s are permeable fabrics used for support and various other functions. The narrator claims that geotextiles prevent toppings from sliding off the pizza. However, very few geotextiles are edible{{Citation needed}}, which may reference [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd11gzejgz4o Google's AI suggesting using non-toxic glue to ensure cheese doesn't slide off].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail walks over to Cueball while looking at a phone in her hand. Cueball, sitting in an office chair, is leaning back on the chair and turns his head towards her. He is at his desk with his laptop open in front of him.]
:Ponytail: You know how I blocked all news sites at the start of 2021 to avoid spoilers for Avatar 2, and then forgot to start checking them again?
:Cueball: Yeah, we've been meaning to talk to you about that...

:[Ponytail, still holding the phone, stops in front of Cueball and looks at him. He has turned his chair around to face her, having his back to the desk with the laptop.]
:Ponytail: Well, I just checked the news for the first time, and why is the economy tanking?
:Cueball: Uh, the president is mad at other countries and imposed lots of tariffs.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail's head. Cueball's reply comes from a starburst on the right edge of the panel.]
:Ponytail: Wait, who's the president now?
:Cueball (off-panel): Donald Trump.
:Ponytail: ...Still??
:Cueball (off-panel): No, again.

:[Back to the previous setting, Ponytail is no longer holding the phone.]
:Ponytail: OK, fine, what's a tariff? Why is he doing this?
:Cueball: You know that pizzeria your company orders from? They don't buy anything from '''''you''''', right?
:Ponytail: Why would they? We do geotechnical landscape surveys.

:[Zoom in on Cueball who holds both his arms out wide. Ponytail's reply comes from a starburst on the left edge of the panel.]
:Cueball: Right, so they're ripping you off! '''''You're''''' paying '''''them''''' tons of money, and what are '''''you''''' getting for it?
:Ponytail (off-panel): I mean... pizza?
:Cueball: See? They're not helping '''''your''''' business at all!
:Cueball: What a ripoff!

:[Back to the previous setting, Ponytail has her hand under her chin.]
:Ponytail: What would they even buy from us? I guess we could survey a pizza...
:Cueball: Yes, perfect! You refuse to let the delivery driver past your security desk unless they Venmo you for an equivalent value of LIDAR scans.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail's head. Cueball's reply comes from a starburst on the right edge of the panel.]
:Ponytail: Wouldn't they just stop taking our orders?
:Cueball (off-panel): Perfect, balance restored!

:[Back to showing both of them in the same position but the desk is not shown.]
:Ponytail: OK, but I still want pizza.
:Cueball: Can you just make one? You have all that gear.
:Ponytail: I don't think pizza made with LIDAR diodes would be very good.
:Cueball: Ugh, why is everyone so picky about toppings?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
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[[Category:Geology]]

Talk:3056: RNA

2025-02-26T22:04:45Z

172.71.241.100:

I really hate that feeling when you need an explanation for at least a couple frames but you're too early to read it and too dumb to write it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.27|172.68.3.27]] 14:34, 26 February 2025 (UTC)
:I know, I really wish I knew about RNA so I could just kinda do it. [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 15:48, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

The 2040's guess in the title text is wild, and would be SO cool if we were able to discover that in 20 years. {{unsigned ip|162.158.146.139|14:49, 26 February 2025}}

oh God [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 15:09, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

1960s: central dogma of molecular biology; 1980s: discovery of catalytic self-splicing RNA; 2000s: genomic sequencing and discovery of diverse array of non-coding RNAs; 2040s: extrapolation of RNA hypothesis, with aside to notion that life may have arisen multiple times (earlier instances extinguished by large impacts) {{unsigned|Jhonts|15:34, 26 February 2025}}
:...or assimilation of function (or extinction by superior RNA, but then we'd not see any signs, whilst maybe there were provable mergers between 'different' original systems). Maybe why there are three shared bases between DNA and RNA, but two unique ones, or other interesting aspects that create puzzles. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.139|172.71.178.139]] 17:53, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Should the transcript point out the changes in the poster in each frame? Maybe in the later frames those are RNA rather than DNA. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:40, 26 February 2025 (UTC)
:It's unlikely to be RNA, since RNA is usually single stranded. According to a quick search, it can sometimes be double stranded as a secondary structure or in some viruses. [[User:Solid Kalium|Solid Kalium]] ([[User talk:Solid Kalium|talk]]) 15:55, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

How has it been a full day and no full explanation yet?

- My guess is that most readers are physics/coding/maths oriented [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.100|172.71.241.100]] 22:04, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3055: Giants

2025-02-25T14:33:54Z

172.71.241.100: Categorisation is hard! Is Moonbase Alpha still on a moon (whilst on *the* Moon) in Space: 1999? A rogue planet, yes, but a "rogue moon" is indistinguishable from one of those or a rogue asteroid, perhaps. I don't thing the IAU have yet nailed this down!

Anyone know why "the Man in the Moon" has square brackets around it? Stylistic choice, or clever reference? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.43|172.71.254.43]] 19:38, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

:I suspect it's to make it clear that it's all one block of text, otherwise it might be read as separate objects on each line. [[User:IntangibleMatter|IntangibleMatter]] ([[User talk:IntangibleMatter|talk]]) 20:01, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
::I thought that too but then Jolly Green should be in brackets as well. I think it's because Man in the Moon doesn't have "giant" after it. The rest all assume "giant" after (gas giant, etc.).[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.81|162.158.63.81]] 20:07, 24 February 2025 (UTC)Pat
:::I think that the difference between these two cases is just a matter of available space. The space around "Jolly/Green" makes it clear that the two words go together, whereas "The/Man in/the Moon" would be crammed together even if the three lines were supposed to be distinct, unless the font was a lot smaller. The brackets remove that ambiguity. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 21:36, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
:Given how commonly this community makes up answers, and how very little information there is on this, I suspect the correct answer to this question to not emerge here, but maybe somebody can make an argument that is actually convincing. It's certainly notably different and I didn't think much of it until seeing it mentioned. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.28|162.158.63.28]] 20:33, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
:I think it's because unlike all the other entries in the diagram, it is not appropriate to append the word "Giant" to the end of it. Like, it's the full name of a particular giant, rather than a "type" of one as otherwise implied by the title of the chart. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.7.194|172.69.7.194]] 22:38, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

Alas, if only the Norse had referred to Ymir and his descendants as "Ice Giants" instead of "Frost Giants", we might have had another contender for that central space. [[User:MeZimm|MeZimm]] ([[User talk:MeZimm|talk]]) 20:35, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
:Oh, let's not get hung up on what things are correctly named – the renaming of the Iron Man to the Iron Giant has always seemed very clumsy, but, alas, seems to have stuck.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 11:05, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Been a while since Randall's enthusiasm for Buns (rabbits) made an appearance in the comic! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.216|172.70.130.216]] 05:36, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Classifying the Atacama Giant and Cardiff Giant as 'Geological / Planetary' seems pretty dubious - requires an unusually broad interpretation of one or other of those terms.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.109|172.70.163.109]] 09:57, 25 February 2025 (UTC)
:I didn't see this when doing so, but the intro explanation's use of "geological" needed editing ('maybe-quoted') to encompass the MITM's more accurately ''selenological'' nature, and (being lunar) it also really isn't "planetary", either.
:Assuming that "planetary" is the fallback for rock-like stuff that isn't properly Earthly, it's a questionable fallback given that the Moon is... only a moon! At best, it's "a moon of a planet", but then the semantic alternatives are limited (a moon of a ''dwarf-planet'', is the only alternative I can currently think of, until we also see 'moons' of artificial constructs given a planet-like status).
:But I also can't think of a better reduction/refinement (for ourselves, or that Randall might have better used for his current self-selected set), so contented myself with employing minor punctuated vaguity. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.4|172.70.90.4]] 14:25, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Poor André is once again left out [[User:Pmeisel|Pmeisel]] ([[User talk:Pmeisel|talk]]) 14:11, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:1: Barrel - Part 1

2025-02-22T09:31:47Z

172.71.241.100:

Doesn't his big interactive piece (#1110) refer to this one? {{unsigned|‎58.37.35.32}}
:It does. There's a note somewhere in that explanation page referring back to this page. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:28, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

This comic under my interpretation is that like the kid in the barrel his mind was wandering at the time of his drawing of the comic and it reprsents his wandering mind as he may be bored and it is in the middle of nowhere but at the same time it is somewhere. but its waiting to get someplace (an island?)

--[[User:TheWeatherMan|TheWeatherMan]] ([[User talk:TheWeatherMan|talk]]) 13:57, 23 January 2013 (UTC)TheWeatherMan

:when ever I feel isolated from society, I like to contemplate the ladders I could build for them to see things from my perspective. We will never manage to teach kids how to exist in chaos, we need to outsource our thinking, share ideas, to see new options for each of the impossible answers. Sic-if is here to stay, because it's the only hint we will get of the perfection they want us to achieve. Anything less then the total perfection is unsustainable. - [[Special:Contributions/98.211.199.84|98.211.199.84]] 14:22, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

It's been over five years, so I think I should be that one annoying person who breaks unspoken streaks:
If an endless ocean were a representation of life, I'd be the one who's fasioned myself an oar (or I can just use my hands to paddle if I can't get an oar). I then tell the floating people around me, "May the waves bring you luck." I proceed to go toward a location on the horizon that appears arbitrary but is actually something really cool, and then I greet all the other people who have chosen to go here also or were brought by fate/the sea (basically synonymous). Finally, I do cool things. Anyway, this comments section has been very inactive. No purpose, just wanted to motivate y'all to set goals for yourself and let you know that good things will happen if you do. For now, though, it's night, and the others are asleep in their barrels. Good night and why did I write this [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.70|108.162.215.70]] 07:01, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

Working theory: this IS Beret Guy. This is I think years before his first appearance, and Beret Guy is apparently younger than anyone else who isn't explicitly a child. So this is him. The youngest form of the one who had nothing but wonder...
:That DOES kind of make sense. The part where he rides the winged ferret is just the kind of weird Beret Guy thing that Beret Guy does. :) {{unsigned|ThePineapple11|12:35, 6 December 2020 (UTC)}} -ThePineapple11

I wonder how long it'll take until someone finds and replies to this comment. [[User:Qwikster|Qwikster]] ([[User talk:Qwikster|talk]]) 02:02, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
:I resisted, and slept on it, but... found, a while a go; replied... well... obviously right now. Not that it means much. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.158|172.70.91.158]] 10:10, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

is this guy like early cueball? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.157|172.71.150.157]] 03:11, 22 February 2025 (UTC) 
is the guy like early cueball? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.156|172.71.150.156]] 03:15, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:As a serious answer(/a serious answer), Barrel Boy is recognised as his own character, distinct from even the earliest Cueball (and Cueball-adjacent) stick figure, by both a great gulf of style and by personality. Though the (pre-publication) artistic development of style from cartoonish-realism to barebones-stickfigurey might well have included a 'missing link' or two of Barrel Boy 'growing up' into the author-avatar/'Rob', the debut to the world (in either its pre-website order, or numbered as per xkcd.com) intermingles the two stages of (possible) evolution in a way that at least makes it clear that Randall considers them parallel art styles, not sequential. As above, there are theories that this character is who 'grows up' to be Beret Guy, while one could perhaps also directly link with the 'Jack' kid-stickfigure (named as per Jack and Jill) that pops up years later, infrequently as contrast to the contemporary Cueballs/other adults. (There's also a 'young Hairy' that pops up every now and then, from before that point, but (IMO) slightly less associable as a direct descendent.) Of course, there must be something of the artist in ''all'' Randall's drawings, by conscious of unconscious projection, so there might be a discernable 'family trait' to all of them, whether Black Hat and Beret Guy or even Stallman and Gygax... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.100|172.71.241.100]] 09:31, 22 February 2025 (UTC)